Tirana tense as rebels draw near and foreign citizens flee

A SEIZURE of weapons by progovernment forces at Tirana's military academy and another arms grab, this time by rebels just 30 miles away, have shifted the centre of tension from southern Albania to the country's capital.

Meanwhile President Sali Berisha signed a decree to create the "national reconciliation" government, state television reported.

As cities such as Vlore and Gjirokaster were reported to be calm, Tirana was like a powder keg. Queues formed outside foreign airline offices as western nationals followed the instructions of their embassies to leave as soon as possible and residents prepared for a second sleepless night in succession.

Meanwhile, reports came in of trouble in more northern villages, indicating that the rebellion, previously confined to the south of the country, has become widespread.

The early hours of yesterday in the capital were punctuated with gunfire, understood in one case to have come from young men in lorries chanting "Vlore", the name of the town where the current unrest began.

The looting of more than 300 automatic weapons from the military academy is understood to have been the work of supporters of President Berisha, who have swarmed into Tirana from northern Albania over the past couple of years of them live as squatters in the northern suburb of Bath ore and are nicknamed "the Chechens" because of their warlike attitude. Other pro Berisha youths have been clandestinely armed over an extended period. Unrest in Tirana, unlike that in the south, would pit pro and anti Berisha forces against each other for the first time.

The city was yesterday beset by rumours of all sorts. A major attack was about to begin, according to one of them, which Mr Berisha's supporters were getting ready to resist.

The attack on an arms depot near the town of Elbasan yesterday morning brought rebel activity to within 30 miles of Tirana. I arrived on the scene in the barren countryside just after the raid, and as two ambulances and a car dashed away with the wounded.

Armed men in civilian clothes from the secret police, called, in true Orwellian fashion, the National Information Service, stood at the gates of the arms depot while others spread out into the fields.

"Several dozen" AK-47 rifles had been taken, according to one fierce looking and heavily armed information officer", by men from the neighbouring village of Cerrik Less than a mile from where the raid took place, one of the country's biggest munitions factories, built into the side of a mountain in the village of Mjeks, lay untouched by the rebels. A solitary nondescript young soldier "guarded" its entrance.

This incident took place close to the Shkumbin river which divides the population into northern Gegs and southern Tosks, indicating the rebels were active throughout the entire south.

Although Elbasan is just 30 miles from Tirana, the two cities are separated by a high mountain range. Here young children held out bouquets of freshly plucked violets tempting motorists to buy the first flowers of the Albanian spring, in scenes which could hardly be more removed from the violence which has swept the rest of the country.

On the political front, Albania's new Prime Minister, Mr Bashkim Fino, called for a role for the rebel forces in negotiations. He said the politicians should at least listen to the rebel demands the main one being Mr Berisha's resignation.

Mr Fino (34) is a native off. Gjirokaster, where rebel forces have attempted to set up a unified "national salvation council" under Gen Agim Gozhita.

Mr Fino's call was backed by a Greek government spokesman, Mr Dimitrius Reppas, who said the insurgents formed a major part of the population and could not be ignored.

The defense ministry was given to Mr Shaquir Vukaj, a member of Mr Fino's Socialist party, while the key interior ministry will be headed by Mr Belul Cela of Mr Berisha's Democratic party.