By DASHNOR KALOÇI
Part Four
Memorie.al / Even though it was the poorest state in Europe and one of the countries with the lowest standard of living in the entire world, the communist regime of Tirana headed by Enver Hoxha and his successor Ramiz Alia financed and spent millions of dollars to help Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties, individuals and other leftist groups from all over the world, granting them funds for travel, airplane tickets, hotel bills, scholarships and study rights, various publications, translations of books and political literature, purchase of materials and equipment, visits and vacations in Albania, etc., etc. Created in 1964, under the designation “Solidarity Fund,” (with Decision No. 190, dated June 10, 1964 of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PLA), which bore Enver Hoxha’s signature, through this secret account millions of dollars were allocated and distributed (about 12 million USD during the years 1964–1991), to finance and support communist Marxist-Leninist parties, movements and groups in various countries of the world.
Referring to several archival documents, the map of the distribution of the “Solidarity Fund” by the high leadership of the PLA included states from all five continents, starting from the American one: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, the USA, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc. In the African continent: Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Congo Leo Pold Vil, Malagasy, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Togo, Upper Volta, Gabon, Egypt, etc.
In the Asian continent: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Ceylon, Japan, India, Laos, Jordan, Syria, etc. In the Australian–Oceanian continent: Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc. In the European continent: France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Portugal, England, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Romania, Germany, Yugoslavia, etc.
According to a decision of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PLA of 1964, when the “Solidarity Fund” was also created, the right to grant funds to Marxist-Leninist communist groups and parties or various individuals “friends of Albania,” was held only by the General Secretary of the Party, Enver Hoxha, while after his death in 1985, Ramiz Alia “inherited” it and along with him, also Foto Çami, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee for propaganda, art and culture and foreign relations. (At the end of 1990, Spiro Dede, as secretary of the Central Committee of the PLA, also dealt with and signed for the Solidarity Fund).
After their decision, the distribution of funds was handled by the head of the Sector for Foreign Relations at the apparatus of the Central Committee of the PLA, Agim Popa, to whose signature was attached also that of Sabaudin Kodra, head of the Finance sector in the Central Committee and Sadik Piri. (After his retirement in 1988, Flutra Arianiti was appointed).
The “Solidarity Fund,” (or as it was otherwise known; “Account 19”) and the entire practice of its distribution, was “Top Secret” and for everything related to it, no one else should have knowledge, except the aforementioned persons and the director of the Bank of the Albanian State, Kamber Myftari, as well as partially the main heads of some of the respective Albanian embassies accredited in various countries of the world, to whom checks were transferred to distribute to certain persons, (groups and Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties), according to the decision of the Central Committee of the PLA.
For the first time about the “Solidarity Fund,” it was spoken only in 1992, after the overthrow of the communist regime, where in the framework of investigations into the privileges and financial favors and excessive expenses of the families of the former high leadership of the PLA, (mainly those who had lived in the “Block” in Tirana), the High State Control, at the request of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party, drafted a detailed report with all financial data and balances from 1964 to 1991.
But what remained unclear even after that report, indeed a great enigma that has not been clarified even today after 36 years of the collapse of the communist regime, was the origin of that fund?! Neither Ramiz Alia with his closest collaborators, members of the Political Bureau and secretaries of the Central Committee, clarified that enigma and did not speak a single word, during their investigative and judicial process, as well as serving their prison sentence in the years 1933-1997.
But, after the 1990s, some former officials and functionaries of the communist regime have asserted in various media interviews that that fund was granted to the Central Committee of the PLA by the Communist Party of China, since the beginning of the 1960s, and “not a single penny” was in that fund from the state budget or other financial sources. This version about the origin of the “Solidarity Fund,” may to some extent have some truth, since in one of the archival documents that we will publish in this article, in January 1991, when that fund was finally closed, Ramiz Alia, among other things, wrote: “The new law on elections does not allow financing from abroad, therefore there may be noise…!”
