The collapse of the Stability Government thrust Albania into a downward spiral of lawlessness that some have called the “time of dark forces.” The outgoing prime minister, Ylli Bufi, strangely announced that Albania had only one week of reserves for bread, causing frantic mobs to storm bakeries, warehouses, and shops. An estimated forty-five people died between December 1991 and February 1992 from riots and street violence. The all-powerful communist state had collapsed and nothing had taken its place.
Some villages organized the systematic dismantling of community centers and cooperatives, distributing the windows, roof tiles, wooden beams, and electric wires. But in many cases, thieves yanked up railway track, uprooted water pipes, and stole manhole covers. They ripped bars from Albania’s prisons. They felled the stately poplars that lined national roads and burned them for heat. “The trees are nice,” one man told a journalist. “But if we don’t cut them, the bandits from the next village will do it first.”
No comments:
Post a Comment