From Pëllumb Dedndreaj
Memorie.al / Immediately after the work began to open the files of the infamous State Security, I addressed this authority with a request to see how far the madness of the executioners had gone, as well as to learn about the status of my ancestors in relation to the situation of ongoing persecution and oppression for half a century. A few months later, I officially received the declassified file No. 2351 of my late grandfather, Bub Matosh Dedndreaj, from the Authority of the Files.
I had no doubt about the atrocities and tragedies that the dictatorship and the executioners of State Security brought upon the Albanian people with their gangs, but I developed a deep conviction that no matter how informed you are, no matter what tragedies and suffering you have endured, however many investigations, tortures, prisons, and internments you have faced, the infamous Security of the dictatorship was even worse than it is described and can be imagined.
When we thought we were liberated from foreign powers, we were mistaken, as the “red devils” were the new occupiers who would violate us, humiliate us, shoot us, imprison us, and intern us; they would completely sever us from civilization and Western values.
Once again, the USA and the great powers of Europe had left Albania alone, at the mercy of communism, just as they had left this Christian community buried for five centuries under the Ottoman Empire. “For twenty centuries, the Albanians have been the remaining descendants of the oldest Aryan race in Europe. By character, temperament, and their choices, they belong among the peoples of the West and not with their Slavic neighbors in the Balkans,” says Rose Wilder Lane.
The installation of the dictatorship was unacceptable in the mountainous regions, even when the rest of the country was already in the grips of the communist regime. The noble, brave, and courageous mountaineers had never negotiated or surrendered their freedom since they settled in these mountains. They fought with the greatest determination against anyone who sought to encroach upon their homeland, freedom, honor, and dignity.
They stood as stalwart as the mountains themselves, preserving everything Albanian throughout the ages. The imposition of the dictatorship, aided by the “devil’s” axis of Belgrade-Moscow, was fatal for the Albanians. They would either become obedient slaves or face consequences that were unimaginable, even in the worst nightmares of sick minds. To mention communism to the men of Nikaj-Mërtur would infuriate them just as it would anger a bull when faced with a red cloth.
They knew that the lives of those who loved freedom and civilization would turn into hell and inhumane torture, to the point that even their bones would rejoice when their souls departed from their bodies. The last to fall under the claws of the dictatorship was Nikaj-Mërturi. A people that measured their pride by the heights of their mountains, from where the Albanians derived their blessed name, which is why the whole world knows us as Albania.
A people that has entered the minds and hearts of numerous scholars from Europe and America. Edith Durham, after seeing them up close and conversing with them, learning about their customs and traditions, wrote in her book ‘Upper Albania or Gegnia’: “Nikaj-Mërturi, what a people they would have been, had they had a government to support them.” It was not destined to happen this way!
A cruel government was quickly tightening the knots of the rope that would be placed around the necks of the Albanians. In Tirana, tyranny had taken root, a monstrous sect that advanced daily, trampling over the innocent blood of those Albanians who would not surrender their freedom. Everything that the Albanians had struggled to preserve from the painful centuries of captivity was rapidly unraveling.
The men and women of this region resisted as best they could, as they knew how, but evil knocked on their door. What the Turks had not done for five hundred years, their own Albanian brothers who had sold their souls to the devil and turned into barbarians were now doing.
The circle of those who did not submit was increasingly tightening, as the tyrant of Tirana had begun deploying numerous armed forces to subdue this region. How could Nikaj-Mërturi be subdued, having never surrendered before?! Surely, it could only be through the rain of bullets from the “Kalashnikovs” upon the men of this area. The killings had begun…!
Shpend Sadiku, one of the best men not only of Nikaj-Mërturi but also among the mountains of Malësia, was killed by the forces of the ‘Pursuit Units’. On the day when the people of Nikaj-Mërtur and all of humanity were asking St. Michael for help, the regime’s executioners shot Fet Sadiku and Ukë Çuni before the eyes of the people. This was clear proof that even St. Michael was powerless in the battle against the “devil of Tirana,” and even God himself was powerless against the “devil” who sought the blood of the people of Nikaj-Mërtur.
