International Troops Step Up Albania Security

In their greatest show of strength yet, international troops patrolled this capital Friday after the government requested help protecting election officials.

The Socialist-led government condemned Thursday’s shootout between police and pro-monarchy protesters in front of Central Electoral Commission offices. One person was killed and five were wounded in that clash.

“We declare that the Central Electoral Commission is the future of Albania,” the government said. “Whoever touches the commission touches the country.”

Fatos Nano, whose Socialist Party appears to have won a resounding victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, blamed President Sali Berisha for Thursday’s clash. The Socialists said Berisha is using Albania’s would-be king, Leka, “as a means of destabilization.”

Officials from Berisha’s Democratic Party countered that members of the Communist-era secret police, who would likely ally themselves with the Socialists, had fomented the clash by firing on the royalists. The Democrats demanded an investigation.

Troops of the 7,000-strong multinational force patrolled Tirana in groups of three vehicles each. About 30 soldiers were stationed outside the electoral commission, and others rode around Skanderbeg Square, where 600 royalists held a peaceful rally watched by heavily armed police.

Leka told the crowd to convene at the same place each evening to demand pro-monarchy votes that he claims were lost through manipulation of a referendum on the monarchy, which was held the same day as the parliamentary elections. Partial unofficial results indicated that a majority of voters rejected the monarchy.

Col. Giovanni Bernardi, spokesman for the Italian-led international force, said the troops were patrolling more heavily “just to give a little bit more confidence and security” to international election observers.

“We’re not here to prevent any turmoil,” he said.

But he later said Thursday’s clash had made Tirana more dangerous and that the Albanian government had requested the stepped-up patrols to protect the electoral agency.

The force’s mandate is to safeguard humanitarian aid shipments and protect foreigners working on the elections, which are intended to ease the violence that has gripped Albania for months.

Protests over failed high-risk investment schemes burst into armed insurrection throughout the country earlier this year, much of it aimed at Berisha. The president later agreed to cede some of his control to a coalition led by Socialist Prime Minister Bashkim Fino, pending the outcome of the elections.