Word: berisha
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Albania, as two rivals struggle for power in the streets, the U.S. hopes its stern words will calm the clashes. But officials fear that if former President Sali Berisha returns to power, he might bring Albania into the Kosovo...
...ambitions of a former president have plunged Albania's capital into chaos, and Western leaders are understandably nervous. Three people have been killed and 14 wounded since Sunday in gun battles between government troops and supporters of ex-president Sali Berisha. Berisha, who was voted out in 1997 after the collapse of a moneymaking pyramid scheme plunged the country into anarchy, claims the current government assassinated one of his key aides. "Berisha's been trying to get back into power ever since his ouster," says TIME Central Europe bureau chief Massimo Calabresi. "The death of Adem Hajdari is his latest...
...this is a war, it has no generals, no strategy and no real fighting. The crackling of rifle fire and phantasmagoric skylines lit by tracer rounds coincided with scenes of civilians strolling normally or sitting in cafes. Scared politicians of assorted parties got together with Berisha to issue pleas for public restraint. For all the good they were doing, they might as well have yelled into the wind. Politicians had no credibility with slapped-together committees of insurgents, which in turn had no control over countless people newly empowered by Kalashnikovs...
...collapse, the U.S. and several European nations staged dramatic evacuations of their citizens. Italian helicopters ferried out many, while ships from the U.S. Sixth Fleet sent choppers into the American compound in Tirana. When the flights began drawing ground fire on Friday, evacuations were suspended for the day. But Berisha had already sent his daughter Argita and son Shkelzen to Italy on a commandeered ferry...
Amid the breakdown of normal commercial life, shortages of food, fuel and other vital commodities began to grow acute. What could restore order was beyond anyone's guess, although Berisha's resignation seems to be the indispensable start. The Democratic Party leader has been a lightning rod for public rage since the January collapse of more than a dozen get-rich-quick investment schemes that lost the life savings of somewhere between 50% and 90% of the population. Most Albanians believe that Berisha was in cahoots with the operators who ran the pyramid swindles...