Albania Sends Troops to Put Down Rioting by ‘Hooligans’

Communist Albania on Thursday ordered soldiers to quell an attack on officials and buildings by “hooligans” armed with knives, stones and iron bars, its official media reported.

The attacks in the northern city of Shkodra came one day after a peaceful rally by tens of thousands of people in the capital, Tirana, celebrating the founding of the country’s first non-Communist party, the Democratic Party of Albania.

Journalists said that Tirana, about 80 miles south of Shkodra, remained calm Thursday.

Official reports said attackers with knives and iron bars assaulted the police chief and two other policemen in the city of Shkodra.

Official Albanian Radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, said gangs were “throwing stones at the district government and party buildings and committing acts of vandalism inside the local radio station.”

“In order to reimpose order and calm in the city and to defend government and social institutions, the forces of public order and the army came into action,” it said.

A later ATA report said the rioters were “without any political aims.” However, the attacks suggest that tension in the small Balkan country is unlikely to die down, despite official concessions during a week of protests.

Albania has for decades kept a tight lid on protest but has recently allowed limited reforms.