by Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer
                       July 15, 1997

     The June 29 elections in Albania, in which the party of President Sali Berisha lost its
majority, can be a first step toward finding a solution to the current conflict in that country.
But the conflict has deep roots that extend far back in time and beyond Albania's borders.
If only the superficial symptoms are addressed, not the root causes, it may reemerge in
the future.

     It is not merely a conflict among clans, or between the country's North and South, a war
over successions, etc.  Like Yugoslavia, the Gulf, Somalia and other recent conflict
theaters, a name is chosen to designate the conflict as "the Gulf conflict" etc., where the
word "arena" might be better for something much more complex, involving the USA, the
UK, France, Islam in general, all Arab countries etc.

     Albania's moves toward market economy and democracy were hampered by
unfavorable preconditions.  A market economy needs markets, and markets need money,
liquid capital.  The capital in Albania was to a large extent fixed capital, which at the family
or clan level means houses.  What could appear better to pry that capital loose from those
houses than schemes promising unheard of interest rates if the houses were sold or used
as equity and the money invested in the infamous pyramid schemes? Although there had
been sporadic fighting before, the Albanian arena exploded when family savings
disappeared in these pyramid schemes.

     Democracy needs not only elections but also a civil society and an ongoing,
unrestrained dialogue--still missing in Albania.  To restore the Albanian people's
confidence in their government, the next government could consider the following
measures:

[1]  Conduct an international inquiry into the banking activities in Albania since the end of
the Cold War regime. The commission should be international to have the necessary
expertise in the role of international banking, including the World Bank and related
institutions.  The aim would not be to establish any culpability or liability, but simply to
understand what happened and who were involved, nationally and internationally.

[2]  The question of restitution to the victims, or at least to some of them, should be raised.
If people entered the schemes in good faith, and there was bad faith on the other side, the
problem of liability would arise.  If not, restitution money might be found elsewhere.  Laws
need to be passed to prohibit similar schemes in the future.

[3]  Organize round-tables over the future of Albania--not only at the top level in Tirana, but
even more importantly, in each village.  Ideas and arguments emerging from such round-
tables (possibly organized and supervised by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe) should be made available to the whole society.  The more minds
focus on a problem, the more likely it is that some creative, original proposals for solutions
will emerge.  People will appreciate to have a voice in shaping their won future.

[4]  There is a need for direct humanitarian aid, to old age homes, hospitals, children's
homes etc.  Such aid could best be organized from civil society to civil society, involving
large groups in Albania and Italy, for instance.  If protection is needed, an international
police force might be considered, replacing operation Alba; Italian leadership is ill-
conceived, given the memories of Mussolini's invasion in April 1939, as a prelude to World
War II.  There is the suspicion of ulterior motives, which might also be attributed to Turkish,
ex-Yugoslav and Greek forces.

     Albania is a fellow European country treated extremely badly by history, invaded and
occupied repeatedly by foreigners, so that Hoxha type isolationism is understandable. The
alternative to that isolationism is not to continue the old tradition of using Albania as a
playground for foreign intervention.

     Some of the responsibility for today's conflict in Albania lies with other countries; they
need to do their share in helping end the Albanian people's long suffering.

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Johan Galtung is a Professor of Peace Studies at several universities and Director of
TRANSCEND, a Peace and Development Network.  Dietrich Fischer, a Professor at Pace
University, is Co-Director of TRANSCEND.