By Bardhyl Berberi
Memorie.al / Pogradec is the city that holds the lake in its embrace. You walk through its streets and feel the lapping of the waves, the splashing of fish, and the cries of seagulls. You sleep at night and it seems as if you have the lake right there under your pillow, like a beautiful, hypnotic lullaby. But you cannot separate the fishermen from this lake – their boats and their fishing gear, with which they have lived for centuries, providing income for their families. However, this lake, with its endless beauties, has for many years counted numerous tragedies, from the most ancient times when an Illyrian princess drowned in this body of water near Shën Naum (the place is called Zaum, meaning “for the mind”).
But the greatest tragedies, even though many years have passed, are cloaked in mystery, and many of them remain full of enigmas.
Yet during a conversation with the Polena family, with his son Ahon Polena, about the life of his father Kristal Polena, Ahoni also stopped at a very serious, even macabre story about his uncle Niko Polena. After finishing medical school in Athens in 1924, he came to Korçë and in 1926 brought an X-ray apparatus – the first in our country – and worked in Korçë, together with a German laboratory assistant.
Niko Polena became engaged to a Korçë girl from the prominent Fundo family, Julinë. While waiting for the wedding day, while sailing a motorboat on Lake Pogradec, near the Drin River flow at Shën Naum, he tragically drowned along with several other couples. Regarding this grave moment, the wife of Dr. Kristal Polena, Pepsiori (known as Kori in Korçë), says: “When I got married, in that house after the tragedy, everything was black – even the curtains were black, but life goes on.” Here is how Ahon Polena tells the tragedy:
How did 9 people mysteriously drown in Lake Pogradec?
Ahon Polena is the son of the great master of Albanian surgery, Dr. Kristal Polena. He has kept the tragic event of his uncle, Niko Polena, alive and fresh with all its details, according to his parents’ account, which left deep marks on him. It was a Sunday, March 30, 1930.
Early in the morning, in four small cars, they set off towards Pogradec: the Greek consul in Korçë, Joan Lazarou, together with his wife; the Serbian consul, Dr. Aristidhi; Dr. Nikollaq Polena together with his fiancée Julia Fundo; the secretary of the Serbian Consulate with his wife; Dr. Nikollaq Zografi with his wife; as well as several minor officials of the Greek and Serbian consulates in Korçë.
Around 9:30 AM, they arrived in Pogradec and from there set off for the Monastery of Shën Naum. They entered the church and after walking around the monastery, the holy water, and the tomb of Shën Naum, performing religious rituals, near lunchtime they sat down to eat. But suddenly they received a notification from the city of Ohrid that the Prefect of Ohrid, as well as a colonel of the army, had set off with a boat.
Not even an hour passed when the Prefect and the colonel of the Yugoslav army arrived at the monastery from Ohrid. In one of the monastery’s rooms, lunch was served around 1:00 PM and did not last long; it passed very joyfully and with much humor. As soon as lunch ended, the visitors went outside and spotted the type of boat that the Prefect of Ohrid and the colonel had arrived in, anchored by the lakeshore. Some of the women proposed taking a boat ride on the lake. Around 2:30 PM, all nine people settled into the cabin of the boat.
They set off towards the springs of the Drin. When they had moved about 100 meters from the shore, suddenly the boat’s helmsman made an unexpected turn, throwing the passengers into the lake water, about 6 meters away from the boat…! The boat had listed. The first to fall into the water were Dr. Aristidhi and Dr. Zografi, who were trying to climb back onto the boat, when cries came from the others who were struggling to swim closer to the boat, but unfortunately, none of them knew how to swim well.
Panic was immense, with screaming and terror. The people at the monastery called for help by phone from Pogradec and Ohrid. Of all the people who were on the boat, only the Prefect of Ohrid managed to swim out. As soon as he reached the shore, he took off his clothes and dove back in to rescue others, along with the Serbian consul of Korçë, who got out using an emergency life jacket that the boat had. Meanwhile, the monastery bells rang incessantly. The Serbian consul re-entered the lake to save the wife of the secretary of the Serbian consulate, but as he approached her, the secretary of the Serbian consulate was also in danger, so all three remained at the bottom of the lake.
By now, missing from the lake’s surface were also Niko Polena and his fiancée, Julia Fundo, the Serbian colonel, and the Greek consul. After 20 minutes, a rowboat came from Shën Naum, but it was too late. Meanwhile, a boat from Pogradec arrived to help, but everything was over…! The toll was utterly tragic: 9 drowned persons; the Greek consul Jean Lazarou and his wife; Niko Polena and his fiancée Julia Fundo; Mrs. Margarita and Gaqo Turtulli; the wife of the secretary of the Serbian consulate in Korçë; the Prefect of Ohrid; the colonel of the Serbian army; and a sailor from the boat.
Regarding the tragic event, the Yugoslavs did not conduct any forensic investigation. But it was highly outrageous that the Albanian drowned victims were left outside on the sandy lakeshore, while the Serbian and Greek ones were placed in one of the monastery’s rooms. On the other hand, the Yugoslav authorities hid their responsibility, removing the damaged boat from the scene during the night.
