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Missionaries are returning to Albania, where hundreds of people have been killed in a spring reign of anarchy, but they are not yet staying long-term.

"It's a lot calmer than it was two months ago," Bob Ryals, an Assemblies of God missionary in Albania since 1993, told CT on May 16. "But that's a long way from being back to normal."

Ryals says missionaries are being encouraged to take short, fact-finding trips "to check the work they've lost," but travel remains too dangerous for foreigners, who tend to be the most frequent targets.

The country dissolved into rioting, looting, and random gunfire after the bottom fell out of nine faulty investment schemes.

Almost all police and army officers deserted, while Albanian civilians can reportedly obtain for the price of a sandwich one of an estimated one million weapons at large in the country.

Many Albanians blame President Sali Berisha not only for the violence but also for doing nothing about the pyramid schemes. There are 70 Protestant churches among 3.4 million people in the country, which experienced similar upheaval when communism collapsed in 1991.

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June 16 1997, Vol. 41, No. 7