THIS troubled Balkan country yesterday mourned the latest victims of a month of anarchy and chaos, observing a minute's silence for more than 80 refugees feared drowned in the Adriatic.
Flags flew at half mast in the capital, Tirana, and traffic around the central Skanderbeg square came to a standstill at midday (11 a.m. Irish time) in a gesture to honour the fleeing Albanians, who drowned when their boat sank last week after a collision with an Italian warship.
The accident fanned anti Italian sentiments in Albania, but Tirana's ambassador to Rome, Mr Pandeli Pasko, yesterday withdrew an earlier assertion that the tug had been deliberately rammed by the Italian warship Sibilla.
Mr Pasko also said that the list of missing had risen to 83 of the 121 Albanians who were aboard the Kater 1 Railes tugboat. Only 34 survivors and four bodies were recovered.
Mr Pasko said that survivors had accused the Italian navy of deliberately sinking the ship, but added: "It was only an accident".
"You have to recall all the Albanians who were rescued by the Italian navy," he said. Italy's naval chief had blamed the skipper of the Albanian tug.
The Albanian government has appealed to the Italian authorities to do all they can to recover the bodies of those still missing, saying this would go some way to achieve a "rapprochement" between the two countries' peoples. The search continued yesterday despite rough seas and high winds.
Direct sea links between Italy's southern Puglia region and the Albanian port of Durres were to reopen today for the first time since March 11th, when the ferries were stopped because of the unrest.
Meanwhile in the southern port of Vlore, where most of the 83 victims came from, several hundred people, mostly black clad women, demonstrated to pay homage to the drowned refugees.
In accordance with local tradition, the doors of homes in mourning were left open, the sound of the laments and chanted psalms of the grieving issuing on to the street.
The dead were the latest victims in a month of chaos and violence in Albania, where at least 200 people have been killed since anti government rebels seized a string of southern towns, looted military barracks and demanded the resignation of President Sali Berisha.
Greece meanwhile pledged 700 troops for the European force.
. The UN Security Council last night approved a deployment of 186 international police officers to the north east Bosnian town of Brcko. The disputed town is claimed by both Serbs and Muslims.