Memorie.al / Mursia, is a village in the southernmost part of the country, even much talked about, for the wars between “gangs” and nationalist extremes with Konispol. This village was persecuted and surveilled by the communist regime of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, in an inalienable way, along with the minority villages neighboring Mursina. The facts are shocking, but also strange. Surprisingly, all the leaders of the government and the party in this village were related to the fugitives and those who were shot, just as the communists (members of the party) were related to the former fugitives and former persecuted political prisoners.
The State Security, with the instructions of the APS and its main leaders, kept this village under complete surveillance, even without the knowledge of the basic organization and the local government. This, for the very facts we talked about above.
In this village where 32 people were imprisoned, of which 7 died, 27 families were interned and the most important one, 18 people escaped after 1944, which affected all the tribes of this autochthonous village, with heterogeneous purity and orthodox faith.
This caused the State Security to keep this village under full surveillance, until the famous group of Mursia in 1987. Was this really a hostile group, or a branch of the State Security, to keep this village under terror? !
For this we were able to get the interview of Mr. Kostandin Moçi, a person considered and accused as the head of this group!
Mr. Moçi, you have been accused of being a member of the “hostile group of Mursia”, according to the investigation of those years, the head of this group. What can you tell us about this accusation and this group?
Thank you for remembering to bring this “hostile group” back to the memory of history. From the beginning, I wanted to say that I don’t want to be asked anymore, since I will answer everything myself, just with your first question. So everything I know, or want to say, I will summarize with an answer. Shall I start?
With pleasure, this was also our request!?
In 1987, they arrested me, Kostandin Moçi, who also labeled me as the leader of the group, Timo Lapa, Ylli Goshi, Pipo Çabiri, Vasil Mavro, Jaho Bajo and Kozma Vuda. They arrested us on the charge of attempted escape.
I was surprised that we were not related to each other, for this conversation, despite the fact that I had escape in mind, I had not told the man that at the time when I was arrested, I was the father of six children.
But we were arrested and subjected to an investigation, with three investigators from Saranda, XH.H, Z.SH. and K.V. This last one, the most terrorizing and ill-treating, even now when I remember it, my flesh trembles. The investigation was torture in itself…!
How long were you held in the interrogator?
– Three months the investigator, physical and psychological torture. I can say that they left us without food for three days and when they brought us food, they threw live worms into our dishes… and we ate them…! Investigator K.V. also used the electroshock on one of our friends, Vasil Mavro. This one was tortured the most by us.
They even threw dead pigeons in his cell, they beat him, even when they changed his clothes, you looked and thought that it would belong to an employee of a slaughterhouse…! We were so disfigured, that when we came out, my cousin, president of the People’s Council, Parashqevi Moçi, was alarmed by my condition and shouted that she was going to Ramiz Alia…!
Did this happen?
– Yes, it was late, because we were released with the amnesty of Ramiz, after he returned from his visit to the USA, that is, in the fall of 1990, and decided on the amnesty and the creation of private property cells, with herds and bees. We had come out of prison and the cousin was too late to complain…!
Let’s go back a bit to the investigation, when we were subjected to inhumane torture. They asked us more and more, who we were related to in Greece, who would be waiting for us, how the agent and hostile activity would continue, etc.
Can you tell us something, before your arrest?
– Before the arrest, the entire Border Battalion in Livadhja, which was lined up from the village of Shkalle, to Bufi i Butrint, and with the first contact of our escape, we would be riddled by the bullets of hundreds of border soldiers. We were horrified when we heard it, but we said that they did well to arrest us, that they saved us from the bullet…! I can say, that I know you will ask, why I was labeled as the leader of the group…
Why were you described as the leader of the group that would escape?
– Because I had an uncle who fled to Greece in 1948, Llazi Gërgura and the State Security, thought that he would wait for us and guide us. For the sake of the truth, I say that even in 1972, I was arrested for trying to escape, in the Neck of Map, but without a problem. This investigator was terrible. If Ramiz Alia had not issued amnesty, who knows how long we would have rotted in prisons…?!
And when were they released?
– When they released us… not all of us at once, even one of them, Timo Lapa, was sentenced to prison, they told us that the words they told us in the interrogator’s office are dangerous for the outside. “You have to thank the party and the leadership”… and careful freedom! Let’s go. We did not speak, despite being asked. The first time I express myself publicly. That’s it! Memorie.al
