VIOLENCE erupted again at the Albanian port of Durres yesterday as civilians tried to flee while US marines were deployed on a nearby beach to evacuate foreign diplomats.
The marines stormed out of helicopters on to Golem Beach to rescue US, Turkish and Italian citizens from the chaos of Albania. The Super Stallion helicopters kicked up blizzards of sand as they landed and marines used rifle butts to beat off Albanians trying to board the aircraft.
Two Sea Stallions lifted a number of foreign nationals to safety on ships standing by in the Adriatic in the early afternoon. At least five other helicopters circled the beach during the evacuation some bore the markings SFOR, indicating they were part of the NATO Stabilisation Force deployed in Bosnia.
Shortly afterwards a small skiff carrying about 20 would be refugees capsized off shore. Several came close to drowning and had to be saved by men who swam out through the breakers.
Scores of Albanian police beat civilians and fired hundreds of Kalashnikov rounds over their heads to drive them back from the gates of the port.
"The people are coming here because they hope to go to Italy but there is no ship for them," a police spokesman said.
The scenes of violence and confusion at evacuation sites contrasted with the calm in Tirana where the government declared yesterday a day of mourning for the 80 to 100 people killed since the unrest began.
Once again President Sali Berisha defied demands from southern rebels that he should leave office. Instead, he announced that he had pardoned the opposition leader, Mr Fatos Nano, who was released from jail in the chaos last week, having been jailed in 1993 on dubious corruption charges.
The Prime Minister, Mr Bashkim Fino, ordered officials at government offices to report for work today. Many have stayed at home since the unrest erupted.
Meanwhile, the EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in the Netherlands to send military and police advisers to Albania, but not a military operation.
The exodus of Albanians across the Adriatic Sea to Italy showed no sign of easing off. Italian coastguards said they had rescued 858 Albanian refugees from a ship that ran aground off the port of Brindisi. Another 317 arrived at the port of Bari on three fishing boats.
"The crisis will not be resolved by fleeing but by the rebuilding of Albania ... Europe will provide the material conditions for this to happen," the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, said during a flying visit to Brindisi.
The four man crew of an Albanian fishing boat was arrested yesterday in Brindisi on charges of bringing in illegal immigrants and because their boat was carrying arms, police said. It was the first arrest of an Albanian boat crew since the start of the latest exodus from Albania.
Refugees have been moved to hastily organised "hospitality centres" set up in schools, offices and barracks and the mayor of Brindisi, Mr Lorenzo Maggi, said his city was being overwhelmed.
"We were ready to accept a more modest sized exodus. Today the phenomenon is taking on Biblical proportions," he said. He warned of health and other problems if the exodus continued.
Pope John Paul II urged Albanians to end "destructive violence" and lay down their arms, saying the whole of Europe had a duty to help rebuild the country.