From Dashnor Kaloçi
Part six
Memorie.al / The Special Operative Group that was created immediately after the arrest of the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Kadri Hazbiu, and his deputy, Feçor Shehu, in mid-October 1982, headed by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Zylyftar Ramizi (who also held the function of Director of State Security) and with Enver Zeneli and Hasan Ulqinaku as his subordinates, among other measures, such as the study and analysis of a large number of archival files belonging to a long period (1945-1982), also called upon and requested some of the former high officials of the leadership of the PPSH (Albanian Party of Labour) and former senior leading cadres of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, State Security officers, etc., to submit in writing what they knew or suspected regarding the “hostile activity” of Kadri Hazbiu, Feçor Shehu, or other persons with whom they had been connected by work or not, during the period they had served in that ministry, or in the Internal Affairs Branches in districts, in the Political Detection sector, near our diplomatic representations accredited in various countries of the world, etc.
Among the former high officials of the PPSH and leading cadres and State Security officers, etc., who responded to this call, providing their written testimonies to the Special Operative Group, were: Liri Belishova (former member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the PPSH for propaganda, art, and culture), Nesti Kerenxhi (former Major-General, Director of State Security and Minister of Internal Affairs), Xhule Çiraku (former Lieutenant-General, Director of the Second Directorate of State Security and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs), Rexhep Kolli (former Lieutenant-General, Director of State Security and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs), Zija Kambo (former Major-General and Commander of the Republic Guard), Zoi Themeli (former Lieutenant-General, Director of State Security and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs), Myftar Tare (former Colonel and Deputy Minister for Political Detection, arrested in 1949 and released), Nevzat Haznedari (former Major-General and Head of the Investigation Department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs), Hekuran Pobrati (former Colonel and senior State Security officer), Feti Smokthina (former Colonel and Commander of the Republic Guard), Zylfi Saliu (former Colonel, senior State Security officer, head of Internal Affairs Branches in several districts, and deputy of the People’s Assembly), Lelo Sinaj (former senior officer and Director of State Security), Halil Zeneli (former Colonel of State Security and head of Internal Affairs Branches in several districts), Ilo Manushi (senior officer and Director of the Cadre Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), Mark Dodani (former Lieutenant-Colonel, senior State Security officer and deputy head of the Sarandë Internal Affairs Branch), Xhemal Bejto Fasllia (former judge and senior State Security officer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs), Ibrahim Kubati (former agronomist graduated in Bulgaria, director of hunting reserves in several districts of the country where the high leadership of the PPSH went hunting, sentenced to five years of political imprisonment), Ali Kubati (former officer of Political Detection in several countries of the world and deputy chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana), etc.
Continued from the previous issue
THE ACCUSATIONS OF THE SECURITY OFFICER WHO ACCOMPANIED HYSNI KAPO TO PARIS IN 1978-1979, REGARDING FEÇOR SHEHU, SERVET BACKA AND LLAMBI ZIÇISHTI
From the aforementioned letters and reports sent to the address of the Special Operative Group at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or personally to Minister Hekuran Isai, in the years 1982-1983, in previous issues we have published the letters of Liri Belishova, Hekuran Pobrati, Xhule Çiraku, Mark Dodani and Ibrahim Kubati. In this article, we are publishing the letter of the former State Security officer, Nexhip Pajo, operative of the Second Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (dealing with the protection and physical security of the high leadership of the PPSH), sent to Minister Hekuran Isai on October 29, 1982, in which he informs him in detail about the problems that had arisen during the service in Paris in the years 1978-‘79, when he was there as the escort officer for Hysni Kapo, secretary of the Central Committee of the PPSH (No. 2 of the Party after Enver Hoxha), who had gone there for medical treatment and died there on September 23, 1979.
In the said letter of the former Security officer, Nexhip Pajo, sent to Minister Hekuran Isai only one week after the arrest of Kadri Hazbiu (at the end of October 1982), he (Nexhip) expresses his reservations regarding the conduct and service towards Hysni Kapo on the part of high officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security who accompanied him during the days of his stay in the hospital, such as Deputy Minister Feçor Shehu, Servet Backa, Fejzo Bijo and the Minister of Health, Llambi Ziçishti, but he also recounts the efforts and pressures of Kadri Hazbiu against him at that time, after the death of Hysni Kapo, to withdraw and close the problems he had raised with him as minister and in the Party Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, regarding the above-mentioned persons. For more on this, etc., the letter in question of the former State Security officer, Nexhip Pajo, sent to Minister Hekuran Isai, which is part of a voluminous file in the archival fund of the Authority for Information on the Documents of the former State Security, is published for the first time by Memorie.al.
THE SECRET DOCUMENT WITH THE LETTER OF THE FORMER SECURITY OFFICER OF THE SECOND DIRECTORATE OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS, NEXHIP PAJO, SENT TO MINISTER HEKURAN ISAI, REGARDING THE PROBLEMS WHEN ACCOMPANYING HYSNI KAPO FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT IN PARIS
Comrade Hekuran Isai
Minister of Internal Affairs
Tirana
I am Nexhip Pajo, former officer of the Second Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, now a pensioner.
