“A deviation of the Party line was made in our Brigade, in the town of Sina, where the houses of the town were burned for no reason, just for revenge…”/ Report of the deputy commissioner, Manush Muftiu, August 1944

Memorie.al / “We took measures at once and in “retaliation” we burned the neighborhood and shot 15 people, whom we found in the houses or in the streets of the village. Of course, this was done only here, and for reasons of their infidelity and betrayal…! A mistake, or rather a deviation of the Party line, has been made for the first time in our Brigade, since we moved to the North, in the village of Sina, where the houses of the village were burned for no reason, just for revenge of the murdered comrades…”, Manush Muftiu wrote in his report, for the Central Committee of the Albanian Communist Party, in August 1944.

Manush Myftiu, who was deputy commissioner of the Fifth Assault Brigade, in the many reports he sent to the General Staff of the partisan National Liberation Army, commanded by Spiro Moisiu and Enver Hoxha, in the summer of 1944, where he among others, it witnessed a series of crimes committed by the communists, after the partisan brigades crossed Shkumbin and entered to defeat the entire North of Albania with weapons.

The report dated August 5, 1944, talks about the passage of this brigade to the districts of Mati and Dibra, where, apart from numerous executions, they had also burned entire villages, as a sign of revenge for supporting the forces of Legality.

During their March and incursion in Mat, Manush Muftiu singles out the shootings made by the partisan forces of that brigade, in the village of Kurdari. Regarding this event, among others in his report-information, he writes: “The people of Mat did not meet us with war, but in Gure, we tried with Zogist forces, commanded by Hafuz Hasa and Sal Llani, and in Oak, with gendarmes.

During an effort of almost two days, with German forces coming from Gryka to Lis, Kurdaria, especially the ‘Skënderaj’ neighborhood, hit us in the back, after you had warned us before, that if we fought with the Germans, they would hit us .We immediately took measures and for ‘retaliation’, we burned the neighborhood and shot 15 people, who we caught in the houses or on the streets of the village. Of course this was done only here, and because of their infidelity and treachery. Allamanai dog heads…”!

Further, in his report, Manush Muftiu also mentions a serious event that happened in Dibër, in the village of Sinë, where in revenge, because someone had shot at the partisans, they burned and looted the entire village.

Regarding this event, among other things, he writes: “…A mistake or rather a deviation of the Party line was made for the first time in our Brigade since we moved to the North in our town, where they were burned without no reason for the houses of the village just to avenge the killed comrades…”, explained in his report, the deputy commissioner of the 5th Assault Brigade, Manush Muftiu.

The burning of the village of Sinë was also witnessed by Kadri Hazbiu himself, during his trial in October 1982. His testimony to the investigator on October 26, 1982, has been revealed in full in the book of the researcher Kastriot Dervishi, “Kadri Hazbiu, crimes and his murder”, where Hazbiu is quoted as saying this in the investigator:

“Entering the village of Sina, a friend of ours was shot and killed from a house, and the deputy commander of the battalion was wounded. Under these circumstances, I have ordered to paralyze the person who was attacking us by setting fire to the hut. According to this order, the hut was set on fire and for this reason; the person who was inside came out and was killed by the partisans.

Other comrades of the battalion, seeing that this hut was burning, without any order, set fire to other houses in the village. For this matter, I was called by the brigade command and I gave the above explanations for the burning of the village. The action was called wrong and accidental, but no action was taken for me, because that same day, the 4th Brigade, burned the village of Fushë Alie, without any reason, after entering the village without a fight…”!

The persons responsible for the burning of Sina, mentioned by Kadri Hazbiu, were; Shefqet Peçi, Hysni Kapo, Hito Çako, Manush Muftiu, Et’hem Gjinushi, Delo Balili, etc. In the same book, about the burning of Sina, the researcher Kastriot Dervishi also singles out this description, taken from the testimony of Delo Balili:

“There was a real massacre in the village, people were killed, livestock, food, even loot and carpets were stolen, and under the pretext that Halil Alia had taken these in Vlora, a year ago”! Memorie.al