Italians Fire on Albanian Refugees Protesting Return

Police opened fire Thursday night as thousands of Albanian refugees seeking to avoid deportation tried to break out of a soccer stadium where they were being held under guard.

Bari hospital workers said three refugees had been brought in with gunshot wounds. Two were in serious condition. Ten policemen also were injured.

The riot broke out as Italian authorities began ferrying back 10,000 refugees who a few hours earlier had forced their way into this southern Italian port aboard a commandeered Albanian freighter, the 8,000-ton Vlora.

The Italian navy had deployed a frigate, 10 cutters and two tugboats to block the harbor entrance, but the freighter ignored appeals to turn back.

At the stadium, security forces said they fired into the air after being pelted with rocks by the Albanians. The refugees forced open the steel doors of the stadium and advanced toward police lines before being driven back by baton charges.

“We had to fire,” one officer said. “They were going to kill us otherwise.”

Italy pressed ahead with plans to return the refugees to Tirana, the Albanian capital. An Italian air force transport was waiting to take off from Bari on Thursday night with 60 refugees from the Vlora and a 30-man escort. Ferries have also been chartered for the task.

More than 20,000 other Albanians are living in refugee camps near southern Italian ports after they fled in two massive waves in July and March.

Albania, meanwhile, put its Adriatic ports under military control Thursday to try to clear them of thousands of people trying to flee the country, Albanian TV reported. It said two women drowned Wednesday in the port of Durres as they tried to board ships, and two men were shot to death by police in continuing chaos on Thursday.

Albanian authorities have placed the country’s four main Adriatic ports--Durres, Vlora, Shengjin and Saranda--under armed control, a government statement said.

Albania’s economy is in ruins following decades of harsh Stalinist rule and isolationist policies. Staples are scarce and most consumer goods are unavailable in the Balkan nation of 3.2 million.

The newly legalized opposition Democratic Party joined a coalition government with the renamed Communists in June, but the new administration has failed to slow the economic collapse.