Page 2 -- Over The Edge -- April 1, 1997

Rebel Gunmen in
~ Albainia Attack Bus
Near Capital

Albanian gunmen
sprayed a crowded
public bus with bullets
Wednesday, killing one
passenger and wounding
seven others near the
strife-torn country’s
capital, an_ interior
ministry source said.

In one of the worst
incidents of violence
near Tirana, the gunmen
passed the bus in a four-
wheel drive vehicle and
opened fire. A child was
badly wounded, the
source said. The gunmen
fled and the motive for

the shooting was
unknown.

Albania has been swept
by violence since

January when a series of
fraudulent investment
schemes collapsed. Most
of the south has been
taken over by rebels in an
armed insurrection.

But the lawlessness of
gangs which have
reigned south of Tirana
has been kept at bay in
the capital, where police
and the army are still in
control.

The bus shooting near
the village of Sauk, just
south of Tirana,
highlighted dangers
which would face the
multinational security
force which a number of

European states want to

form to protect
humanitarian workers
and planned aid
shipments.

Six EU states-Spain,
Portugal, Italy, France,
Greece and Ausiria-sent
a team of military experts
to scout the country and
meet officials

Wednesday to prepare
for the force. .

“The team is made up of

experts from all fields
which could be involved
in any kind of military
operation,” an EU
diplomat, who asked not
to be named, said.
The EU states have said
they hoped the security
force would be agreed
within days, number in
the hundreds and be
deployed quickly.

A separate European
relief mission arrived
Wednesday to discuss
how to help end anarchy
in the Balkan state.

The delegation,
comprising the EU and
other groups and led by
Dutch diplomat Jan de
Marchant et
d'Ansembourg, will meet
Prime Minister Bashkim

Fino and other ministers
Thursday.

Fino said in a radio
interview that the

prepare

multinational force, if it
came, would be small
and would “normalise
work in the ports of Durres
and Vlore, Rinas (Tirana)

airport and oversee the.

transport of economic
aid.”

He said the security
force must be approved
by Albania’s parliament,
making quick
deployment less certain
than some European
countries had hoped.

Quick deployment also
suffered a setback when
the Council of Europe's
top security body broke
up Wednesday without
agreement on approving
an international security
force.

Sources said the Vienna-
based 54-member
Organization for Security
and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) failed to
agree on whether a U.N.
mandate was necessary
to allow a security force
to operate in Albania.

Italy and Greece have
been keen to get the
security force in place
and to start moving
substantial humanitarian
aid into Albania to help
prevent refugees from
fleeing and to help
for early
elections by June.

It was unclear whether
the EU states would act
without the backing of an
OSCE or a U.N. mandate.

While the foreign
powers have pondered
the security force, daily
violence has plagued

LL LLL LL LLL ALLELE

Albania. Berisha's forces
are unable to re-establish
control in the south,
where rebels have
formed their own defiant
town councils.

Rebels or criminal gangs
control Albania from
Viore on the Adriatic
coast to the Greek border
in the south. Violence,
theft and settling of
scores has become daily
fare.

A policeman was shot
dead in Burrel, north of
Tirana on Tuesday-the -
fifth policeman killed this
week, the state news
agency AIA said.

Fino met local officials
from around Albania
Wednesday and said his
unity government was
trying to secure more
police equipment.

Police from Tirana to the.
Greek border fled in the
face of this month's

popular uprising. Their
equipment was stolen or
destroyed by enraged

protesters, who moved
on to loot thousands of

weapons from army
munitions depots.
Look for more

international
coverage of news
events in future issues.

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