Albania's new prime minister began talks Wednesday on forming an interim government to restore order in a country torn apart by armed rebellion as the unrest crept to within 40 miles of the capital.
Premier Bashkim Fino, of the opposition Socialist Party, flew in from the rebel-held southern town of Gjirokaster on Tuesday night and opened talks on Wednesday with beleaguered President Sali Berisha and political party leaders.In a call for reconciliation, the 34-year-old premier said: "We will aim for understanding throughout the country so that all people embrace each other rather than confront each other with arms and tanks."
"This government must speak to the people with understanding, asking them to hand in their weapons, because nothing is ever achieved by coercion," he told reporters before the meeting.
The appointment of a premier from the main opposition party, and from the south of the country now almost totally in rebel hands, was seen as a major concession by Berisha as he struggles to restore order.
Until last weekend, the right-wing Albanian leader, elected in 1992 and re-elected in controversial circumstances earlier this month, had refused all cooperation with the ex-communist Socialists.
The appointment was also seen as a bid to bridge the traditional gulf between the impoverished north, with its closed mountain communities, and the relatively prosperous south, with links to Greece and Italy. Berisha is from the north.
But as the meeting started around 100 people denouncing Berisha looted automatic weapons from an army depot near the town of Elbasan, only 55 km (40 miles) south of Tirana, the closest the unrest has come to the capital since it broke out last month.
Shouting "Down with Berisha," many in the crowd demanded the return of money lost in the collapse of fraudulent investment schemes, which provided the initial spark to the anti-government uprising.
Berisha and the opposition clinched a deal last weekend for an interim all-party government, new elections by June and an amnesty for rebels to hand in thousands of weapons looted from army barracks.
But a newly formed committee of rebel leaders in the south insisted on the immediate and unconditional resignation of Berisha and the creation of a presidential council to rule until new elections.
In its first public statement, the National Committee of Public Salvation, signed by rebel leaders in eight major southern towns, said they would not surrender their arms until the establishment of democracy in Albania was guaranteed.
Calling for restraint by the newly armed rebels, it said: "Arms in the people's hands are not for killing our brothers or to divide the nation but are directed against Sali Berisha's dictatorship."
Some 40 people have been killed in rebel-held towns, mostly by youths firing unfamiliar weapons at random.