Albania pushes the door ajar

Press, 17 November 1980, Page 20

Albania pushes the door ajar

By

JOHN BURKE

3 in Tirana

There are still only twp. roads leading into Albania and both /checkpoints are emblazoned ' with a typical quotation .by Mr Enver Hoxha: “Even if we have to go ; without -«■ bread, we Albanians do not violate principles.. We do not betray Marxism-Leninism.” ■' - That .is how the world’s longest-serving dictator runs Europe’s most, isolated and impoverished land, which is best known through the

vociferous propaganda .- of Radio Tirana in 17 languages. Every day it preaches the only correct Communist line, ranting against “imperialism; social imperialism and; revisionism.” Americans, Russians and. Yugoslavs are hot "allowed into: the ’ People’s Socialist.’ Republic of Albania. Nor' are.. Israelis and South Africans. But orthodox Communists are ' welcome : and Western sympathisers (from places as far apartas Canada and New Zealand) account for more than half the 20,000 ; visitors a year. But no arrivals are permitted to have beards, long hair, sexy" slacks or . miniskirts. Bibles are .also banned, for the atheistic regime closed 2100. churches and mosques in 1967 — killing or jailing the clergy in about nine hidden labour-camps. So Stalinist is the. regime that it • refuses entry to ■ known journalists from abroad. I penetrated Albania’s fiercely guarded -borders < Only by joining a tour .and. thus getting in on a collective visa. •All groups are escorted by gtlides from Albturist,-which is controlled by ,the .secret police. Foreigners are largely confined to five hotels originally built for the Russians outside the Adriatic port of-'Durres. Yet supervision is becoming lax and ordinary Albanians are no longer so afraid of contact, although • - their ; , unique language makes its own barricade. Albturist now permits countrywide excursions (the land* is a little larger than Wales or Vermont) and this .year it opened up Valona,.theA naval base. Soviet submarines; / were here before Albania quit the Warsaw Pact In 1962 jandju the Kremlin recently suggested that it had all been •> a “temporary” _• tiff. Blit the ’ wily Mr Enver Hoxha feels

the same way abo.ut the Russians .as the national hero, Scanderbeg, did about the Turks five centuries ago. That is; why the -2,500,000 Albanians, once notorious as < feuding hillbillies, are all set for irregular- warfare again. The-i fertile- fields, where •- peasants toil in national . dress, are dotted with camouflaged pillboxes, while steel shutters punctuate the mountainsides. There are domed blockhouses for

. artillery at. strategic points and underground shelters in the towns. v Mr Enver Hoxha himself came .to power in 1944 through. leading the partisans ’against the Italians and Germans. The era is still ■romanticised, but today’s male and female conscripts have little more than pickaxes and rifles (the components of the Party’s symbol). Albania’s' lack of mechanisation is - obvious when one travels by old Fiat buses along the .bumpy narrow ■ roads. Although asphalted, they are often blocked by herds of. cows or sheep as well as stray pigs, goats and ducks.'Horse-drawn carts, and ox-wagons easily outnumber the battered green lorries, which are usually Chinese, like the occasional bicycles. Even 'on Tirana’s main boulevard (guarded <-■..• by • statues of Stalin and Lenin) there is- only the odd official car with grey curtains across .the rear window. They are little ?. Polish Fiat 1255, although-there are Mercedes for the Central Committee, which is glorified in hoardings everywhere. ' The Party’s 7 bosses are linked by marriage, but purges, and old age mean the old guard is dwindling and there could be changes at the Eighth Congress next year. Mr Hysni Kapo died last year and the Prime Minister, Mr Mehmet Shehu, is 67. Mr Enver Hoxha is ,72 /and his strong cult of personality is now that .of the traditional Albanian chieftain; Published memoirs of his heyday with Stalin and Mao show that he is - living in the past ideolo- 5 gically. His Constitution of 1976 is meant, to be his Communist /legacy — boosting the Party " and banning foreign bases or ' For Albania has tried > to go it alone since being

abandoned politically by China. Albania can produce all its own food and fertiliser as well as .oil, chrome and other minerals. It exports hydro-electric power to Greece barely a decade after the last hillside village could switch on the light. There is a new steelworks at Elbasan and other impressive evidence of diversification at the “Shqiperia Sot” (Albania Today) exhibition in Tirana. But the 1981-85 plan is likely to show that complete self-sufficiency is impossible. Albania still has to import many items — from rollingstock to razor-blades — and most trade is still with Eastern Europe and China. However, commercial and cultural relations are fast developing with the nonCommunist world, for Albania now has diplomatic relations with 84 countries. These include such unlikely places as Iceland and Mali and Tanzania (signalling a mini-policy for Africa). The most significant opening to the world will be the extension in 1982 of Albania’s modem railways from Scutari to Titograd in Yugoslavia. The million Albanians in * Serbia are already, being 'wooed with nationalism. Change must'- surely come, for Albania has Europe's highest birth-rate and the younger generation is getting restless in an unsettled world. — Copyright, London Observer Service.