Memorie.al / One of the incidents that alarmed the communist regime in Albania was the event of July 2, 1984, when five Albanian citizens managed to escape across Lake Shkodra to Montenegro, then part of Yugoslavia, and subsequently appeared and spoke on Belgrade television. Their escape at the time was a double vexation for the communist regime. Nasi Pavllo, one of the five young men who escaped on July 2, 1984, from Lake Shkodra, recounted details of the dangerous adventure and the gamble with certain death during an interview. Pavllo emphasizes that the terror was immense, as they would not arrest you in the water, but kill you. He recounts the preparations for this escape, which challenged the communist regime and the communist propaganda about border security.
The five young men swam 11 kilometers to cross into Yugoslavia, wandering for 10 hours among the waves. Pavllo emphasized that the Yugoslavs did not believe they had covered such a long distance by swimming. Below, he recounts the first contacts with the Serbs, the reception, the meetings, and the appearance on Belgrade television.
Mr. Pavllo, when did you escape, and were you afraid that the border soldiers might kill you?
We escaped on July 2, 1984. We arrived on the 3rd in Yugoslavia, on the other side of Lake Shkodra. There were five of us. We were two brothers from Tirana and a friend of ours – three from Tirana – and two brothers from Shkodra, Myrteza and Vehbi Arifi. All those dangers existed, like arrest, killing, etc. Furthermore, we knew that Iliri and Dalip Kërluku, as soon as they got out of prison, were under surveillance. It was well known that the Albanian army, the border police, the border army, would not arrest you if you were in the water, but would come to directly annihilate you.
We spent the day at the beach with the other Shkodra residents. In the evening, according to the plan of the two brothers from Shkodra, who knew the escape plan better, we went to change our clothes, waited until it got dark, and slowly began to move, on our bellies, always in the water, because we were in the water. The plan was that you always had to train, to swim, so that your arms wouldn’t give out halfway, to regulate your breathing, etc.
The second thing, which was the most important, was not to confuse the Albanian light with the Yugoslav light, so that you wouldn’t swim all night and end up on Albanian soil. Therefore, we went three times in a row. Every two or three weeks, we would stay there until it got dark, until 10:00-10:30 PM, so that our eyes would get used to the light of the Yugoslav port. It was a small port in an Albanian village.
– About how many kilometers was it?
The Yugoslavs were a bit skeptical at first, asking how it was possible that we had swum so far. At one point, they were pressing us with words, saying the Sigurimi (State Security) had dropped us off up to a certain point with a boat and we had jumped later. We laughed and told them that they didn’t know Albania at all. You don’t know the Albanian youth at all. Maybe they were provocations. But they were thinking it over. By showing them the spot on the sandy shore where we started, it seemed they knew it very well. They brought their army people, and they measured it, saying it was 11 and a quarter kilometers. According to them.
– How long did it last?
I, personally, entered the water at 9:15 PM; we all entered. Since Iliri, being Iliri, had no discipline, he didn’t train with us in Lake Tirana and was the most unprepared. I was his brother, and I couldn’t leave him. The boys continued swimming. When you go there, you have put your life in the balance; you cannot ask someone else. We had agreed that on this date we will escape, we will train with discipline, and we will follow the same rule. Otherwise, we will all end up in prison. But Iliri is brave, has a strong heart, and with my help, both of us made it out. Even though there was an extraordinary storm that night. The storm separated us.
– Were there waves?
There were many waves. The waves might have been 3-4 meters high, and they made the chain go 7-8 meters further out. So, when a wave went away, only then could you see where your friends were.
– Was the border not guarded by lights?
The border was guarded by lights until the storm started. But they controlled a lot in Shirokë. They controlled that four-kilometer stretch, while we were almost 8-9 kilometers away. They never thought that, as no one had ever escaped by swimming in that area. They had attempted it with boats, but not by swimming. After controlling there, they aimed directly for the border line. When the light came, we would dive, and when it went away, we would come out. They would direct it all the way to Shkodra, and when it returned, we would dive again. So, it was not possible for them to see that small wave made by the diving of a human head.
When the moon went away and the large raindrops and wind started, they closed the searchlight control for the whole night. They closed it around 9:30 or 10:45 PM. This might have lasted for about two hours, because I remember that it happened three times; they put on the light. According to them, it was every half hour, up to 35 minutes. If you calculate it, it comes out to about two hours from the time we set off. The sun came out when I reached the island. There I saw those two brothers from Shkodra.
– How many hours did it last?
For me, it lasted 9 and half hours without stopping, because I was also pushing Iliri, who then came ashore. He hadn’t made up his mind to go to the island and had gone ashore. There were two small uninhabited islands. I and these two Shkodra men stayed there, while they went there. As soon as Iliri came out – he also came out in the morning – he met a villager there. He spoke to him in Yugoslav.
But the man said to him: “I speak Albanian.” “Where is that cooperative center,” Iliri had asked him. The man was stunned and said, “What cooperative center?” There, Iliri realized that he was in Yugoslavia and said good day and left. Iliri went and knocked on a door that had a Yugoslav name; it was not an Albanian name.
– Was he afraid they might send him back?
The investigation they conducted in the Kotor prison was fantastic. They removed all the prisoners… because the prison was free, it was a three-story building, it was like a small camp, and you had nowhere to escape. They locked everyone in the downstairs cells and left only the five of us. At 6 or 7 o’clock, they took me for questioning. The first thing the prison director told me, because we saw him every day, was: “We have received information that you, Nasi, are a Sigurimi officer.” I got angry!
