Albania President, Foes Pick Coalition Cabinet

President Sali Berisha and his political opposition agreed Wednesday on a new, coalition government, while Washington ordered the evacuation of most of its diplomatic community amid growing panic over unrest sweeping this small Balkan country.

Looters raided military ammunition depots in Tirana for the first time as a frenzied effort to seize guns spread. It was unclear whether those grabbing weapons in the capital were for or against the government, but police who were present did little to intervene, witnesses said.

Albania’s new caretaker prime minister, Bashkim Fino of the opposition Socialist Party, told reporters that the country is on the brink of civil war. Saying his government’s first priority is to reduce the large number of arms that have fallen into private hands, he immediately initiated contact with insurgents who have taken control of the south.

“This is not the time to confront but to dialogue,” Fino, 34, told state television Wednesday night.

Fino hails from Gjirokaster, one of the southern cities in rebellion, giving him credibility with forces in the region. One of his first acts was to meet Agim Gozhica, a former army general who heads the rebel council in Gjirokaster. But no one really controls the collection of rebels, thugs and criminals that holds sway in southern cities, and disarming them all any time soon is unlikely.

In Washington, the Clinton administration ordered most U.S. government employees, their dependents, Peace Corps volunteers and others to leave Albania as soon as possible, reducing the U.S. Embassy staff to Ambassador Marisa Lino and 17 aides whose jobs are considered essential.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said all other diplomats and their families--about 160 people--would leave Albania as “a precautionary measure because of the instability in the country.” At the same time, the department urged the estimated 2,000 private U.S. citizens now in Albania to leave the country for their safety.

“The United States remains greatly concerned about the situation in Albania,” Burns said. “The positive political steps taken by President Berisha in the last few days to form a broad-based coalition government leading to early and, we hope, free and fair elections have not yet succeeded in improving conditions in the country because the insurgency continues.”

The Americans are to leave by commercial or charter air flights, and no U.S. military evacuation is planned, officials said.

Evacuation of the Americans, which came the day after similar orders from many European capitals, sent tremors through Albanians who are watching nervously as thousands of their countrymen arm themselves and traces of the unrest reach the capital. The offices of international airlines were swamped Wednesday by people desperate to get out.

“The panic level is very high,” a Western diplomat said. “They see the same pictures. Everybody is related. This is a small country. All the stories get retold and retold. Add to that explosive intercourse a few hundred thousand Kalashnikovs. . . . The hysteria level gets whipped up.

“The one thing the government has to do is lower that level of panic--by acting like a government, by issuing decrees, by talking to the people in the south,” the diplomat said. “That gradually lowers the panic, but it still doesn’t get the weapons out of their hands.”

The uprising began last month after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes wiped out the life savings of hundreds of thousands of Albanians, many of whom hold Berisha’s government accountable for their losses.

Late Wednesday, state television announced the formation of a new government, following days of bitter negotiations in which Berisha agreed to share power with his longtime enemies, the Socialists. Five ministries will go to the ruling Democratic Party, four to the Socialists and five others to smaller parties.

Over the objections of the opposition, the Interior Ministry will be headed by a member of the ruling party. The post is critical because it controls both police and secret police, as well as elections.

As part of an agreement aimed at ending the violence, parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held by June. The opposition fears that the ruling party will use its control of the Interior Ministry to repeat the egregious fraud committed in May parliamentary elections that ensured Berisha renewal of his five-year presidential term early this month.

The Interior Ministry oversees the selection of election commissions, the printing of ballots and all internal security matters.

To answer opposition demands, Berisha and his opponents agreed to create a new Interior Ministry post that will serve as a kind of second in command with wide-ranging powers. It will be filled by an opposition politician. But the power-sharing arrangement raised the specter of crippling gridlock because former enemies would have to cooperate closely.

“At least we have a government now,” said Blendi Gonxhe, spokesman for the opposition alliance, Forum for Democracy. “Maybe it will last four days, one week, but we have a government. This is a compromise, a very Albanian compromise. It looks nice, but it will be a bit chaotic.”

The opposition hopes that it can win a majority in the parliamentary elections, then replace Berisha. But the insurgents and some unarmed elements of the political opposition are demanding the conservative president’s immediate resignation.

At Tirana’s military academy earlier Wednesday, men and boys walked in through the front gate or scaled walls and made off with automatic rifles and other small arms. Uniformed police watched as some of the men fired into the air.

One man on a bicycle said he had signed up to receive a weapon and had come to collect it. As he spoke, secret police roared up in a car, barked a few commands, and the entire crowd scattered quickly.

The seizure of arms was similar to raids on depots throughout southern Albania and in several cities in the north. State television also reported a second raid at an army barracks on the outskirts of Tirana.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.