By Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al / It was the morning of August 11, 1967, when hundreds of vacationers who were along the coast at Durrës beach, mainly in the “Iliria” and “Hekurudha” areas, were surprised and could not believe their eyes, when in front of them on the shore of the sea, they saw the Prime Minister of Albania, Mehmet Shehu, together with his wife, Fiqreti, doing their usual rounds, like all the other citizens who frequented that beach. Many of the beachgoers who were there that August day insisted that; he could not be the prime minister, but some of his sozi, or a coincidence, none of the old Durrsaks who frequented that beach since the end of the War in 1945, could remember that any of the senior leadership passed there, even more so, the prime minister of the country, Mehmet Shehu, without even having an accompanying group with him. But those guesses crumbled instantly, as Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu and his wife stopped from time to time during their tour and talked with different people, even inviting them; “to return your visit”! So, that they could visit the “Block” beach of the government villas without any problem, since according to them, there was no longer a wire fence there, nor were there guards, because; “leadership was guarded by the people themselves”!
The news that Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu and his wife, Fiqreti, had toured the seashore, even without an accompanying group, took hold and for days, it became the topic of conversation among beachgoers from Durrës and those who came from Tirana, with guesswork and various explanations…?! But none of them dared, or even tried to take the road, to approach the wall and wire fence that separated the public beach from the beach area inside the “Block” of government villas, which stretched from the end of the area “Illyria”, to the surrounding wall of the Convalescence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to Plepat in Durrës. It was never found out and never learned why that sudden “appearance” of the prime minister, walking around the seashore, happened, something that never happened again, never alone…?! The truth of that unexpected “visit” of Prime Minister Shehu and his wife, remained a mystery to be learned in September 1983, when in the premises of Prison 313 in Tirana, the trial against the so-called; “The hostile group of Kadri Hazbiu”, where among a large group of witnesses who were called to testify in that trial, there was also the former commander of the Republic Guard, Feti Smokthina, who in his depositions, in the confrontation with the former minister, Kadri Hazbiut, now a defendant, told in detail about the event of August 11, 1967, about the “visit” of Mehmet Shehu, outside the territory of the Block of Government Villas, and the big fight he had with former Prime Minister Shehu , as well as with the minister, Hazbiu.
For more on this, etc. we know the document in question, which is part of a voluminous file (extracted from the archive of the Authority for the Information of Documents of the former State Security), which is published for the first time together with the relevant facsimiles, by Memorie.al
THE DOCUMENT WITH THE MINUTES OF THE COURT SESSION IN CHARGE OF KADRI HAZBI, WHERE THE WITNESS, FETI SMOKTHINA, FORMER COMMANDER OF THE REPUBLIC GUARD, WITH THE RANK OF COLONEL, TESTIFIED
Speaker, Aranit Çela: We move on to the administration of evidence, related to these accusations. Call the witness, Feti Smokthina. Fet, last name?
Feti Smokthina: Feti Hazbi Smokthina.
Speaker: Father’s name?
Fetiu: Hazbi.
Speaker: Mother’s name?
Fetiu: Fato.
Speaker: What is your birthday?
Fetiu: 1920.
Chairman: Are you a Party member?
Fetiu: Yes, members of PPSh.
Chairman: Have you ever been convicted?
Fetiu: No. From fascism, yes, from the fascist court in Elbasan, I was sentenced to death.
Chairman: You were sentenced to death by the fascist court. We have called you as a witness, regarding the case that is being examined, being judged here, and that belongs to the defendants; Feçor Shehu, Kadri Hazbiu, Llambi Peçini, Gani Kodra, Ali Çeno, Mihallaq Ziçishti and Xhavit Ismailaga. Do you know these people? Gani knows Kodra, but does Ali Çenon know him?
Fetiu: I know them all.
Chairman: Are you related to them?
Fetiu: I don’t have any tribe.
Chairman: What about any conflict, or any enmity, or anything?
Fetiu: Nothing, on the contrary, I had respect for Kadri Hazbiu as Minister of the Interior and as a member of the Political Bureau. I had a dispute with Llambi Pečini on work issues, which the party clarified.
