Prime Minister Bashkim Fino went to the rebel-held south on Tuesday for the first time since insurgents seized the region and told rebel leaders that the dreaded Shik secret police had been disbanded.
"Since yesterday, there is no more Shik in Albania," he told rebels at a meeting in the southern town of Gjirokaster, 20 miles from the Greek border."We are going to build a new intelligence service with a new face," Fino said. "From now, anyone who identifies himself as a Shik officer is a liar."
Fino said he met President Sali Berisha on Monday and they accepted the resignations of Shik chief Bashkim Gazidede and his deputy, Bujar Rama. The Finance Ministry had stopped funding for the group from Monday, he said.
Shik, the National Information Service, was set up in 1991 after a Stalinist regime that had ruled the Balkan country for 45 years collapsed.
Shik replaced the sinister Sigurimi secret police that had helped impose communist rule but became equally feared in its own right. Gazidede's resignation has been a main demand of the rebels who seized southern Albania in early March.