NO LAW OR ORDER IN THE LAND

By JAMES WALSH

Europe looked to its southeast last week to find civilization vanishing down a sinkhole. Perennially underprivileged Albania suddenly was no longer an organized society but a state of chaos. In the span of one week, what had begun as spontaneous revolts in a few southern cities turned all of the country into a Mad Max movie: children brandishing grenades and automatic rifles; wholesale looting; and frenetic, random gunfire--an utter collapse of civil authority. Foreign nationals were fleeing the country, many by helicopter airlift. Small, sun-washed Albania had become the state of Anarchia.

The uprisings that spread north to overtake the capital of Tirana last week were outbursts of lawlessness more than any kind of movement, since the insurrection has no command. President Sali Berisha clung to office, but he could hardly cling to power. At one point Skender Gjinushi, an oppositionist who had just met with the President, remarked, "Berisha accepted that he has no national control. He has no army, no police."

If this is a war, it has no generals, no strategy and no real fighting. The crackling of rifle fire and phantasmagoric skylines lit by tracer rounds coincided with scenes of civilians strolling normally or sitting in cafes. Scared politicians of assorted parties got together with Berisha to issue pleas for public restraint. For all the good they were doing, they might as well have yelled into the wind. Politicians had no credibility with slapped-together committees of insurgents, which in turn had no control over countless people newly empowered by Kalashnikovs.

With tens of thousands of civilians armed to their caps or babushkas, the citizenry had turned into the proverbial mob with many heads but no brains. Hospitals have treated gunshot wounds day and night. Many people retreated from the streets altogether, but a housewife washing dishes in the city of Elbasan was reportedly killed by random gunfire.

As Albania edged closer to collapse, the U.S. and several European nations staged dramatic evacuations of their citizens. Italian helicopters ferried out many, while ships from the U.S. Sixth Fleet sent choppers into the American compound in Tirana. When the flights began drawing ground fire on Friday, evacuations were suspended for the day. But Berisha had already sent his daughter Argita and son Shkelzen to Italy on a commandeered ferry.

Amid the breakdown of normal commercial life, shortages of food, fuel and other vital commodities began to grow acute. What could restore order was beyond anyone's guess, although Berisha's resignation seems to be the indispensable start. The Democratic Party leader has been a lightning rod for public rage since the January collapse of more than a dozen get-rich-quick investment schemes that lost the life savings of somewhere between 50% and 90% of the population. Most Albanians believe that Berisha was in cahoots with the operators who ran the pyramid swindles.

People have demanded not only his head but also their money back, which the treasury is too broke to provide. Beyond that, who would fill the presidency? No one of sufficient stature seems available to take over, even assuming that such a change would make a difference.

Government leaders appealed to the Western powers for any kind of intervention, preferably military. Faced with an impossible task, however, Washington, European capitals, NATO and the U.N. could do nothing but rescue their own. "If we send soldiers, what are we going to give them for a mission?" wondered German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Virtually alone, Austrian former Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, an envoy for the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, tried to come up with some international relief. He met with the new Albanian Prime Minister, Bashkim Fino, on Friday, then went to the southern port of Vlora to talk with rebel leaders. But it seemed doubtful that his rounds would be any more effective than the prayer of Mother Teresa, who from Calcutta said of her fellow Albanians, "May God bring them joy, prosperity, peace and unity." First of all, Albania is in need of sanity.

--Reported by Massimo Calabresi on board the U.S.S. Nassau

With reporting by MASSIMO CALABRESI ON BOARD THE U.S.S. NASSAU