By Skënder Tufa
Part Four
Memorie.al / After the amnesty of 1982 and after the murder of Rexhep Geci, the situation worsened further in Spaç prison, where the police began to tighten internal regime measures with schedules, food lines and the extension of the waiting time on the terrace for appeal. At the end of January 1983, we were informed that part of Spaç prison wold be transferred. A new prison had been opened near the Munelle mountain in Puka, called Qafë-Bari, and laborers were needed for exploitation. Strong and problematic workers were included in the list that would be sent to the Puka mine. The transfer of about 200 prisoners was a great hardship for them, as they had to deliver blankets, sheets, mattresses and dishes, such as; bowl, spoon and gourd, you had to take your personal belongings from the warehouses and get them ready for inspection.
On May 22, 1984, an event of historical importance took place there (the Qafë-Barit Revolt), which I think should be accompanied by the direct testimonies of the participants in it, to bring it as complete and closer to reality as possible. By collecting the pieces of facts expressed by the protagonists, a more complete vision can be created, which would resemble the restoration of a mosaic.
Continued from the previous issue
NUREDIN SKRAPARI
In 1983, they took us to the Qafës e Barit camp, there were about 500 political prisoners aged 30-40. With our arrival, the work efficiency increased a lot. Most of us had served 8-10 years in prison. I had served over 10 years in prison. When they saw that we were working hard, they started a tightening, which they also declared verbally. For any prisoner who did not make the 4-car norm, he would return from the gallery to the canteen, eat lunch or dinner, as if shooting, and go back to work, with the next shift.
They started to make this a rule. This caught everyone’s attention and people thought about how to stop it, since it was impossible for them to work, after they had finished their shift, since they were tired and unable. And it seems that among them they had thought, it was exactly 11 years since the Spaç revolt, 21-23 May 1973. The main interpreters of this event, Sokol Sokoli and Tom Ndoja, had done the math well. I happened to be at the door, when the first shift brigade was going to work.
Two policemen were forcibly taking a prisoner to work who had not made the missing wagon. Sokoli and Toma, both of whom I knew, with whom I had pushed the wagons, once with one and once with the other, attacked and kidnapped the boy from the policemen, who they took inside the camp and told him to go to jail. The regulation said; if they do not fulfill the norm, the command punishes them first with a warning, then with three days, seven days, and then a month in jail, this regulation was signed by the minister.
They told the police; put him in the dungeon, so they demanded justice, while the police, who had increased their numbers, attacked to restore “honor” to the place. They tried to take that boy back. I happened to be there too. We became a block, thirty or forty prisoners, and we did not let the police take that boy, Nduën, so there were many of us. Then many policemen came with batons in their hands and asked us to go into the canteen. They called Tom Nduën, who after a little hesitation, his friends let him go, telling him to get out.
When Toma came out, I saw him with my own eyes (because I was sitting near the door), some policemen threw him on his back and tied him with German irons, the strongest ones that would squeeze your hand until they broke your wrists. This scene was also seen by his friends, who rushed outside and took him from the policemen’s hands and untied him, the policemen all ran outside and we left the canteen and went up to a square up there. In fact, the event did not happen as quickly as I am describing, but I am telling you its main episodes.
We hear a roar above us, it was a helicopter that, how can I say, looked like a giant, big black raven. With it came the Deputy Minister of the Interior, the Chief of State Security, Zylzftar Ramizi, who rode on a terrace and, meanwhile, the prison was surrounded by soldiers and reinforcements, a soldier did not hold his nerve or was ordered to shoot, the bullet hit Kostandin Gjordeni, I was almost 2 meters away. It damaged his arm and he cried out. Someone said; – “Brothers, they are killing us, let’s go to the rooms”. Meanwhile, Llazi Koçi, a member of the group, shouted; – “down with communism”.
All the prisoners, whether under command or self-command, simultaneously stamped their feet on the ground. The ground shook, it seemed like an earthquake. That was the moment that identified us politically, even though we were seeking a right. Spaçi identified himself with the flag without the symbol of communism, the red star, we identified ourselves with this call.
– The following two pieces of information are shifted in time and fabricated, that is, an act. They really belong to the events of Qaf-Bar.
Secret
Copy No. 1
Shkodra, on 6.12.1984
EXCERPT
Extracted from the data of B.p. “Furtuna”, dated 2.11.1984
…Then Shtjefën Pjalmi tells the source: “A few days ago I sat with a Flag from Shkodra, who was a sailor and spent 19 years in prison in Spaç. He told me something very secret that only you are hearing from my mouth. The prisoners are organized in such a way that as soon as the Main Leader dies, or is killed, everyone will rise up in an uprising in all the prisons of Albania. They know themselves to be dead, so they will rise up. Flamur told me that this organization was done perfectly” …
“Furtuna”
EXTRACT
Extracted from the data of B.p. “Furtuna”, dated 12.11.1984
The source asks Shtjefën Pjalmi, because he told me about that Flag. Does he know anything about the organization of the prisoners? Shtjefni answers: “He has been in prison for several years, with great people. There, a government has been formed in prison, which will be established as soon as the Main Leader of the Party dies. Everything is ready. An explosion is expected upon death. The source tells him how it is possible for prisoners to connect with each other in different prisons? Shtjefni says: “It could be an outsider who moves and organizes this work” …
“The Storm”
My conclusion
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, through operational means, had gathered information that a cell had been created in the Qaf-Bar prison, which, perhaps with help from outside the prison, would make it possible to open a passageway to escape from the prison. This escape would have, at its peak, the removal of a possible political nucleus from the prison, which may have had its own plans and objectives (according to him).
