Serbia’s Ambassador to Albania Miroljub Zaric said that Serbia’s citizens in Albania’s capital Tirana are safe so far even though the Embassy building is located near Albania’s parliament where violence and murders have taken place.

Three civilians have died from gunshot wounds during clashes between protesters and the Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s police forces in the capital Tirana.

Protesters pelted Berisha’s office and police Friday with stones, sticks and umbrellas. Vehicles were set alight, some of them belonging to police.

Battles rage between Albanian police and the protesters

Dead civilians laid in the middle of the street as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannon and stun grenades.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha of Albania vowed not be a victim of a Tunisia style revolution as three protesters were killed, all shot at close range, says Tirana Military Hospital.

“The bastard children of Albania’s own Ben Alis conceived Tunisian scenarios… for you citizens of Albania,” Berisha  said.

“No power in the world is able to manipulate the free will of the Albanian people,” said Berisha.

The Socialist Party blamed police for provoking protesters by using the water tanks and tear gas.

“My call for the so-called premier is to refrain from taking our society and country further down a blind alley,” said opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama.

Rama accused Berisha of being the “political orchestrator” of the deaths, and called for the arrest of Lulzim Basha, the interior minister.

Albanians torch a car in front of the government building in Tirana.

“We will continue our protests and demonstrations, without violence, peacefully, wisely, with the unstoppable power of the people’s resistance,” Rama said.

US ambassador to Albania has called for calm saying that Albania, a NATO member, needs “political leadership”.

Last year Brussels rejected Albania’s application for the EU candidate status.

Berisha, a friend of the Kosovo Albanian leader Hashim Thaci, has recently been linked in the organ and weapons trade during NATO’s war on Serbia over Kosovo.

Some diplomats in the EU have called for “clean hands” in the Albanian leadership.

January 23, 2011
SERBIANNA, agencies

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