By Ali Buzra
Part Twenty-Six
– LIFE UNDER PRESSURE AND SUFFERING –
(ASSESSMENTS, COMMENTS, NARRATIVES)
Memorie.al / At the request and wish of the author, Ali Buzra, as his first editor and reader, I will briefly share with you what I experienced in this encounter with this book, which is his second (after the book “Gizaveshi Through the Years”) and which naturally continues his writing style. The sincerity and frankness of the narrative, the simple and unmodified language, the accuracy and precision of the episodes, or the lack of a refining, intentionally subsequent imagination or its non-utilization, I believe have served the author positively, who comes to the reader in his original form, inviting us to at least get to know unknown human fates and pains, whether by chance or not, leaving us to reflect as a starting point for an awareness towards a catharsis so necessary for the conscience of Albanians.
Bedri Kaza
Continued from the previous issue
Even after his release from prison, the employees of the Internal Affairs Department tried to clamp him down again. Thus, on one occasion, Veliu is called to the Internal Affairs Department in Elbasan. There, they treat him kindly and spin various ideas around him. They tell him that another comrade is expected to come. Veliu didn’t fall into the trap. Understanding their intention, he tells them: “What do you want from me, and why are you keeping me here?!” Late in the afternoon, he asks to leave, saying he has nowhere to stay and would be left out overnight. “We’ll accommodate you in a hotel,” they reply, with “benevolence.” He leaves late at night and heads to the hotel. On the way, someone calls him by name. He stops and sees it was a fellow villager from Qarrishta.
“Where are you going?” he asks. “To the hotel,” Veliu replies. “I’m going there too,” the man said, “it got late, I had work and couldn’t find a car to Librazhd.” They settled in a room. The fellow villager starts provoking him during the conversation, mentioning the family’s sufferings, prison, etc. Veliu didn’t listen to him for long, but told him sharply: “Listen here, go to sleep now, or I’ll make your back softer than your belly.”
Knowing his character – that he did what he said – the provoker didn’t insist further. In the morning, Veliu parted with him without shaking his hand. He reports again to the Internal Affairs Department, as he had been told the night before, and from there he goes to Dumre, to his family. The surveillance and monitoring of their families was evident at all times. Particularly targeted were the men of Nexhip’s, Kadri’s, and Veliu’s families, but others were followed as well.
After the severance of relations with China, the development of class struggle in Albania was at its peak against elements considered “enemies” of the socialist regime. “Hostile groups” were artificially projected and created to incite fear and terror everywhere. In these uncertain and suspicious circumstances, Nexhip’s two sons, Mevlt and Agim, decided to escape. In the spring of 1978, taking advantage of the occasion when Reifi was to be discharged from the hospital, they ask for permission and go down to Elbasan. From there, they take the train to Librazhd, and then travel towards the border area, to their village of Qarrishta.
Mevluti knew the border paths very well. He knew that during this period, the border military forces were at their winter post in the village, so they set off immediately towards the Qafa e Koklit (Koklit Pass). In a mountainous and difficult terrain, where in many places the snow exceeded two meters in thickness and wasn’t frozen solid everywhere, they suffered greatly, getting lost in its hollows and sliding into depths. For hours they wandered on the mountain slopes and gorges of small mountain streams, climbing up and down, until they reached the border strip.
They crossed the border, entering the territory of Macedonia. There, they surrendered at the Macedonian border post and asked to meet with some family friends. Meanwhile, their older brother Adil arrived there. At the request of their uncle Kadri, who was in Sweden, he met their family friend, Emin Biçak’s friend, Spase Prushka, an ethnic Macedonian from Vefçani, Struga. The latter intervened at the Internal Affairs Department in Struga, took both brothers, Mevlt and Agim, and took them to Belgrade. From there, through his intervention, as well as the interest of other friends, visas were issued for both in record time. Accompanied by their brother Adil, they went to Sweden.
Mevluti left behind in Albania a daughter and a pregnant wife, while Agimi left a daughter and a very young wife. Mevlut’s wife was the daughter of the Gurra family from Dragostunja, also the daughter of Hamdi Gurra, whose sister was the wife of Fatmir (also classified as a kulak), while Agim’s wife was the daughter of Jakup Cekani, from a kulak family in Gurshpata. Their escape would bring an immediate reaction and the state’s arrogance towards their families in Dumre. From 1978 until 1983, a stricter disciplinary regime was imposed on them.
It was reconfirmed that the measure of “full internment” was again imposed. Roll call was held twice a day for all members of their families. They were forced to present themselves twice during the day, at fixed times, to the sector’s operative guard to confirm their presence, which was logged by the service officer. If they crossed even one meter beyond the village sector, disciplinary action was taken for border violation, punishable by a fine or imprisonment.
Almost all the men of their families worked in construction, where the daily wage was better. This happened because the locals didn’t work with stone, while they were masters not only of stonework but were skilled builders. The agricultural enterprise had a great need for constructions. And these constructions were carried out by the men of this family. They built all the facilities of the Fierza Agricultural Enterprise, Sector III, and other facilities in Kosova, Belsh, Dragot, Gjyral, etc.