Chairman: The court has called you to testify and tell the truth, regarding facts that you know, of course. Any false statements, you understand, are criminally liable, based on Article 202 of the Criminal Code. You are clear about this. We specifically called you for two problems. What do you know about the problem of Kadri Hazbi at the Tirana Conference? I am always relying on the testimony you gave to the investigator, so I ask the concrete question, and the second one, related to the problem that arose, about the removal of the guards in the leadership block in Durrës. You will testify to us about these two things.
Fetiu: I was at the Tirana Party Conference as a delegate of the United School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Kadri Hazbiu was there as a member of the Central Committee, he was sitting next to them, I was above, as it was, in the cinema of the variety show, and we thought, as in all the conferences there, we were not told anything, we were not no signal was given, as the work at the Conference was developed, as it turned out later. I had Kopi Niko and Asaf Kondi next to me, talking, when one of the youth, he was the secretary of the youth at that time, he talked about Mehmet Shehu in the combine, he also knew about the dresses and clothes of the leadership’s families, and as far as I know, he criticized him, not for cars, not for both. Everyone applauded, I didn’t applaud, not that I knew anything like that, but I was sorry, that is, I had been there in the service of the leadership, and I knew, and what the leadership was doing, comparisons with the people and how they were treated in that time it was.
Kopi Nikua was there next to me and that Asaf, even Asaf was behind and they kicked me from behind, I was a bit revolted, you understand, because we had a bit of nerves like that, I wasn’t that wise, i.e. th., in some such directions, they told me; why are you applauding, they said, or do you take it there in Block, because some functionaries were taking it and I had a car there, which came from the School. I say this to Kadri Hazbi, when we were outside, this is how I told him and I think I told him that many questions were asked in this direction, was it the second day or the third, I don’t remember. Comrade Enver, you haven’t come yet. He told me; tell Zoi Foundation this one, and he ordered me; be careful not to do anything wrong here, and he said where are you sitting, I said sit on top of me, come and sit here on top, he said, – plus she said, – we have democracy here, he said, because I told him, many questions yes become a fellow minister and us, what should the rest of us say, you should also speak to me, I told you, or one of the comrades of the leadership, who knows these issues, – said the Party’s representative here – sent Beqir Balluk, said, that he was delegated then, and there is no need for others, – he said there is democracy here – he also said in the Party – he said, it is spoken according to the statute, this is what he told me, well, I left like that.
On the second day in the afternoon, how it happened, I was traveling with two or three friends, from the Conference to go home, well, I was greeted by someone there, it was a secretary of the organization, I don’t know his name, what’s your name, later he interned in Tepelena, and you tell me; will you tell me the story of how you beat him there, that I had caused a scandal in the “Dajti” Hotel, I had shot someone with my palm, I told him, what do you want with this story, he stitched me up, one of those the other friends who were with me, he said; don’t deal with these, they told him, and when we parted there, he invited me again, until Sahat, I told him in a harsh tone; you run away and he runs away. The next day, Feçor Shehu spoke about the vigilance, there we went on a break and Mehmet Shehu was behind him and Kadri Hazbiu, but I didn’t know, I didn’t see neither Mehmet Shehu nor Kadri Hazbiu, chatting there, he was there Thanas Gaba and some other friends of ours, we didn’t like this thing, it seemed like a bad thing to us, without them saying anything, I was chatting with Spiro Panon and I said; Why do you, Comrade Spiro, speak on behalf of the Party organization, we speak as delegates here, that they spoke a lot there, that the Party, the organization, ordered me like this, like this, Mehmet Shehu did not feel this, – he said, do you understand that you lack vigilance, yours and yours, he told him.
I was impressed that during the Tirana Conference, not dynamic, as always, and that he was ordering such things from us here, from the Ministry, Kadri Hazbiu sat, so to speak, neither meat nor fish, one thing like that, sometimes like that, sometimes like that, until Comrade Enver came. Then Comrade Enver came, he was interested and called some of us and assigned us tasks, related to those elements, because the Commander met someone there, with Iliaz Ahmet. Feçor Shehu told me that the former Director of Tirana at that time, you will have to take care of Ibrahim Xverkun, he fainted after half an hour, without finishing. We waited for them not to tell us anything about the Conference, and I don’t know what happened, nothing at all, if the conclusions were given there. After a few days, I came to the Deputy Minister, then it was Mihallaq Ziçishti, I asked for some material, some example, as the commander of the School, which I was, he told me we don’t have these things, the Party should give them. That’s all I know, regarding the Tirana Conference.
