The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.17           April 28, 1997 
 
 
Imperialist Occupation Force Lands In Albania  

BY BOBBIS MISAILIDES
ATHENS, Greece - Despite overwhelming opposition among Albania's working people, the governments of Italy, France, and Greece are spearheading an imperialist intervention in the Balkan country of 3 million. The first 1,200 troops -from Italy, France, and Spain - have already taken up positions in the Albanian port of Durres and the nearby capital, Tirana. As we go to press, troops from Greece and Turkey are also on their way to join the occupation force, which is projected to rapidly reach 6,000.

The aim of the imperialist intervention is to quell the two- month-old working-class rebellion against the pro-capitalist regime of President Sali Berisha, overturn the workers state, and reestablish capitalism in Albania. To justify their course of action, the imperialists say troops are needed to protect humanitarian aid and prepare for elections, currently planned for June. Rome got a three-month mandate from the United Nations for the operation.

On April 11 the first group of Italian paratroopers landed in Albania. Twenty Italian soldiers disembarked from a naval vessel in the western port of Durres, along with five military vehicles. At the same time four Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft carrying 100 soldiers arrived at Tirana's airport. The soldiers, according to the Athens daily Eleftherotypia, are "armed with a guide to useful phrases in the Albanian language, such as `surrender your weapons,' " and have already begun patrolling the road from Durres to Tirana.

The military occupation of Albania was first proposed by the French government, which wanted to send the force under the auspices of the Western European Union. Facing strong objections from Bonn and London, a meeting of European Union (EU) foreign ministers failed to agree on Paris's plan. Then Rome, Albania's former colonial master before the socialist revolution there in the 1940s, took the initiative to lead the current intervention with whichever governments were willing to participate. Italy will provide the largest number of troops, with 2,500. France is sending 1,000, Greece and Turkey 700 each, Spain 450, Romania 400, Austria 120, and Denmark up to 100.

Rome and Athens came into conflict over which parts of Albania each will place its troops in. Initially the Italian government proposed that Athens send forces to the northern part of the country, but this plan was changed after strong objections from the Greek government. Under current plans Athens will position its occupying forces not only in Tirana but also in the southern cities such as Vlore, where there is a large Greek-speaking minority. Athens has long looked hungrily at southern Albania and has tried to whip up support for intervention, supposedly to aid the ethnic Greek minority.

The port city of Vlore has been at the center of the rebellion, which was sparked after government-promoted "pyramid schemes" collapsed in January. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians lost all their savings in the fraudulent investment plans, many of them workers who had emigrated to Greece, Italy, and elsewhere to find employment. The rebels are demanding the resignation of Berisha and that the government compensate them for the losses.

In their endeavor to reestablish capitalism in Albania, the imperialists fear that they may have to confront, militarily, the armed toilers of this workers state. This is particularly true in the southern half of the country, where Berisha's armed forces are largely dissolved and local defense councils are running most affairs.

The occupying troops have been ordered to shoot "if they face dangerous situations." The plan for the imperialist intervention, drafted in Rome by the participating governments, lists potential "dangerous situations." Among them are "involvement in clashes between government forces and the rebels and attacks by armed civilians that may attempt to appropriate the humanitarian aid." Among the "potential problems" that the imperialists expect are planted mines at regional roads and the chance of facing guerrilla warfare."

Italian Adm. Guido Venturoni, who is commanding the operation, told reporters April 14 that the force "will not go into Albania as the blue helmets went into Bosnia, where they were constrained to stand by during grave acts of violence without intervening because the rules of engagement did not permit it."

In addition to the UN mandate, Rome got approval for the intervention force from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). An envoy from that organization, Franz Vranitzky, met with Berisha, Prime Minister Bashkim Fino, and other Albanian officials April 16 in Tirana to discuss plans for June elections. He was then going to Vlore to meet with rebel leaders there, but canceled the plan under pressure from Berisha, who smeared the fighters as "extreme left Mafia traffickers."

As the imperialist forces were landing in Albania, the EU Parliament passed a resolution with 355 voting for it, 8 against, and 17 abstaining, calling on Berisha to step down and to contribute toward disarming Albania's rebels before the elections. The vote took place after several meetings held between members of the EU Parliament and Fatos Nano, leader of Albania's Socialist Party; Meritan Tseka, president of Democratic Alliance; and Skeder Ginousi, president of Albania's Social Democratic Party.

All the above parties, along with Berisha's Democratic Party, represent competing layers of the bureaucratic caste that has ruled in Albania for decades. They are all strong supporters of imperialist intervention, hoping to quell the working-class revolt that has thrown the rule of their caste into a deep crisis.

Reflecting opposition to the military intervention among many working people in Italy, the Communist Refoundation (CR), the successor of the former Communist Party, voted against the troop deployment in Parliament, causing a crisis in Prime Minister Romano Prodi's social democratic coalition government. The CR refused to bring the government down, however, backing Prodi in a confidence vote taken April 12.

In Athens, the Greek government of the social democratic Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) had difficulty cobbling its imperialist military force. Many soldiers and some officers have refused to volunteer. A SKY radio program on April 10 reported that the soldiers being deployed in Albania are going under duress from the Ministry of Defense and their commanders.

Hundreds of workers and youth have participated in recent actions here in solidarity with the Albanian toilers' revolt. On April 13, around 200 youth rallied at the Ministry of Defense calling for "not one soldier to Albania." The protest was organized by Youth Action for Peace.

 
 
 
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