Albania President Vows to Leave but Won’t Say When

Hours after deploying armed guards into the streets of Tirana in a show of force, President Sali Berisha on Wednesday made his clearest commitment yet to leaving office.

But he refused to be pinned down to a date during his first news conference since his conservative Democratic Party suffered a staggering loss to a Socialist-led leftist coalition in parliamentary elections Sunday.

Asked repeatedly if he will resign when the new, Socialist-led parliament and government are seated, Berisha said: “Definitely. There is no doubt.”

He said he looked forward to joining an activist opposition, adding, however, that he had certain unspecified constitutional duties to perform before he could step down.

The news conference was called hastily, and it was unclear what Berisha’s real purpose was in holding it.

He seemed distracted, and at times his voice trailed off, though he also displayed characteristic gruffness.

The issue of whether Berisha will resign is important because his removal was the key demand of most of the demonstrators--armed and otherwise--whose rebellion four months ago plunged Albania into anarchy after the collapse of get-rich-quick pyramid schemes.

But as events of the last 24 hours showed--when the autocratic president and the Socialist-led interim government clashed over control of state security services--Berisha is not going quietly.

He attempted to reassert his dwindling authority by sending his heavily armed presidential guard in the middle of the night to encircle the capital with checkpoints and stake out the central bank and other sensitive installations.

Then Berisha tried to appoint a new interior minister after the old one, a close Berisha crony, abandoned the country.

Berisha defended his action, saying he could not permit a “vacuum” in state security created by the interior minister’s absence.

Bashkim Fino, the caretaker prime minister who is from the rival Socialist camp, was outraged. He countermanded Berisha’s orders, reining in the guard, and accused him of breaking the law.

“I am not going to allow any person, including Berisha, to violate our laws,” Fino said at a competing news conference.

Fino claimed that the interior minister, who oversees all police forces that have typically been used to intimidate political opposition, was merely taking a couple of days off to visit his family in Greece, so there was no need to replace him.

But Berisha said that could not be true.

“I was not informed,” the president said at his news conference. “I was not told. I have no idea where [the interior minister] is.”

In the midst of conflicting orders, two large groups of armed men converged in central Tirana’s Skanderbeg Square in the early hours of Wednesday, facing off but not opening fire. It was not clear which group was representing whom, but the gathering eventually dissipated.

The political jockeying, coming as battle-weary Albanians still await final election results, has put the country on edge.

“There is no certainty that the transition will be orderly,” a senior Western diplomat said. “It is a very tense period.”

It remains unclear, however, how many troops Berisha could .jrally if he attempted to stage a coup or other armed resistance. The presidential guard is made up of about 500 men, and the army has dissolved into nothing more than a couple of platoons.

Still, diplomats said, the government has not been able to make the guard respond to it--the guards answer only to Berisha.