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Article: Albania's difficult future.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The 1997 Albanian political and economic crisis was one of the most destructive in the 1990s. Television images of Albanians on a large-scale killing spree against each other, having looted military depots, as their country disintegrated, were also one of the most dramatic spectacles in a decade replete with violent internal turmoil.
As a result of the fighting, the country was effectively divided into three segments where no one was in complete control. Armed gangs supporting Sali Berisha, nominally still Albania's president, held sway in the centre and the north; the south was in the hands of roaming bands of so-called salvation committee members and criminals. ...