Albania Government

President Sali Berisha dismissed eight Cabinet ministers Sunday and abolished seven ministries in the biggest government reshuffle since his Democratic Party of Albania came to power nearly three years ago. The long-expected reshuffle was announced a month after Albanian voters rejected a government draft constitution in a referendum.

Ten years ago, it was a tiny, forgotten corner of Europe, ridiculously xenophobic and caught in the iron grip of Stalinist leaders who deemed private property a crime and made a national obsession of building toadstool-shaped bunkers to defend against invaders. Then it descended into anarchy, its armories looted in 1997 by mobs angry that a nationwide pyramid scheme had sopped up their savings and left Europe's poorest nation poorer still.

Albania's Communist government plans to resign to make way for a multi-party caretaker government that will prepare new elections, according to opposition sources in Tirana, the capital. The sources said that Kastriot Islami, chairman of the Communist-dominated Parliament, said this had been agreed upon after a meeting of Albania's main political parties. The current government was formed only in April after the Communists won the country's first multi-party elections in nearly 50 years.

Albanian President Rexhep Mejdani asked the Socialist Party's secretary-general, Pandeli Majko, to form a government, setting the stage for the 30-year-old to become Europe's youngest head of government. Outgoing Socialist Party Prime Minister Fatos Nano resigned Monday after failing to get the backing of his coalition for a Cabinet reshuffle in the wake of an outbreak of political violence two weeks ago.

In the infamous "Case of the Engineers," the crime of Enrik Veizi and three other oil exploration experts was having the cheek to tell the government that it was drilling for oil in an area where it was known there was none. For challenging the leadership's wisdom, they were tortured into confessing to sabotage and spying. A court condemned them to 25 years in prison, extolling the leniency that let them escape with their lives.

Anti-democracy protesters demanded Sunday that Albania's government ban the opposition Democratic Party and hang its leaders, according to reports monitored in Vienna. The rally came just hours after the government, seeking to prevent more bloodshed, denied it had asked provincial authorities to organize supporters of the late dictator Enver Hoxha to march on the capital, Tirana. Many conservative and older Albanians revere Hoxha, Communist Albania's Stalinist founder.

In their greatest show of strength yet, international troops patrolled this capital Friday after the government requested help protecting election officials. The Socialist-led government condemned Thursday's shootout between police and pro-monarchy protesters in front of Central Electoral Commission offices. One person was killed and five were wounded in that clash. "We declare that the Central Electoral Commission is the future of Albania," the government said.

Shooting erupted Friday at a military academy in the Albanian capital where cadets reportedly were guarding a bust of the late dictator Enver Hoxha, and state television reported that at least four people were killed. Albania's Communist president, seeking to stave off more unrest amid a quickening pace of events in the Balkan nation, named a new government Friday headed by a Marxist economist. Protests by vying political groups continued around the country.

East Europe's last Communist domino, rigidly Stalinist Albania, may be tottering. The fall of the Nicolae Ceausescu regime in nearby Romania, coupled with severe economic problems in Albania itself, last month triggered the first serious anti-government demonstration since the Communist revolution in 1944, U.S. analysts say.

For decades the Serbs of Yugoslavia have warily eyed cloistered Albania, accusing their Stalinist neighbor of sending spies and infiltrators to incite separatism among ethnic Albanians in the border province of Kosovo. Now, Albania may be unleashing a more powerful force that could attract the support of Kosovo Albanians: democracy. Albania's tentative steps toward reform have sparked new hope in the West that the last hard-line holdout of Eastern Europe may be softening.

Beleaguered Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano resigned Monday, two weeks after rioting that pushed his impoverished nation to the brink of anarchy. Nano's resignation was announced after a meeting of the Socialist Party leadership in this capital. A statement said that Pandeli Majko, the 31-year-old general-secretary of the Socialist Party, will be the party's candidate for prime minister.

A delegation of senior European diplomats has warned Albania's bitter political rivals to take their battle out of the streets and start making democracy work. The diplomats criticized both Prime Minister Fatos Nano and opposition leader Sali Berisha for Albania's political crisis but made it clear they don't want to see Berisha arrested for last week's riots.

The nation tottered on the brink of chaos Thursday after another day of protests in which former President Sali Berisha called on his supporters to defy a government ban and stage the biggest demonstrations in the country's history. In a speech to about 2,000 supporters, Berisha told backers to march peacefully throughout the country today.

On the eve of a national day of protest he called against the Albanian government, former President Sali Berisha on Wednesday dared authorities to come and get him. Diplomats tried to talk both sides out of a bloody confrontation. Berisha and about 1,500 supporters ignored a ban and held a peaceful protest in the streets as parliament moved closer to lifting Berisha's immunity from prosecution.

About 3,000 followers of former Albanian President Sali Berisha defied a government ban and staged a peaceful march through the center of the capital, Tirana, as heavily armed state security forces looked on. Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano, emerging from hiding after violence Monday during which his office and residence were looted, accused Berisha of trying to stage a coup and demanded that opposition supporters surrender their arms. Two tanks were handed over.

The government in this capital said Monday that it had crushed an attempted coup and was back in control of the city after a day of fighting in which at least three people died. "Police have taken the . . . situation under control. The attempt at a coup d'etat today failed," Interior Minister Perikli Teta said on national television. Gunfire and explosions shook the city for much of Monday after the funeral of a slain opposition politician erupted into violence.

Albania's new opposition Democrats took their drive against communism to the provinces Tuesday as the country's leadership prepared to jettison four decades of Stalinist policies. Thousands of Albanian Christians freely celebrated their first Christmas Mass in 23 years, now that a ban imposed on religion by the late Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha has been lifted.

Thousands of Albanians seeking asylum in foreign embassies in Tirana will be ferried to Italy under an agreement being worked out between Albania and the United Nations, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. "We hope the operation can begin by the end of the week," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Rome. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Another source said it could begin as early as Thursday. A representative of U.N.

The new parliament elected a successor to the Balkan nation's ousted president and declared an end to the state of emergency imposed four months ago. The Socialist-dominated body voted 110-3 in favor of Rexhep Mejdani, 53. The Democratic Party of former President Sali Berisha, which holds 27 of the 155 parliament seats, boycotted the vote. Upon being sworn in, Mejdani accepted caretaker Prime Minister Bashkim Fino's resignation and named Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano as the new premier.

President Sali Berisha resigned and handed power to the Socialists who won June 29 elections. Socialist Party leaders have said their secretary-general, Rexhep Mejdani, will be their choice to replace Berisha, who will remain in parliament. The Socialists' overwhelming election victory came after months of chaos and violence that followed the collapse of high-risk investment schemes. Berisha and his Democratic Party were widely blamed for the economic hardship.