In order to prevent and the destruction of this dangerous hearth for the P.P.SH, the revolt of May 22, 1984 was staged, the tragic fate of which is already known. The displacement in time and place and the staging of the event were done to disrupt its factual course, which proves that there was another detailed file:
- a) with reporters, collaborators who were 35 people.
- b) with the names and positions of the protagonists identified.
- c) with the analysis and conclusions of the situation.
- d) with the implementation plan for the destruction and punishment of this hearth.
I think that we are dealing with precisely those secret files, about which the persecuting deputy, Spartak Braho, states: – …”we will open some files, which Tufa (Agron) and Dervishi (Kastriot), will not be able to open”.
Eyewitness statement Shefqet Dobro, clarifies with his expressions:
– What were all these forces needed for?
– When were they notified and why?
– How did they come so quickly from Tirana?
– Apparently, it was no coincidence!
THE BEGINNING OF THE MASSACRE
The helicopter arriving from Tirana lands;
– Zylyftar Ramizin, director of State Security;
– Deputy Minister of Interior, Agron Tafa;
– Kasem Kaçin, director of the Eighth Directorate, at the Ministry of Interior;
– Lekë Ymerin, specialist at the Ministry of Interior, as well as several other persons who initially head to the prison command, of course, to be more informed about the situation created inside the Qaf-Bar prison. Then they come across the main gate, where the cars that took the mineral extracted from the underground by the convicted slaves also entered.
The square in front of this gate was filled with people dressed in various uniforms. Agron Tafa, with a megaphone in his hand, climbed into the barracks located near this gate, addressing the prisoners with these words: – “Look, convicts, look. The government is concerned about what has happened here, that is why we have been sent by it, to resolve this situation.
In the analysis also made with the command, we came to the conclusion that you are not the only ones to blame for what has happened, so send a representative, so that we can close this problem with an agreement, otherwise, we will be forced to use violence, you have five minutes”.
Sokol Sokol and Martin Leka, go to the door where the convicts were going out to meet with their families. They talked with Leke Ymeri and some others, when they returned, they were happy that they had taken the man’s word that no one would be touched with their hands. Sokoli met Fatmir’s gaze and said; – they promised us we wouldn’t get fat and lowered his head like that lion trapped in a cage, perhaps remembering his words on the field above; – don’t surrender because these people will make you bleed.
The order was given for everyone to enter the rooms. The courtyard was filled with Special Forces equipped with spacesuits, plastic shields, rubber batons, reinforced assault clothing, rich shorts and armed to the teeth. Lekë Ymeri, with a list in his hand, stood outside the fence, at the door where the two prisoners refused to go to work, and began to read the names”
DED MARTINI (DUSHI)
“Then they called Martin Sokol and Sokol Sokol, to make an agreement. There was an ideal brotherhood between us against the dictatorship, that unprecedented genocide. Sokol also agreed that we would surrender. They called the lists with the names to be arrested. I was the 6th to be arrested.
Then the torture began in the torture chamber. Another character should also be mentioned, who unfortunately was killed, but not because he had anything to do with the revolt, Sadri Sokol, he was a statesman, honorable. I don’t know why they killed him?! It had nothing to do with the revolt. They called him and killed him.
After 3-4 hours of barbarity, I fell unconscious several times. They put me in the car, and when we arrived in Fushë-Arrëz they threw me out of the car and I was unconscious, I only felt my head on the stones of the yard that were dragging me. They knew I was going to die, because they thought they had strangled me. And so, we ended up in the Fushë-Arrëz prison, and they tortured me there too.
And the investigation process began. 12 people were convicted, 12 others remained unconvinced. My whole body was covered in wounds, my eyes were closed from the violence. They told me; Tell me what you did, you stabbed the commissioner, and the accusation was; political organization for terrorist purposes, which I normally denied. From Dushi’s bag was taken the tobacco that was placed on Kosta’s wound. That day his mother had come to meet him. She neither met him nor saw her son who was cruelly tortured”.
BAJRAM VUTHI
– “In the end we were forced to surrender. The humiliation they did to us, I can’t explain, they animalistically, they disguised us! How did we get out alive, only he up there knows?! They tortured us and cursed us in the investigator. The questions were more about Toma and Sokol, because that was their goal. – “Who organized it”? – “What was your goal”? The shooting of those two boys, who were the bravest, has remained a hostage in my heart for the rest of my life”. Memorie.al