Nevertheless, the above remains to be investigated further in the archival documents of the former Central Committee of the PLA, since as we will see from some documents that we will publish in this series of articles about the “Solidarity Fund,” even though the destination of that fund was for “Marxist-Leninist groups, parties,” or “friends of Albania,” it was also touched for other purposes, such as the purchase of a printing press for the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit,” the Palace of Congresses, etc., or were deposited in foreign banks, such as in France, etc., with the aim of receiving bank interest. For more about this etc., these archival documents which have been extracted from the Central State Archive, (fund of the former Central Committee of the PLA), which are published for the first time and with the respective facsimiles by Memorie.al, acquaint us.
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ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE ORDER OF THE FIRST SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PLA, RAMIZ ALIA, FOR THE USE OF THE SOLIDARITY FUND DURING THE YEAR 1989 FOR MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS
PARTY OF LABOR OF ALBANIA Top Secret
SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
“Proletarians of all countries unite”!
D E C I S I O N
No. 33 Date 21.2.1989
ON THE USE OF THE SOLIDARITY FUND DURING THE YEAR 1989 FOR MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS
The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PLA, on the date 21.2.1989,
D e c i d e d:
- From the Solidarity Fund available to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PLA, for the year 1989, a sum of 20,000 dollars shall be made available for the needs of Marxist-Leninist parties. The Secretary of the Central Committee is authorized to use this sum, judging concretely the possible requests from Marxist-Leninist parties.
- For travel expenses and per diems for delegations of Marxist-Leninist parties and friends invited by the Central Committee of the PLA, 60,000 dollars shall be made available.
III. For propaganda expenses (book publications, assistance to publishing houses abroad that publish our materials, purchase of literature and propaganda materials, etc.) 10,000 dollars shall be made available.
- The foreign sector of the CC of the PLA is charged with the implementation of this decision.
FIRST SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
OF THE PARTY OF LABOR OF ALBANIA
RAMIZ ALIA
No. 1168 Prot. Date 21.2.1989
TO THE FOREIGN SECTOR
C O P Y
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE BALANCE OF THE CASH DESK OF THE FINANCE SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PLA, FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY OPERATIONS FOR THE YEAR 1989, FOR THE SOLIDARITY FUND
PARTY OF LABOR OF ALBANIA
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
BALANCE OF THE CASH DESK FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY OPERATIONS FOR THE YEAR 1989
FOR THE SOLIDARITY FUND
Assets — Inflows
Liabilities — Outflows — Dollar
- Balance 1.1.1989 — 13,215,735.16 — 1. Expenses of the year 1989 — 49,485.24
- Deposit 325 Syrian lira — 4.75 — 2. Received by the Ministry of Foreign Trade according to decision KM 473 dated 23.12.88 — 407,051.56
- Interests of the year 1989 — 222,300 — 3. Balance 31.12.1989 — 12,981,503.11
Sum dollars — 3,438,039.91 — Sum dollars — 3,438,039.91
SABAUDIN KODRA — FLUTURA ARIANITI
HEAD OF THE FOREIGN SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AGIM POPA
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE TABLE OF EXPENSES FOR TRAVEL AND PER DIEMS OF MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST GROUPS AND PARTIES, EXTRACTED FROM THE FINANCE SECTOR OF THE APPARATUS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PLA
TABLE OF EXPENSES FOR TRAVEL AND PER DIEMS
Airplane tickets for Rafael Mehia and Coambo Suarez — dollars 1,906.80
Airplane tickets for the delegation of the CP of New Zealand — 1,596
Airplane tickets for the delegation of the CP of India — 198.45
Transferred to the Paris embassy, hotel for the secretary of the CC of Brazil Aguiar — 169.84
Airplane tickets for friends from India, Rowineli and Bains — 388.50
Airplane tickets for the delegation of the CP of Spain J. Fernandes and Perez — 802.20
