Albania: The counter-current of the Balkans
Albania has always had a certain tendency to go against the grain of trends in relation to its northern neighbors on the Balkan Peninsula.
I remember in 1989, I took a sailing trip down the Adriatic Coast with some Italian friends. We crossed over from Venice to Pula and sailed down along the Dalmatian coastline of what was then still Yugoslavia. As we stopped along the coast, either to dine in charming little restaurants or to pick up supplies, no one mentioned that we were in Croatian, Bosnian, or Serbian territory. Everyone seemed to be happy with their status as Yugoslavians, their country being one of the more Western of the East-block countries and a popular holiday destination for many Italians. We had to bring the boat down to Corfu, which meant passing in front of the Albanian coast. This was, of course, out of the question, unless we wanted to be shot at. We sailed back west to the Italian coast of Apulia across the Straits of Otranto and then south until we were below the latitude of Albania before sailing east again to reach our Greek island destination.
Only a few years later the tables had turned. The former Yugoslavia was in a state of dismemberment. Five years of civil war would have made such an idyllic sailing trip an act of folly. In the meantime, the Albanians were responding to the wave of democratization that was sweeping over Eastern Europe. In 1991, for the first time in 51 years, Albania resumed diplomatic relations with the United States. While the former Yugoslavia was in a state of chaos and dissolution, the Albanian parliament elected Sali Berisha as the country’s first non-Communist president since World War II.
During the last year, following the initiative taken by the United States and the Dayton Accords, while the international community was attempting to restore order in the former Yugoslavia, the U.S. was offering its financial support to the democratization of Albania. Just when it seemed like there was some hope of restoring order to the entire region of the Balkans, the crisis in Albania broke out.
The first ill omen were the elections that took place in May of last year. Monitored by the Vienna-based Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Washington-based International Republican Institute, both agencies published reports indicting the Albanian government for its lack of cooperation with the election monitors and citing legal short-comings in the election procedures.
In January, violent protests began to break out all over the country following the collapse of several private investment funds which were later revealed to be pyramid schemes. Almost the entire adult population had invested in the funds, many losing their homes in doing so. The rebels were not appeased by Berisha’s concession of offering the post of Prime Minister to Baskim Fino from the opposition Socialist Party. By March the country had descended into a state of chaos.
It was only under heavy insistence from the Italian government that the UN approved the multinational military force formed to safeguard the distribution of humanitarian aid. Although it is easy to understand Italy’s interest in the area in terms of its own internal security, an Italian military contingent in Albania is obviously a sensitive issue.
By the time the operation began, over 13,000 Albanians had entered Italy illegally. Many were being housed in camping trailers or in hotels along the Adriatic coast that were temporarily closed for the winter season. Although the attitude of many Italians was initially sympathetic and charitable, many in the tourist industry began to worry whether or not their facilities would be vacant in time for the tourist season and in what condition their non-paying guests would leave their facilities. Many Albanians made themselves unwelcome by complaining about the food and lodging as if they were paying guests rather than refugees! Some Italians had already acquired a distaste for the Albanians even before this latest exodus since many who have settled in Italy during the past five years have organized their own particularly merciless criminal and prostitution circuits.
On the one hand many Albanians admire and seek to emulate the Italians, seduced by the good life images they are able to see from watching Italian television. Many can even speak the language. On the other hand, the memory of Italy’s invasions of their country during both world wars may signify some residual resentment. When an Italian corvette which was trying to deter illegal immigrants collided with a boat carrying refugees, many Albanians accused the Italians of purposefully ramming into the boat. Only a madman could have ordered such a deliberate action which would not only bear heavy costs in human lives, but create a international incident in an area where sparks have less propensity to fizzle out and more to ignite into full-scale combustion!
By mid-April in perfect accordance with its against the stream proclivity, while the Pope was visiting Sarajevo, an event which would have been unthinkable only a year ago, in Albania the Italian-led "humanitarian" operation of the international community began deploying troops with the double task of distributing food and other basic necessities, and disarming the rebels. However, notwithstanding such intervention, there is still fighting going on in many areas of the country, the exodus of Albanians toward Italy continues (one ship alone last week was carrying approximately 1,500 passengers), and a date for new elections monitored by the OSCE has yet to be officially proclaimed.
May 1997
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