A DEADLINE set by the international community to avoid a further descent into chaos in Albania expired last night without agreement being reached.
Demonstrating mistrust of the current administration, the majority of the country's council of ministers called for control of the elections scheduled for June 29th to be taken out of Albanian hands and given to the international community represented by the EU, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
What the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Beniamino Andreatta, described as a crucial 24 hours in the effort to avoid a further descent into armed chaos in the county have now passed, not only without consensus but with signs of growing impatience on all sides.
Two Ministers belonging to the Democratic Party of the country's President, Mr Sali Berisha, disagreed with the appeal to the international community, and Mr Berisha told The Irish Times in an exclusive interview that he intends to use force to oust the rebel "Salvation Committee" in the southern town of Vlore before the elections.
He also rejected any further concessions to opposition groups over the conditions under which elections would be held. He accused western European nations of "excesses" in threatening to withdraw assistance from Albania unless agreement on the election was reached; he also described the "salvation committees" set up in many cities in southern Albania as being run by "mafia and left extremists".
His statements came at a vital stage in negotiations for a settlement designed to ensure that opposition parties would abandon their threat to boycott the elections. The June 29th vote is the key element in a plan to bring peace to Europe's poorest country.
"Criminal activity must be dominated," Mr Berisha told The Irish Times, "and we will do, our best to do this." It would be risky, he said, to ask other European countries to normalise the situation in Vlore and other rebel strongholds. Instead, the Albanian police force would have to be involved.
Asked if such an intervention would take place before the elections he replied: "Before the elections." Asked if the ousting of the committees which are running the port city would be dominated by force, he replied: "Mostly by force."
To be absolutely sure of his intentions, I asked Mr Berisha: "Can we expect, before the elections, that a forceful intervention will take place in Vlore?" He replied: "Solutions must be done."
The interview took place in Tirana's presidential palace on the capital's main street, once called Stalin Boulevard. In the steamy summer sunshine the footpaths are thronged with students from the nearby university. Men in civilian clothes with Kalashnikov assault rifles slung over their shoulders, make sure, however, that the sidewalk outside the presidential building is clear of pedestrians.
Dressed in a dark suit, his luxuriant hair swept back, and his hands emphasising every point, Mr Berisha made it clear that all further compromises with those - who oppose him are impossible. He had, he said, made all the concessions open to him under the country's constitution: even if he wished to reach another compromise his hands were tied.
His most recent concessions had been to give the government, led by Mr Bashkim Fino of the minority Socialist Party, the right to appoint members of the Vital electoral committee which will be in charge of the logistics of the new election. The last general election held earlier this year (which gave Mr Berisha an overwhelming majority in parliament) has been described as rigged by some observers and as seriously flawed by the US State Department.
A total lack of confidence now exists between the two major political groups in the country; the mutual suspicion is not without its ironies. Mr Berisha, a former member of the communist "Party of Labour" and now a convinced anticommunist, regards today's Socialist Party as the heirs to Europe's most repressive communist regime.
The Prime Minister, Mr Fino, never officially a member of the communist Party of Labour, looks on Mr Berisha as antidemocratic and opportunist. They fact that they have been able to work together, at least ostensibly, over the past eight weeks has been a remarkable achievement.
But yesterday in the presidential offices one got the feeling that Mr Berisha now sensed he had the upper hand. The people of Vlore, he said, now understood who was in charge of their city, who was using them for their purposes. Those who opposed him, those who asked for his resignation, he said, were "trafficants (drug traffickers) and mafia people". His contempt for this form of opposition was palpable: "I have no reason to listen to these committees," he said.
There are believed to be about one million automatic weapons in the hands of the population and with political tension high and weapons in the hands of almost the entire adult male population, the danger of conflict has risen in the past days.
Mr Berisha, despite his country's long divorce from democracy, has shown a strong aptitude for democratic political campaigning. Calls for his resignation have decreased since the anarchy which engulfed the country two months ago. He has been out on the hustings in the last few days like an old western style campaigner.
If, after the elections, his proposed coalition had a minority of seats, he would resign the presidency. But he saw no possibility of this. "I am definitely confident that we will win," he said. "As a victory, it will be a large one."
Reuter adds from Tirana: The Albanian Prime Minister, Mr Bashkim Fino, yesterday asked the international community for "intensive" monitoring of the June 29th election.
Mr Fatos Nano leader of the Socialists, the second largest party, said fall monitoring would be enough to persuade his party to stand in the elections, even under the current laws.
