Albanian Investors Who Lost Money Seize Town, Attack Minister, Police

LUSHNJE, Albania — Angry Albanians who lost money in high-risk, get-rich-quick schemes seized control of this central town Saturday, beating a government minister and riot police before turning on reporters.

Tritan Shehu, Albania’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, was hit in the back of the head with a stone and in the back with an iron bar.

As night fell, the streets in this town 60 miles south of the capital, Tirana, belonged to the protesters.

About 10,000 people gathered in and around the town’s stadium--where riot police and Shehu were recovering from their beatings--but gradually began to disperse.

State media also reported trouble in at least two other communities in central Albania, Berat and the village of Belsh near Elbasan.

In Berat, 25 miles south of Lushnje, demonstrators set fire to the town hall, a police station, the prosecutor’s office and court buildings, state television said.

The chaos in Lushnje was the most serious in more than a week of disturbances that began when two investment schemes failed to pay out on schedule. Hundreds of thousands of Albania’s 3.2 million people had put their savings into the funds.

Average wages in Albania amount to $60 to $80 a month, and many of the investors sold houses or apartments in the hopes of striking it rich.

Financing of the funds is secretive, but many are thought to be pyramid schemes--which pay early contributors handsome “profits” from the deposits of later contributors. The funds fail when no new contributors can be found.

Albanian newspapers have charged that some of the funds have been used to launder proceeds from the drug trade, prostitution and smuggling.