Albanian Leader Flees Rally Amid Gunfire

Amid escalating violence in the run-up to elections in Albania, gunfire forced President Sali Berisha to beat a hasty retreat from a campaign rally here Thursday. Several people were wounded after Berisha’s guards turned their weapons on an unfriendly crowd.

Berisha rushed from the town square, surrounded by a gaggle of his aides, after speaking for barely five minutes. Throughout his appearance, bursts of gunfire were heard repeatedly from just beyond the square, clearly rattling the nerves of the presidential entourage.

“Nothing stops us! Long live democracy!” Berisha, in a hoarse voice, called from behind a wall of aides lined up to protect him. “I ask you to give the right response to terrorists. Vote for democracy! Down with communism!”

About 150 supporters stood in front of Berisha and cheered. But most of the crowd kept its distance across the square and booed.

Berisha’s guards, dressed in civilian clothes, menaced the crowd with assault rifles and machine guns pointed skyward, and periodically shot off a few rounds in response to nearby gunfire. But as the president retreated, the guards suddenly lowered the sights of their weapons and opened sustained automatic fire in the direction of people in the crowd, including Berisha’s supporters. The crowd fled in panic.

Many of those in the square, including women and children, did not appear to be armed. At least eight people were wounded, including two who were in serious condition, according to officials at the hospital in Lushnje, about 25 miles south of the capital, Tirana.

However, other opponents of Berisha around the square did have guns, and they fired from apartment windows as Berisha’s entourage retreated. One gunman claimed to have hit one of Berisha’s cars.

The right-wing president is the target of enormous hostility from Albanians who blame him for the collapse of pyramid schemes that impoverished many and plunged the country into anarchy during the spring. Albanians hope general elections Sunday will ease the crisis, but many experts believe the voting--for a new parliament--will only further polarize the country.

Violence has disrupted feeble attempts at campaigning for the elections. Supporters of both Berisha’s Democratic Party and its main rival, the Socialist Party, are accused of intimidating and attacking each other, joined by gangs with little political affiliation. Shootouts flared again Wednesday in the southern Albanian city of Vlore, the heart of the anti-government revolt. In the single most deadly incident, five of Berisha’s guards were killed this month by residents in the town of Cerrik, about 15 miles northeast of here.

In a separate development, Berisha on Thursday agreed to close polling booths early Sunday. He had previously insisted on keeping voting open until 9 p.m., which would have forced poll workers and international monitors to count votes after dark, a time of potential violence and fraud. Berisha reversed himself after a meeting with former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, head of the international mission monitoring Sunday’s vote.