Airplane tickets for friends of the ML Party of Colombia — 766.50
Airplane tickets for H. Hurtado — 379.05
Airplane tickets for H. Beins — 121.80
Transferred to the Rome embassy expenses for various delegations according to invoices sent — 710.50
Airplane tickets for Fernandes and Perez of Spain — 1,111.95
Airplane tickets for Fabian of the CP of Colombia M-L — 572.25
Airplane tickets for Zhoae Amazonas — 4,296.60
Airplane tickets for Rafael Chajub and Suares — 365.40
Airplane tickets for Rafael Chajub and Suares — 3,342.80
Transferred to the Paris embassy for visas of the delegation of the CP of Canada — 20.12
Airplane tickets for H. Hammama and F. Mohamed of the CP of Tunisia — 707.70
Airplane tickets for H. Beins — 534.45
Valuta given for travel expenses H. Beins — 1,590.–
Airplane tickets for Gora Ibrahim — 476.70
Airplane tickets for R. Mehija and spouse — 3,323.90
Airplane tickets for the delegation of the CP of Colombia M-L and the CP of Ecuador — dollars 2,122.05
Airplane tickets R. Mehija and spouse — 2,311.70
Given travel expenses for the delegation of the PP of Iran — 943.50
Airplane tickets for H. Haliti and D. Satigni — 625.50
Transferred to the Paris embassy airplane tickets for I. Gora — 209.87
Transferred to the Paris embassy airplane tickets for Tunisian friends — 1,075
Airplane tickets delegation of the PP of Iran — 529.20
Given for travel expenses for Munado Ashar — 756
Given travel expenses J. Peterson and J. Mathsen — 1,527.60
Given travel expenses H. Beins — 3,296.60
Given travel expenses for the delegation of the CP of Ecuador — 261
Transferred to the Rome Embassy 474,800 lire expenses for friends of the party according to invoices sent — 341.26
Airplane tickets for the delegation of the M-L league of Tigray — 474
Total dollars: — 37,854.79
SABAUDIN KODRA — FLUTURA ARIANITI
HEAD OF THE FOREIGN SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AGIM POPA
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE TABLE OF DEPOSITS AFTER THE CLOSING OF THE ANNUAL BALANCE OF THE SOLIDARITY FUND EXTRACTED FROM THE FINANCE SECTOR OF THE APPARATUS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PLA
T A B L E
OF DEPOSITS AFTER THE CLOSING OF THE ANNUAL BALANCE
The air agency has transferred to the Bank these expenses, after the closing of the annual balance:
For the year 1988 — 10,156 dollars
For the year 1989 — 14,610 dollars
Actual expenses plus for the year 1989 (difference) — 4,554 dollars.
SABAUDIN KODRA — FLUTURA ARIANITI
HEAD OF THE FOREIGN SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AGIM POPA
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE TABLE FOR GIVING ASSISTANCE FROM THE SOLIDARITY FUND, TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL
T A B L E F O R G I V I N G A S S I S T A N C E
To the Communist Party of Brazil, French francs 5,000
To the Communist Labor Party of the Dominican Republic 781.25 dollars
Total — 10,781.25
SABAUDIN KODRA — FLUTURA ARIANITI
HEAD OF THE FOREIGN SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AGIM POPA
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE EXPENSES FOR PROPAGANDA FROM THE SOLIDARITY FUND, FOR THE EXHIBITION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
EXPENSES FOR PROPAGANDA
Expenses for the opening of the exhibition in the Dominican Republic — 849.20 dollars
SABAUDIN KODRA — FLUTURA ARIANITI
HEAD OF THE FOREIGN SECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AGIM POPA
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE CERTIFICATION THAT THE DELEGATION OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST LEAGUE OF TIGRAY, HAS GIVEN THE EMPLOYEE FITNETE XHAJA 400 DOLLARS, FOR THE PURCHASE OF TWO AIRPLANE TICKETS FOR THE TIRANA-ZURICH LINE
C E R T I F I C A T I O N
We certify that the delegation of the M-L League of Tigray has given comrade Fitnete Xhaja 400 $, to buy two tickets on the Tirana-Zurich line.
The tickets, which cost 475, are paid from the account of the Central Committee of the PLA. For the 400 lek, they are paid from the account of the Central Committee of the PLA. For the 400 lek, entries are made to the account of the Central Committee of the PLA./ Memorie.al
Fitnete Xhaja— Flutura Araniti — Roland Gegprifti
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