After the determination of yellow lines for private residences, the master builders from Qarrishta were the builders of most residential houses in all the surrounding villages. However, differentiation began to be felt here too. When the locals who worked with them learned the trade, the enterprise managers no longer took the internees for these jobs. But they had golden hands. Local residents would take them at night to do plastering in their houses, paying them privately.
After the 1980s, all the interned families had built their own houses, perhaps even better than those of the locals; nevertheless, when it came to them, the expression “the stable people” was used. In some easier work sectors, such as fodder, vegetables, fruit growing, etc., their wives were not sent. They were forced to work only in the agricultural sector. “It weighed heavily on us,” Reifi would recount, “when meetings of the [Democratic] Front, Youth, or Women’s organizations were held in the sector, while they told us: ‘You, leave!'”
“And we, with our heads bowed, would leave for our homes.” “We knew this,” recounts Besim’s wife, the daughter of Nebi Dosku from Dorëzi, sentenced to 10 years in prison as an enemy of the regime. “On one occasion,” she narrates, “the brigade leader told us to stay. Some delegates from the District Trade Unions were expected to come. The brigade leader, who wasn’t a bothersome man, tells us: ‘Stay, it’s a workers’ meeting, no problem.'”
It was lunchtime, and the workers brought their bread with them. Mevlut’s wife interjected, telling the brigade leader: “It’s better for us to leave now, because they won’t allow us.” “Stay,” he tells them, “there’s nothing wrong, it’s not a [Democratic] Front meeting.” “Okay, we’ll stay, but I’m not moving an inch from this spot,” she told him. Meanwhile, she told her own colleagues that she had nothing more to lose. And indeed, the fact was so.
Her father-in-law, Nexhipi, had died in prison many years earlier; her husband and two brothers-in-law had been forced to flee; she worked to support her young children under conditions of isolation and senseless discrimination. And so it happened. The delegates arrive, and as soon as the meeting starts, one of them says: “Members of kulak families leave!” For a few seconds, silence reigned, but it didn’t last long. Mevlut’s wife, without getting up from her spot, replied:
“You go and hold your meeting wherever you want, we’re not moving from here.” She said these words sharply and spread her scarf in front of her to eat the bread she had in her cloth bag. The other women did the same. Whether the delegates liked it or not, they got up along with the brigade and went to hold their meeting elsewhere.
Interned, mistreated, and scorned by the communist state for nearly 25 years, the families of Emin and Kapo Biçak worked and lived in Fierza of Belsh. With work and sacrifice, they built their houses there, gradually emptying the goat sheds and barns where they had taken shelter after the forced displacement from Qarrishta. From conversations with them, not one of them complains about the local residents. It was the orientation of the Party-state and its leaders that members of these families should carry on their backs, throughout all those years, the “stigma” of the kulak, the label “enemies,” and social differentiation, not considering them equal to others.
It was the year 1991, when the first swallow of freedom flew over the skies of Albania, bringing liberation from the half-century-long totalitarian rule of the Albanian people. The students and people of Tirana toppled the bust of the dictator Enver Hoxha. Political prisoners, internees, and the persecuted throughout Albania felt for the first time after so many years the aroma of freedom and social equality, the aroma of being “human” denied by the dictatorship.
The Meksi government granted all families interned in Belsh 250 square meters of construction land each, in the Fushë Mbret area, Elbasan. They built their two- and three-story houses there, located in one block. Their villas are visible today, each one more beautiful than the other. Veliu also experienced this satisfaction. Together with his wife and his two sons, he settled in the city of Elbasan, in the “Fushë-Mbret” neighborhood. His eldest son, Fatmir, in the early years of democracy, completed two university faculties. He worked in leadership positions up to Chief of the Police Commissariat for the Elbasan district. Veliu passed away in 2004, escorted to his final resting place with respect and honors not only from his relatives but also from district government representatives and many friends from within the country and abroad.
Repositioning themselves once again in 1991, with the overthrow of the dictatorship, hundreds of political fugitives who had left after the liberation of the country returned to Albania, to the motherland. Now, with longing and pain in their souls for their relatives from whom dictatorship had separated them, Kadriu, Adili, and Mevluti returned from Sweden. Nexhip’s sons, Adil and Mevlt, found their mother alive. I haven’t been able to contact them yet, but relatives provide details about the poignant moments of meeting their mother, Fizja, who survived the dictatorship like a fearless little falcon, responding with the calmness, patience, and nobility that characterized her to the occasional provocations of the Internal Affairs Department employees regarding her three fugitive sons.
Unfortunately, her youngest son Agim, a few months after his escape, involved in an accident, passed away there in Sweden. Thus, one day, an employee of the Internal Affairs Department, the area operative, without feeling an ounce of pity for a mother who had lost her son, tells her: “Did you hear, old woman, your son Agim has been killed!” “Long life to you, my son,” Mother Fizja replied with nobility to the merciless executioner.
I will describe some details about Kadri’s return to Albania in 1991. “I knew nothing about the family’s internment,” he recounts. He learned this fact from his two nephews, Mevlt and Agim, after 13 years, when they went there. He used to send letters, and even money, but the letters were sometimes returned, while the money’s fate was unknown. In 1991, Kadri sets off for Albania, accompanied by his second wife’s two brothers, Sehit and Kamber Kreka.