I lashed out at him: “That’s why Enver Hoxha enjoys mocking you, sending you around in circles, because you have no idea what the Albanian youth is like, especially with our family! For you to call me a Sigurimi officer?! Iliri was in prison for 10 years, as soon as he got out, it had been a year and a half, and with all the pressures we’ve had… my father, a surgeon, was arrested on idiotic charges, and held for 7 months under investigation, for performing circumcisions. He is a surgeon for that reason, for practicing his profession?! It has been proven by documents that he had not committed any violation of the law. Send your people,” I told them, “to ask at N.SH.R.A.K. (State Enterprise for Automobile Repair), if I was known as a Sigurimi spy, or someone else?”
When we gathered with each other, we discussed it. We didn’t understand if they were provoking us, or if they genuinely had no idea who we were?! To escape at 16 years old, plus prison…! Only I and the youngest brother from Shkodra had never been to prison. Since we had never been to prison, I thought, if they caught us, we would get 15-18 years in prison, while the others risked being shot. They wanted to send a report to Belgrade, because they expressed it once. They were convinced, with arrogance, to make sure if we were sent by the Sigurimi or not.
They reached their idea that this group meets the conditions to give a television interview, which later sealed the internment of our families. Iliri said: “Now that I have Enver Hoxha in my hands, I will fix him!” I was always curious because I knew about the censorship of the time regarding the broadcast. Later my child was born, and I had told her many things. One of the most interesting points for my daughter was when I told her how we escaped, why we were opponents of the youth, why we were that part of the youth who did not think as the government did.
– Did Iliri want to change his name because he had the dictator’s son’s name…?
Iliri had nothing against his own origin. He wanted to tell the Albanian people that… to give such an interview against a government, you must give an account of why I think this way. Iliri said: “With what I have endured, I would even change my name. Even my blood, if there are methods here, I will change it, because every Albanian needs a blood change.” What Iliri said is factual and true. “The misery in which Albania lives today,” Iliri said, “Europe’s history has never seen! I haven’t even had a car,” he said. “The only car I’ve had is the prison-bus car. It was a car that took us from one prison to another.” Iliri also said something I will never forget: “As for those congresses of his… that is, he spent 6 months before and 6 months after, propagating the congress as one of the biggest occurrences that this nation had.”
– Where did you aim to go?
We thought of going to Holland, Germany, or Sweden, one of these countries, whoever would take us. But since the police did not let the five of us stay together in the first month, Iliri and Dalip, my brother and his friend, got scared by the stories they had heard in prisons, took the train and left for Trieste, where it is half Yugoslav and half Italian, and then they escaped to Italy. So, thinking that I might end up alone somewhere in Europe, if I could leave, I wrote a letter and sent it there to Italy, where the camp for Albanians was in Rome, and finally we decided to meet each other, because it might be something more difficult, since according to the translators, these European states did not offer political asylum without arriving there.
So, I had to escape from Yugoslavia again, and we arrived in America. But God has made the plans for people, so I don’t regret anything at all. I would live my life the same way, always working; I have supported myself with my own money, I have never received aid from the government in America, because even in Albania, I have always been a hardworking and humble worker. I worked in the flour mills’ workshops.
– Was your father a doctor?
My father was a doctor. In small Tirana, he was better known. He was a very charismatic person, and his generation loved him very much, respected him. My father was interned in one of the villages of Elbasan. Until they were released, sometime around ’89-’90. When it became possible for me to come to Albania, I took my father and his wife, and we went to the village where they had been interned, to thank them for the support they had shown. The way they welcomed us, their enthusiasm, showed that they had gotten along very well with my father. In fact, his friends and some students who had been sent to that area helped my father a lot. So, he started volunteering; he received his pension, he had a good pension, he had been a partisan, he received a war pension and a doctor’s pension.
– Was your father a partisan?
He was a partisan in the First Brigade with Mehmet Shehu. He was one of the brave men of the First Brigade, not only.
– After the meeting, did he support your decision?
My father never said a word to us; what did you do, my son, ever! I thought you had drowned, because rumors had spread that they had drowned, but I was hoping not, since Çako had been the doctor for “Dinamo,” he knew about those maneuvers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A few months later, they told him; “Riku, your boys are in Belgrade, they will go to America.” My thought is that childhood has an extraordinary force, it pulls you back. So, I have been making plans slowly, to settle my daughter here and them. Albania will be the country where I will spend most of the year.
– What was your childhood like?
In kindergarten, I was at “Kopshti me yll” (The Star Kindergarten), and I did my schooling at the “Kosova” school until the fourth grade, then at “Mihal Grameno.” I spent all my childhood in that neighborhood, and we have so many memories. When we gather with friends and start reminiscing, we believe we are happy to have been among the luckiest children, because we lived in a very beautiful neighborhood, it was both a city and a village. We had Diku Forest very close, there were two reservoirs, and we had an extraordinary activity, especially when school ended, until the next September.
I had a good time in Albania. I had a very beautiful childhood and youth, even though after the army, there was pressure against me because my brother was in prison, and I was in the “red circle,” as a “class enemy,” but I tried to avoid it, I tried to minimize their pressures with my behavior.
It is understood that up to the moment that it was very close that they would arrest me and take me to the internment camps of Albania, that’s why I escaped, because I never had the desire to leave just to have a better material life.
I had a very settled, very quiet life in Albania with my friends, with my family at the Polytechnic School which gave me the opportunity to enter a somewhat higher category. I had good income, so I am very sorry that after the elimination of Mehmet Shehu, the pressure increased extraordinarily against me and many of my friends, who suffered bitter, very bad consequences after my escape./Memorie.al