Forgive me for disturbing you, but as a communist, as a former operative of this ministry, and relying on the recent materials of the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party, on the betrayal of the enemy of the Party and the people, Kadri Hazbiu, I want to inform you about some problems that I raised in 1979-1980, which I think may be of value to the Party.
In 1979, when comrade Hysni Kapo was in Paris (France) for medical treatment, I was part of the group of escorting officers. After his death, when we returned from there, I informed the Party Committee of the Ministry, its former secretary Bato Karafili, about some shortcomings and punishable actions in the direction of service towards the leader Hysni Kapo and his family, who were there in Paris, on the part of the former deputy director of the Second Directorate for our service there, Servet Backa, Fejzo Bijo, deputy director of the Reception Directorate, and Llambi Ziçishti, responsible for Health.
I am interested to know whether my data is located in the Party Committee of the Ministry, or whether it has been destroyed by the enemies Bato Karafili and Feçor Shehu and you do not have it available. If you want clarifications, I am ready to inform you orally and in writing.
Comrade Minister. I am addressing you because I am troubled by a fact: Regarding the problems I raised concerning Servet Backa and others, both in the Party Committee and in the analysis we made of the work in the Second Directorate and before the former minister Feçor Shehu and Bato Karafili at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (in his office, for four consecutive days), I saw that great agitation and pressure was put on me by the aforementioned to make me give up on the problems I had raised.
According to them, it would be best to close this problem, since we would gain nothing, because comrade Hysni Kapo was dead anyway, and with these raised problems we would gain nothing.
What troubles me most and leaves me quite suspicious is the fact that Kadri Hazbiu was also concerned and excessively interested in this problem.
On the last day of the conclusions we were going to make in Feçor Shehu’s office, Kadri Hazbiu called me on the phone from comrade Hysni Kapo’s house. He had urgently requested, leaving a message with the house staff, that I call him back.
When I was notified, I called Kadriu on the phone and he immediately addressed me: “Listen; today you have that final meeting regarding your service in Paris, so be careful and show yourself more reasonable and more party-minded about what you have raised, because you have exaggerated it and in a tendentious manner.”
I answered him then on the phone: -Where have you verified that these are not true? “I know these well, I know Servet Backa very well, that he is an honest and proven communist and on the other hand, that son of the world (i.e., Serveti) has gone mad and comes to my office crying like a child,” he answered.
-It would be good if he didn’t cry there in your office, but cried there in Paris, where we all cried for the misfortune that had befallen us, but we there cried and drank tears, while Servet Backa, Feçor Shehu, Fejzo Bijo and Llambi Ziçishti drank raki and ate chops. But he continued:
“Nexhip, don’t look at those issues so superficially, because you didn’t know Servet’s spiritual state, since he knew comrade Hysni’s diagnosis from the beginning and for this reason he was confused, so think carefully about what I said.”
-For what I have raised through Party channels and in meetings, I bear responsibility, – I answered.
Two hours after this phone conversation, while I was going to the Second Directorate, from where according to notification I would go to a meeting at the former minister’s office, in the “Naim Frashëri” garden in front of this directorate, I meet Kadri Hazbiu with his officer, who was going home.
Kadriu signaled me to present myself. I went to him. After greeting me, he instructed me once more about what he had told me on the phone.
I told him: It would be good, comrade minister, if you also came to the meeting and there you would be convinced of what I have raised in the meeting, because you have only heard Servetin, while me, not.
-I swear to you – he said, – that I don’t have time, I have a lot of work, but I would gladly come. Thus we parted.
Forgive me, comrade minister, for perhaps disturbing you, because I have also gone on at length, but it would be good for you to be informed about these problems, because I am also guided by the recent materials of the Party.
This intervention of Kadri Hazbiu, in defense of Servet Backa and the others, makes me suspicious. Why with such insistence did he appeal to me to leave this problem?!
Why did Feçor Shehu also demand that this problem be closed, because, according to him, that was the order?! And when I asked from whom this order came, he would answer: “No need to know from whom”!
Moreover, even a year earlier, before these events I mentioned above occurred, when we were in Paris with comrade Hysni Kapo, sick with heart problems, where Kadri Hazbiu was also present, Serveti had threatened me, after I had made some suggestion to him about the entrances and exits to comrade Hysni’s room (in the hospital).
Indeed, on one occasion, after threatening me that he would send me back to Albania, he complained about me to Kadriu using this language, and Kadriu told me that Serveti was right, that he was responsible for the service there, so he had the authority to send me back to Albania.
-Then I say to Kadriu: Just as you heard Serveti in the room, call me as well so I can clarify the matter.
-We don’t have that time here to listen to you; – he answered me and went into his room.
It wasn’t long before I was put on duty and sent five weeks earlier to Albania, under the pretext that supposedly I would return to Paris. It was understood that this was a plan concocted by Kadriu and Serveti.
Comrade Minister. Seeing these relations of Serveti with Kadriu and the interest of the latter in him, I have my suspicions.
With this I only want to inform you, because if you want clarifications, I am ready, either orally or in writing, to provide them.
Forgive me for the disturbance, because perhaps I have written at length as well. /Memorie.al
With honors and respect
Nexhip Pajo
Tirana, October 29, 1982
