The insurrection continues!
The Socialist Party has won the parliamentary election, but Sali Berisha's regime is still in place. Georges Mitralias analyses the situation in Albania, and the risk of a military intervention in the south of the country, where the insurgents' Popular Committees still control most towns. [This article was written before the election results were published.] President Sali Berisha's counter-offensive includes a daily diet of terrorist attacks. As in Algeria, "blind" terrorism can often be traced back to the secret service and the police. The aim is to terrorise the population, eliminate their leaders, and persuade western governments that, love him or hate him, there is simply no alternative to Berisha.
There are some similarities to the "strategy of tension" employed by Italy's far right in the 1970s. Except that Berisha's violence is increasingly open and systematic. The pro-Berisha press has even announced both the target of terrorist actions, and the reason for their destruction, days before the
There is no real attempt to hide responsibility for such outrages. On the contrary, Berisha wants to leave no doubt in peoples minds that he is determined to go "all the way" in pursuit of his criminal goals
As well as these "signed" attacks, the Presidential troops have been increasing their punitive expeditions against insurgent-held towns and villages. On 23 May the Presidential Guard used tanks to attack Cerrik, south of Tirana, to punish inhabitants for having refused to allow Berisha to hold an electoral rally in the town the previous day.
Not surprisingly, the western press describes all this as "bloody confrontations between police forces and armed bandits." The media of the "free world" was, however, surprisingly quiet when the Presidential Guard burst into Tirana's military hospital, beat doctors and nurses, and destroyed equipment, apparently in protest against doctors failure to save the life of a soldier badly injured in the (failed) attack on Cerrik. Nor did Western media give much coverage to the subsequent strike of 600 doctors and nurses, demanding the punishment of those responsible, and the dissolution of the presidential guard.
These are just a few examples of the daily events which illustrate, beyond any reasonable doubt, the state terrorism of Sali Berisha, and the blood-bath which threatens Albania if the regime succeeds in regaining control over the insurgent regions.
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The great paradox in the Albanian situation is that, at the same time as this slowmotion civil war, both poles of power - the regime and the popular committees — continue talking about their desire for elections which will allow a return to democracy, stability and normal life." Government of national contusion...
This curious situation is the result of the equally balanced forces of the two parties to the conflict. Neither side is capable of forcing a decisive victory. As the crisis has drawn out, there has also been the emergence of a "third pole" led by Socialist (ex-Communist) Prime Minister Bashkim Fino. Obviously, — the "government of national reconciliation" is an illusion. But it continues to exist because of the support it receives from the European powers and the USA, and because of the political limits of the insurrectionary movement. With the mass of insurgents refusing to demand state power for themselves, the existence of dual power creates a vacuum which politicians like Fino can exploit.
The Government of National Unity has non of the aspects of a government. It controls nothing of importance, and can only speak to the nation when Berisha gives it space in the media he controls. The main function of this "virtual government" is to absorb the shock of the country's main conflict - between the Berisha regime and the insurrection. Its secondary function is to legitimise, and legalise the Berisha regime ) to which it has pledged allegiance. It also serves to reinforce the illusions of the insurgents in the country's legal system and legal means of
It was Sali Berisha who invented the Government of National Unity, in the moment when his back was closest to the wall. It has helped him win time, and provides a valuable domestic and international cover for his bloody and tyrannical regime. Composed of the former opposition parties, and dominated by the former ruling Socialist Party, Bashkim Fino's virtual government has distinguished itself by total
TER 6388 A blindness towards the manoeuvres of the President-dictator, and total servility to the representatives of imperialism. Berisha pulls the strings
The relations between Berisha and Fino are a game of cat and mouse. The president accepts a few minor concessions, which he overrules or contradicts a few days later. Berisha has total control over the rump parliament, and his Constitutional Court is extremely quick to challenge any concession won by the Government of National Unity This farce would be amusing if the future did not seem so tragic.
This government was created to save the country from chaos," after an insurrection in which only about 100 people had died Three months later, the death toll is closer to 1,700. And despite the partial consolidation of the regime, the fundamental balance of forces is unchanged. A large majority of the people of southern and central Albania continue to support the insurrectionary Committees, as do the inhabitants of a number of northern towns like Scutari.
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