ALBANIA'S President Sali Berisha warned yesterday that "all means permitted by law" would be used to put down "the rebellion of the red terrorists" in the south of the country.
"We are going to react with the greatest severity against all these rebels who want to crush Albania and its democracy," the president said in a televised address following yesterday's declaration of a state of emergency.
The emergency measures came after a weekend of anarchy in Vlore where at least 14 people were killed (five of them yesterday) and 150 injured as protesters stormed an army barracks seized weapons and clashed with secret police.
Later yesterday evening it was learned that the security forces had been empowered to open fire without warning on protesters carrying weapons. Protesters were given until 2 p.m. (1 p.m. Irish time) today to surrender their weapons.
The emergency limits constitutional rights, bans rallies in public places, restricts the free movement of individuals and empowers the authorities to set up checkpoints and take steps to protect state property.
Albania has also advised foreigners in the violence torn south of the country to leave, the state run news agency ATA reported early this morning. It said the advice had been issued by the Interior Ministry and covered the towns of Vlore, Gjirokaster, Sarande and Fier.
"The ministry stressed that this is necessary for reasons of security," ATA said. It gave no figure for the number of foreigners in the affected area.
The Interior Ministry said a hospital nurse in Fieri was shot dead and three other people were wounded during rioting. Earlier yesterday rioters there had seized an army arms dump in the village of Levan.
One person was shot dead and two others were Wounded during incidents at Gjirokaster, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
Masked men attacked the Gjirokaster police station and seized weapons, as the police put up no resistance. The police station was torched after 15 prisoners were released.
One man died after inhaling toxic gas at the strategic Pasha Liman military base near Vlore as rioters seized it in order to grab firearms, a witness said. Military personnel at the submarine base 18 km south of Vlore put up no resistance.
Two persons including an eight year old girl were shot dead earlier yesterday in Vlore and more than 50 were wounded, hospital sources there said. Vlore's hospital director said the girl was hit in the stomach by gunfire while playing on the pavement. The other victim was a passerby.
"The wounded continue to arrive at the hospital and constant gunfire can be heard in the town," the hospital spokesman said.
In Rome the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, said Italy was seeking an EU meeting on the Albanian crisis. Mr Dini said he had asked the Dutch, who hold the EU presidency, to arrange a meeting of foreign ministry political directors either tomorrow or at the latest the day after" to assess the situation.
The Italian Interior Ministry put coast guards and police in Italy's southeastern ports on a state of alert for a possible rise in illegal immigrants from Albania.
Italy, which briefly occupied Albania during the second World War, is only a short distance across the Adriatic from the small Balkan country and an increasing number of illegal immigrants have arrived since Stalinist rule collapsed there.
Police in the southern city of Bari said the situation was normal and poor weather conditions were likely to have confined most small boats to harbour.
The Albanian opposition called yesterday for an urgent meeting with Mr Berisha on the crisis.
The crisis was triggered by the collapse of a string of risky, high yield pyramid investment schemes in January which deprived Albanians of their savings.
Mr Berisha removed the right wing government of the prime minister, Mr Aleksander Meksi, on Saturday.
The EU has recommended that the Albanian authorities should quickly call in international experts to help them to identify measures to clean up the financial sector. International Monetary Fund sources said on Saturday that the IMF would send a mission to Albania next week to discuss the possibility of setting up a new loan programme.
The Guardian stringer and BBC radio journalist, Johanna Robertson (see her report on page 1), was attacked in Tirana last night. She was with other foreign journalists outside the parliament building when a group of men, believed to be secret police, turned on them.
BBC colleagues confirmed that she was not injured in the attack but that the men smashed the windows of her car as she fled. A spokesman said "She is shaken up rather than injured and has carried on working." A BBC cameraman was also involved in the scuffle. He too was unhurt.