They could not accept becoming corpses of the regime, lying on the hills from the gunfire, as they had preserved the code of honor, of death, and of family like crystal throughout the centuries. In every gathering, all the men were called, and it was expected that someone would be executed. It happened that when the name of someone was called, four brothers would rise at once: “I am,” “No, I am,” one would reply, “It’s me, shoot me,” the other brother would say.
A region with pure blood, with two clans that have never known marriage within their own kin, even though countless generations have passed, and despite having spread across Albanian territories. Thus, seeing the situation, many men were determined to never reconcile with the evil, with the inhumane dictatorship that was being established.
They had no other way to escape the tortures and bullets of the “red devils” but to leave the country with broken hearts, holding on to a faint hope that Europe would not allow this bloodthirsty regime to remain within its borders for long. Such circumstances offered little choice; death was a constant threat since the suffering of torture was the preferred method of the executioners. “Death is sometimes a golden lid,” the mountaineers would say.
They organized themselves, joined forces with the men of Dukagjin, and took the path of escape. It was a large group that walked forward, looking back with eyes filled with pain at the homeland they were leaving behind. They were departing only with their bodies, forever leaving their hearts and souls on Albanian soil. They left behind a small place whose history had been merciless, unlike any other people on earth.
It was a great lament for the mountains and the highlands. Those who had never taken a step back would today abandon their homeland. The hour of misfortune had arrived! Tirana and the tyrant were alarmed! The tyrant felt insulted and powerless to enslave, torture, and execute the mountain chieftains and began the inquisition. The escape of thirty-three men and women, and of thousands of others, was a clear sign that freedom in these parts had a different price, that madness had taken hold.
Their escape was an alarm bell, signaling Europe about what was happening to the Albanians at the hands of the communists, just like the ‘Promemoria’ of Dom Shtjefën Kurti, Dom Gjon Bisaku, and Dom Luigj Gashi, addressed to the League of Nations in Geneva regarding the apartheid against Albanians under Yugoslavia.
As in all cases, Europe closed its eyes and left the Albanians alone to their misfortune. Just as File 2351, ‘Bub Matosh Dedndreaj’ begins, so does the terror against the families of the fugitives, directed at the entire familial, social, and friendly circle. They were systematically surveilled one by one as enemies by the State Security and its instruments.
Their property in the mountains of the north was inventoried and then confiscated, resulting in terror reaching new heights, taking everything, including the food supply of the people and livestock. The remaining family members were interned and treated barbarically, viewed as enemies. Dictatorships are born, grow, and thrive only on blood.
According to the documents of this file, the organs of the Party and the State Security would unleash all their fury in the Nikaj-Mërtur region, which would pay the highest price to set an example for those who did not agree with the communist regime in power. In the autumn of 1948, a sinister Report was compiled!
The report is signed by the Chief of Section P. of the Interior, Captain II, Hasan Haxhija.
Report
“On the armed bands in the Tropoja district, regarding the criminal activities they carried out during August ’48, we are informing you as follows:
Captain Hasan Haxhija presents the situation everywhere in Tropoja without any issues, except in the Nikaj-Mërtur region in this report. Haxhija states that the Party’s efforts have gone well and that the reactionary elements have not been able to benefit from his slogans to disturb the masses, as the masses have been informed by the comrades of the Party. The opposing elements have been denounced and have not been able to create obstacles except in the Nikaj-Mërtur region, where it is filled with bands.
It continues:
a) Regarding the criminal activities carried out by the armed bands in Nikaj-Mërtur:
The criminal Mark Tunxhi, on August 28, 1948, in the house of Talush Pali from Shëngjergji, in the ‘Markaj’ neighborhood, killed two police officers and seriously wounded a non-commissioned officer of the People’s Defense, together with Talush Pali, and they escaped and joined the criminal Nik Sokoli.