The entire fault lay with the helmsman of the boat, who threw the passengers into the water by his actions – driving the boat recklessly and making sudden turns. The event, with all these details, aroused great indignation among the residents of Korçë, who, with great sorrow, accompanied Niko Polena and Julia Fundo to their final resting place.
The Tragedy of the Classmates…!
There were four classmates who had been together since high school and had different professions. Dr. Gjergji Topalli, who since childhood had a hobby of hunting and fishing, had built a boat specifically a few days earlier to fish. On the morning of April 27, 1993, he meets three of his high school classmates: construction engineer Koço Ruvina, customs officer Qazim Zgjani, and engineer Nuçi Icka.
After having a coffee, Gjergji invites them to see his newly built boat, which he had anchored very near the ‘Turizmi’ hotel. They decided to go into the lake after lunch to hunt for koran fish, mostly for fun. But in the afternoon hours, when they were heading towards the village of Hudënisht, the boat began to take on water. Despite their shouts towards the shore, all of them drowned in the lake…! Dr. Gjergji Topalli (father of two young daughters) was 30 years old at the time. Koço Ruvina, the city’s urban planning engineer (he also had two young children), and Qazim Zgjani, unmarried. Only the next day, engineer Nuçi Icka was found on the upturned hull of the boat; he was traumatized and frozen but without any physical consequences. He has not spoken a word about that tragedy, except for the explanations he gave to the prosecutor’s office, which have not been made public. Despite the interest of the families of the drowned persons, he has revealed nothing.
But the tragedy grew even larger, as their bodies were not found in the lake. Only after a month did the city’s municipality organizes a memorial, throwing bouquets of flowers into the lake. They remained without a grave…! Only after several months, a jacket belonging to one of the drowned persons was found on the lakeshore…! And the tragedy continued two years later, when a history teacher, Kozma Burnazi, who had also gone out hunting, accidentally drowned in the lake, and his body was never found.
The Mystery of the Two Boys from Lin…!
Erio Bice, a student at the Faculty of Economics in Elbasan, and high school student Klarent Qyshko – the story of their drowning is truly cloaked in a mystery that exceeds the dimensions of a simple tragedy. Erion Bice had the epithet ‘Wolf of the Lake’. His boat, with air cushions on the sides, powerful engines, and a metal construction, had proven that it could not sink.
Just a few months before the accident, in the autumn of 2000, when they were declared drowned by the police, Erion Bicja was pursued in territorial waters by a Macedonian police boat that was patrolling the lake. They even opened fire on him (in April 2000). But Erion tied the boat’s steering wheel towards the shore of the village of Lin and left it with the engine running, while he himself jumped into the lake and swam a long distance, even though the lake water in April is very cold. This same person, Erion Bice, only a few months later, in the autumn of that same year, together with high school student Klarent Qyshko, disappeared at midnight on the lake while fishing…!
That night, say the residents of the village of Lin, there were gunshots on the lake. And a Macedonian named Mile drowned near the village of Lin. He used to take koran fish from the locals on the lake, and the meeting would happen at night in territorial waters, at the border marker between the two countries. As soon as Mile took the fish into his boat (he had taken a very large amount – about 3 quintals, say the fishermen of Lin), a large wave caught him, and he notified his friends in Struga for help, saying: “I am drowning.” Soon after, the Macedonian police boat arrived, but he had already drowned. Meanwhile, that night, near the Macedonian Mile, Erion Bice and Klarent Qyshko were fishing. Residents heard gunshots. Klarent Qyshko’s father, Gaqua, says he searched for his son along the entire shore but saw no suspicious sign or any belongings. Moreover, there has been no official response from the Macedonian police. Although several years have passed, their parents are not convinced that their children drowned in the lake.
A Human Skull in the Fishermen’s Nets…!
On September 24, 2003, some fishermen from Pogradec, while collecting their fishing nets on the lake, found among the caught fish a human skull. It had only a little hair on the back part and was missing the upper jaw and the right side.
An unprecedented anxiety arose among all the families who had lost relatives in the lake. Some of them persistently demanded its identification, so that at least the family and relatives of the person to whom it belonged could have a sign, a grave where they could cry and place a candle or a bouquet of flowers.
The criminal police could not identify the skull through computer photos, as the jaws were missing. DNA testing through the hair was not done because it was too expensive. Thus, the skull remained in the refrigerators of the Central Forensic Laboratory, near the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana.
But besides persons who accidentally drowned in the lake, there were other events in the 1980s, such as when the lake washed ashore body parts of two persons – one from the village of Potgorie, who worked in Pogradec, and a young man from the city of Pogradec – which have still not been solved…!
Nevertheless, the skull caused much confusion among families who have had tragedies with their loved ones in Lake Pogradec. Only in 2006 was there no drowning in the lake. It is a bitter fact that in the lake, besides those who accidentally drowned, many people with depression have drowned there, and many unwanted babies have been thrown there by young mothers or those who lacked the economic means to keep them…
No summer is remembered without accidents on the lake that end in loss of life. Only the summer of 2016 had no drowning in the lake…! In 2009, near the village of Piskupat, a fisherman found a human head. As soon as he saw it in his fishing net, he threw it back into the lake in terror…! /Memorie.al
