Albanian Regime Embarrassed as Writer Defects, Balkan Neighbors Urge Reforms : Stalinists: Tirana’s Communist leaders are accused of empty promises.

Europe’s last Stalinist leadership suffered two devastating blows Thursday when Albania’s most influential writer and reformer “demanded” asylum in France and its Balkan neighbors put it on notice to loosen the nation’s political shackles.

Ismail Kadare, a revered poet, writer and reform advocate, accused Tirana’s Communist leaders of disillusioning the people with empty promises of change. Kadare, 54, is the most famous man in Albania after President Ramiz Alia, and his decision to give up on his homeland undermines official attempts to present Albania as a nation poised for democratic change.

His action was especially embarrassing for the Tirana government as it coincided with the first prominent international conference in Albania. Also, it occurred in the rare presence of foreign journalists in the capital.

The tightly controlled state news media made no mention of Kadare’s defection, but word of it was expected to reach Albanians through Western television and radio broadcasts.

Some fear that Kadare’s departure could spark further unrest among Albanians, the poorest people in Europe. Theirs is the only European nation still subjected to a rigid and repressive form of communism. More than 5,000 people seeking to leave the country stormed foreign embassies last July after hopes dwindled for a promised relaxation of totalitarian rule.

Government officials’ first reaction to Western media reports of Kadare’s request for asylum was to denounce them as lies and provocations. Prime Minister Adel Carcani professed not to know of any such development. Foreign Minister Reis Malile suggested it was a “setup” timed to discredit the government.

Kadare had been at the forefront of a cautious social movement for liberalization in Albania, a nation of 3.3 million. His earlier historical works had been sanctioned by dictator Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985. Hoxha’s acceptance gave him broader license than would have been accorded other writers in Albania.

His metaphoric novels were the first shades of criticism against the entrenched Communist regime, and in recent interviews with the Albanian media he openly attacked the bureaucracy and the once-unmentionable Sigurimi secret police.

Kadare’s move, which came as a shock to Albanian officials and to the few citizens who had managed to learn of it, could devastate the fledgling forces for reform in Albania who had seen Kadare as a spiritual leader.

“I think there will be a feeling of resentment toward him,” said Mirlinda Angoni, a journalist with ATA, the official news agency. “He was free to express himself here. If they want to fight, they should stay here and fight.” This was a reference to cultural figures capable of leading the quest for change.

A delegate to the Balkan conference that ended here Thursday speculated that Kadare was trying to provide the people of Albania with a catalyst for change.

“My view is that this is a move by Kadare to become the next (Vaclav) Havel,” he said, referring to the Czechoslovak playwright, now president, whose dissent gave focus to that nation’s pro-democracy movement.

Albanian officials denied that Kadare had made any appeal for asylum.

“These reports are all lies,” a Foreign Ministry official, Chale Fatmia, told reporters. “We expect him to come back. He has said nothing against conditions here.”

But in Paris, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, Daniel Bernard, said that Kadare has “demanded political asylum.” He gave no other details.

Kadare’s French publisher issued a statement from the writer that said, “For me, the disillusionment has been more unbearable than the repression.”

Last spring, President Alia announced vague plans for reform in Albania, but a new election law published this week made it clear that one-party rule by the Communists will continue.

“President Ramiz Alia could become the Albanian Gorbachev,” Kadare said in his statement, referring to the Soviet president, whose reforms allowed East European states to break with communism last year. “People are convinced that if he democratizes only a little, the regime will crumble.”

Word of Kadare’s appeal to the French government was spread by representatives of the Western media just as the foreign ministers of the six Balkan countries were concluding a two-day conference at which Albania joined in a declaration of commitment to freedom and democratic ideals.

While Albanian participation was unprecedented, the host nation failed to win unconditional support from its neighbors for its effort to rejoin Europe.

After 15 years of snubbing the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Albania recently applied for and received observer status and has been lobbying for full membership. The forum dedicated to political, economic and human rights includes the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and all European states except Albania.

Tirana wanted the Balkan ministers to pledge their support for its membership, which would facilitate foreign aid and investment needed to rescue Albania’s creaking economy.

But the ministers made it clear that they remain unconvinced of Albania’s commitment to democracy and want to see improvements before taking it into the community of nations.

“The ministers welcomed the request of Albania for full participation in CSCE and expressed the wish to see it realized,” the conference communique said, then went on to tie membership to progress on human rights.

Isolated behind the last remaining stretch of Iron Curtain, Albanians are still forbidden to travel or associate with foreigners. Police and soldiers are omnipresent in this dreariest of East Bloc capitals, and the few foreign diplomats in Tirana say that physical abuse of anyone expressing dissent continues unabated.

Reports from Paris said Kadare had sent a message to Alia on Wednesday explaining his decision to leave Albania. The president, who made a splashy display of gregariousness at the conference opening Wednesday, was absent from the final session.

Kadare was reportedly accompanied to Paris by his wife and two children.

His novels include “Chronicle of Stone,” “General of the Dead Army,” “The Box of Shame” and a recent work, “Palace of Dreams,” an allegorical denunciation of Stalinism about a state that monitors the dreams of its citizens.