During this month in the Nikaj-Mërtur region, six criminals have escaped, and we will list their names: Bub Matoshi, Pal Ceka, Mirash Uka, Gjon Bala, Marash Tushi, Zef Delia from Selca.
b) Regarding the political effects of these bands in the region:
In Nikaj-Mërtur, the political effects of these bands have been favorable for them. In this region, the criminals have managed to be favored and remain permanently. The opposing element is prepared and awaits the change in the situation day by day, and they do not care whether there is a government.
As for the measures taken in general in this region, the Party Committee has sent the best comrades to clarify the people’s measures, but in this region, not a single effect has been made: the reasons being that the people do not participate in conferences. It has reached the point where even the Party members from that region have been shaken by the tremors of the reaction.
– “For all that has been observed in this region, we have informed the comrades in power, to give the utmost importance to this area, but so far, there has been no political effect at all. In that region, the plans of the government are no longer implemented.
We believe that:
In the Nikaj-Mërtur region, an operational force should come and be allowed to conduct a strict operation to eliminate all the suspicious elements of that area and to dismantle the centers of the criminal bands in this region.
Apart from this thought, we have no other opinions, as this region cannot be subjected otherwise.
Signature and seal
Thus, Captain Hasan Haxhija was requesting a firing squad for the Nikaj-Mërtur region. He sought executioners of the type of Xhemal Selimi, who, after shooting completely innocent people, still before they took their last breath, while the echoes of the gunfire were still resonating, would crack walnuts on the automatic rifle butt and eat them while grinning, watching the blood flow towards the ground.
After reading this highly secret report, several questions arise.
– Had the Gjakova Highlands submitted and reconciled with Enver Hoxha’s communist dictatorship, apart from the Nikaj-Mërtur region? Only a devilish mind could think it was so.
– Why does Captain Haxhija seek to spill the blood of the Nikaj-Mërturs, in the name of the dictatorship and label them as collaborators of the Yugoslavs, when his party and the tyranny were founded and ideated precisely by the Yugoslavs?
– Were Miladini and Dushani the founders of the Albanian Communist Party? Of course, yes!
– Because they were Christians, their blood did not matter and had to flow freely?
– Did he seek to build his career and gain the sympathy of the party by massacring the men of a region that had preserved its identity against all kinds of repression, traps, and blockades from the Ottomans and had not become the rabble of Haxhi, like Hasan Haxhija?
– Was it Captain Hasan Haxhija who sought to blame the Nikaj-Mërturs, before Enver, like Rexhep Agai of Hyacinthe Hecquard, who gathered a large quantity of human parts, salted them, filled the bags, and set out for Stamoll to blame the Kelmendas before the Sultan?
– Did Captain Hasan Haxhija know that for hundreds of years they had fought together as brothers against every invader of Albanian lands?
– Did Hasan Haxhija know that the region of Nikaj-Mërtur had faced dual assaults, both from the Ottomans and from the Haxhis they had created, exchanging heads but not bodies, where until recently we shared everything equally: culture, customs, traditions, and faith in God, and today all this fury is being unleashed?
The monstrous crimes of the dictatorship recognized no boundaries. What horrific examples could I give you from my own family, as well as from other families in the Highlands, if the pain from such memories did not silence my mouth? I grew up hearing the name of this executioner, as well as many others. I have felt the terror, the pain, the scorn, and the suffering on my own skin.
Nikaj-Mërturi, my family, and many Albanian families paid an extremely high price. However, considering this report, as well as other documents from officials of the former State Security and the distorted spies, things could have gone much worse. All the documents that the former State Security deposited regarding my family members, in a battle spanning half a century both inside and outside of Albania, make me feel proud and dignified.
It was a very difficult and painful battle but one with a clear conscience, as crystal clear as the sunlight. The dictatorship destroyed everything good that we had preserved with so much effort from five centuries of occupation and sowed the seeds of hatred that have taken root everywhere on the tumultuous land of eagles, which has forever divided this people, perhaps making it so they will never unite again…! Memorie.al