Let me clarify that he married in Sweden, taking as his wife the daughter of his family friend, Shefki Kreka, from Goliku i Pogradecit. Some members of this large and noble family had fled and settled in Struga, among them Drita, while Shefki Kreka himself, a person known throughout the Mokra area for his loyalty and bravery, continued his anti-communist resistance at home. He was treacherously captured by State Security forces and executed by firing squad. When Kadri married, he had made it clear to the girl’s family and to her that he was married and had two children whom, no matter what happened, he would never abandon. Drita, this noble girl from the Kreka lineage of Golik, knew and accepted this fact, as did her brothers and mother.
Kadri’s family, in 1991, was still in Belsh. 26 years had passed without seeing each other. He himself was now 53 years old. His son, Ylli, and daughter, Sabire, were now married. Ylli had married a local girl from a kulak family and had a daughter. Likewise, Sabire had married into the Kishta family, also kulak families for many years. Kadri didn’t notify them that he was coming, making his arrival a surprise.
It was late in the afternoon. The Biçak families’ houses were by the roadside. He had obtained accurate information about the location and they stopped the car in front of the house. As soon as he got out of the car, he called out: “The enemy of the Party comes to his land once again.” People came out, not only family members but also the surrounding neighbors. Most were from Qarrishta, his relatives. His children didn’t recognize him, while his wife, Mejtja, as soon as she heard his voice, although many years had passed, recognized him, but it seemed like a dream, and she stood frozen in the kitchen doorway, the utensil she was holding slipping from her hand. Kadri, who saw this scene, goes immediately towards her, grabs her by the shoulder, saying: “Where are you, my brave woman, come to your senses, we are alive.”
Thus, he is reunited with his wife and children, with brothers, nephews, and cousins, who were interned by the communist dictatorship state immediately after his escape in 1965. Kadri Biçaku, this brave, loyal, and undefeated young man of the noble family of Emin Biçak, did not become a tool of the cruel weapon of the State Security; therefore he was forced to leave the country. And fate willed that he return to his family and relatives after the overthrow of the system.
He found his brother Saip seriously ill at home. The latter had not separated from Kadri’s family, staying together throughout the entire internment period. His two children, Ylli and Sabire, he raised and married just as he did for his own children. Two days later, Saip passed away. Kadri took care of everything. It was a time when the market in Albania was empty. He goes and gets supplies of food from Struga, and receives his brother’s friends.
Kadri stayed in Albania for two months with his family. He returned to Albania again, a few months later, together with his second wife. He bought a two-story house for the family in Elbasan. He gives money to Saip’s children to buy a house. Later, he builds the new houses that are today in the same neighborhood as his cousins, meanwhile he also builds a house nearby for his daughter, Sabire.
He goes back to Sweden, taking with him his first wife, Mejtja, whom he keeps there, in Stockholm, for 15 years. Kadri’s relatives told me the episode about taking his first wife to Sweden. I didn’t personally ask Kadri about this, as I was somewhat shy, but meanwhile he didn’t mention it himself either. Relatives recount that Kadri came to Albania for the second time together with his wife, Drita, whereas the first time he was only with her two brothers. It may seem unusual, but witnesses say that his wives met with great longing, as if they had known each other for years.
The first wife, Mejtja, daughter of Kasem Boriçi from Zabzuni, came from a simple family, with traditions and hardworking people from the highlands of Golloborda. She was now about 52 years old. The political circumstances of the time dictated and led to their separation, but not in spirit and heart. Neither of his wives was to blame for this. After a few days’ stay in Albania, the second wife, Drita, says to her husband: “O Kadri! Mejtja has suffered a lot in Albania for so many years. We should take her to Sweden, because we have better conditions there.” “Alright, my noble one, I expected this from you, and I knew you would do it,” he replied.
And so it happened. They went to Sweden, all three together. From time to time, they would come to their children in Elbasan, who were now well settled there. In 2007, he comes for the last time with Mejtja to the children in Elbasan. After a few weeks, the wife falls ill. Despite all the special medical service and care, she could not survive the illness. She passed away, having her husband Kadri by her side, as well as her children, grandchildren, and nieces. In Sweden, with his second wife, Kadri has two sons, who work and live there in very good conditions.
We did our best to describe some events from the life and tribulations of the family of Emin and Kapo Biçak, persecuted by the communist regime from 1945-’46 until 1990. From the trunk of this noble, generous, and devoted family of the village of Qarrishta, 4 men of the family were sentenced to prison: Emini, Kapua, Nexhipi, and Veliu. Four others were forced to flee abroad as a result of the danger they faced from the State Security.
In 1965, the entire family, consisting of 57 members, including the elderly and children in cradles, was expelled from their birthplace, interned in Belsh of Elbasan. Despite the sufferings, contempt, persecutions, and 45 years of harassment, they managed to survive. Today, the family trunk of this surviving family from the years of dictatorship consists of over 300 members, who work and live in Albania, Sweden, England, Italy, Germany, etc. / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issu