Chairman: The second issue, that of removing the guards in the Block.
Fetiu: I was commander of the Guard and deputy director of the Second Directorate and the guards were removed from the Block, on August 11, 1967, I was on duty in Skrapar, I returned to dinner there, when the Chief of Training who was there told me, a Lili Kulari that the guards have been removed – he says. Who are they removed from? From the Prime Minister, I told him that the Prime Minister is the Prime Minister, he can order between the Minister of Internal Affairs, and all the guards had been removed, with the exception of only one guard that he himself had removed from the country, he had leave there at the entrance gate, like here, for example, of friend Enver, only him. Even Mehmet Shehu and Fiqrete Shehu, as the officers told me, had gone there, that group of his, as far as “Illyria” and they had told the people to go further and further, from Block there, to The House of Officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, even further still.
I, as commander of the Guard, gave him the order that this was my competence and I definitely had to know about it, I don’t remember, at that time, the plan and scheme we had there, you had affirmed Niko Çeta, we had done it as Guard, was Llambi Peçini the director, was it Nikua, I don’t remember, but it seems to me that Nikua, but none of these, were in Pogradec, that the Commander was in Pogradec at that time. Alone at home, at 7:30 a.m., the next day in civilian clothes, even before 7:30 a.m., when Kadri Hazbiu was about to come to the office, he received me well, he took me out to his veranda, that I met him there, he ordered coffee and he also gave me a cigarette, I smoked the cigarette there, and I reported to him about the services I had been there, including the guards, – he told me; my friends told me. I said to my fellow minister, since you are a minister and the prime minister has removed his guards, I have come to tell you that you should come there yourself, because you know that in December, he took me down and will not to look at me, because he really didn’t love me and he knows this himself, if he wants to say it. He dropped me off the car in December at Qafë o Llogora, because I don’t even know why. Jo said – he got hot once like that and did that hair once, like that up, and said; you are the Commander of the Guard and you wear and tell them. Well, you said you want it, you keep it – he said and did it to me and so with his hand, you said, yes duty is duty.
I’ll wear you there – he said – tell him, – but not with the vulgarity you speak, but a bit of wisdom, – he said – that he’s a bit sick from nerves – said friend Mehmet – plus, you’ll tell him – and for that trip to Mallakastër. I did not know that he would come to Mallakastër then. I will come to Mallakastër, he said – he asked for a motorbike, he asked for a car, he said, from the ones that the headquarters usually have, he wants a lot of soldiers, for this he said, say it wisely, okay? I ran away and went there, I asked for a meeting through Gilo Lame, he didn’t accept me the first time, and he didn’t even know where I was active. I said to Gilo, when he came there, tell him that I am the commander of the Guard and I came mainly for the guards that he removed, the guards that we had already decided at dinner, in fact, except for those guards that we had in civilian clothes, a two guards entering, he had a house over there. The second time, Mehmet Shehu accepted me inside, dressed in his bathing suit, with a church and a cup of milk in front of him.
I told him, Comrade Prime Minister, I am so-and-so and I present myself to you according to military regulations, for two problems, one that I had here and the other that I knew Kadri Hazbiu charged me with here. Kadri Hazbiu told me, don’t tell him that I told you, about this Mallakastra problem, that it was a job for people, for some cars, how do I know, what and I didn’t tell him as he told me this. The guards – he said – don’t need to be here, it’s not his talk and he stood up. I told him I am the commander of the Guard. That you will be removed bashibozuk – he said, you don’t know how to honor or respect, that’s why I shouldn’t look at them within 12 hours, you have locked us up – he said – foreign radios are talking. To tell the truth, I had sweated a drop, because with that pressure they talked like that, and he didn’t let me say anything. And I told him, we will not do as the foreign radios say, we will do as the Party says, as you say, – I said, as the Commander-in-Chief says. He ran, he stood up, and I told him not to put his hand in there, and I told him, Comrade Prime Minister, when you appointed the head of the 6th Branch, you told me that; you hang with the whole family, if anything happens, even to a candidate of the Central Committee, – I said, that’s why I’m carrying out the order.
He withdrew. I don’t want 12 hours as you said, but 6 hours if you want, and we remove the guards. Then he got cold and said; why 6 hours, I told him 6 hours, for reasons of his own to the Commander-in-Chief, I told him, that’s why the guards are here in the first place, – I said, and we have a scheme here. Enver Hoxha said, it’s in Pogradec, if you want it there (comrade Enver didn’t say it either), take a division – he said. When you become fecal, (and when I say fecal, in that language, i.e., it is understood here), prime minister and members of the Political Bureau, then, let’s keep a whole regiment here – he said, in Durrës. Peel off – he told me. As you order, this is what I wanted, to run away. When I went to the door, turned around, – he said the second one, what did you have, I said this second one, it doesn’t matter, I say this as a party member, I heard this, so, so, you will come to Mallakastër , since you are a country boy there, I told him, we don’t have much strength to make a platoon, one car we have, I said, and you will sleep at your uncle’s.
I didn’t know this, but Kadri Hazbiu had told me, he said – when you wear it in Smokthina, take what you want, – he said, I want balls and you will provide all the measures, – he said, make your brains – tell whomever you want this – he said. As you order, I ran away from there, I ran away, I was a kid to tell the truth, I didn’t even know how I was, those attendants who were there told me to drink a coffee, I remembered that I wouldn’t drink coffee there, don’t they said to go to his kitchen, and I told him; no, I don’t want coffee, Gilua took me with a Dilaver Toska that was there, which Mehmet Shehu used for the conversations that the officers had here and there, I knew that and he said, until that club that was there, the establishment they told us, until that time, when we had not started the coffee, the operator comes and tells me; the minister loves you.
I always had that fear of the prime minister, you understand, I said – but now I’m out, boy, – I told him, – no, he said, the minister from Tirana wants you. Come there, Kadri Hazbiu speaks to me, with that style he had, pseudo masov, he asked me – come? I told him, – I went, as you ordered, did you go lightning at all, – he told me, because at that time, as soon as I left the house, I went there, as you ordered, he was sorry, – he said that you had told him that too the last one, – he said, yes, however, I – he said, I agree with the way you acted there, you placed the guards. As you order, – I told him, they have been installed since last night, and I am wearing two civilian clothes, I told him, because we have no other clothes. I don’t remember, he said, am I going to call Hajron, did I call Hajron, I don’t remember this exactly, to make 12 pairs of civilian clothes, and to wear some civilian clothes, on our side, on his side .
Even when I came here, I reported everything to you; I told you what I say before the trial, all one by one, like this. That’s how it is – he said, you know he said – but he has nothing in his heart, he told me, and this story was closed. In that trial, I was the secretary of the organization, and I was invited, when I listen to what Kadri Hazbiu said in the Political Bureau, that he was sorry, and I don’t know what, but he didn’t say that he asked Comrade Enver a question, and said you understand that the guards passed, right, this immediately changed this, also for this, I was forced to say these, so. The truth is this is original.
Speaker: Kadri Hazbiu, do you have any questions?
Kadri Hazbiu: I have.
Chairman: Come on.
Kadri Hazbiu: I generally agree with what Fetiu says. What I wanted to ask before, pertains to the issue of the Tirana Conference, if you remember this well, that my position has been from the beginning, you understand, that I told the delegates; stand up and speak against, and this is also confirmed by others, in terms of criticism, I may have said what they said, that they said and for me they, as they said for others, that they will speak. Yes, in terms of questions and attitude, I may not have told Feti to many, I trust his character and his conscience, but many to whom I have told, stand up and oppose these.
Fetiu: He didn’t tell me anything at all, on the contrary, he told me what I said, even the lie.
Kadriu: I have regarding the matter of the guards. He remembers well that I only told him to go, or did I tell him to go and place the guards according to the scheme, then go to Mehmet Shehu…?!
Fetiu: I went and reported to him in the morning and he waited for me at his house, there at that. He didn’t tell me that, he told me we have a scheme, yes and I told Mehmet Shehu, I told him and here you understand, yes, he didn’t tell me to go straight, and he said tell about the guards, we put them in tomorrow, let him remove them today he, so literally…!
Chairman: You can leave.
Fetiu: Thank you. Memorie.al
