Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the unknown story of the former senior military soldier of the State Security, Lieutenant Colonel Pandeli Përmeti, originally from the village of Bual Përmetit and born in the city of Korça, who recounts his entire career in the bodies of the Ministry of Labor Internal since the end of the war when he came from the partisan ranks, being an effect of the 4th Assault Brigade and had been wounded twice, the appointment to the post of Chairman of the Internal Affairs Branch of Mallkastra wherein 1948 he made a visit to Mehmet Shehu, who was locked up in his home in the village of Çorush, where he was awaiting arrest by Koci Xoxe, for one year at the Shkodra Regional Directorate of Internal Affairs, where he spent a long time verifying the Catholic Clergy’s files. after an order that Enver Hoxha had given to Kadri Hazbi for their strike, the mystery of the death of Major General Hilmi Seiti that I had k close, the bombing of the Soviet embassy in Tirana where he that investigator of that case was able to release only one of the arrested, staging the event in the village Gjorëm of Vlora for an assassination attempt on Hysni Kapos who sent to shoot an officer State Security, up to the 36-page long letter he sent to Enver Hoxha in 1967, denouncing many of the State Security’s behind-the-scenes, after which he was called by Manush Myftiu to give up. and the negative response that caused him to be demobilized from the ranks of the Ministry of Interior, to be sent as a worker with three shifts and night guards to the “Enver” Factory, and to arrest and sentence his son, who was an aviator, to political imprisonment.
In 1967, when I was acting head of the Tirana Directorate of Internal Affairs, I wrote a long letter to Enver Hoxha with 36 typed pages, raising and denouncing many of the intrigues, stagings, and backstage of the State Security, by who was arrested, imprisoned and shot dozens of innocent people. Among the main problems, I raised with Enver Hoxha in that long letter were those related to the bombings at the Soviet Embassy, which were staged by the Security itself, the arrests and the crackdown on the Catholic Clergy in the district. of Shkodra in the 1950s, the event in Lushnja with Hamit Matjani, the event in Vlora where a group of people were arrested who were accused of putting explosives on a bridge where Hysni Kapo would pass, as well as some other events they had occurred in Tirana. For all these events, I argued with facts and documents that they were staged by the State Security itself and by careerist and servile people, who had made them in order to rise to responsibilities and win titles and degrees… In that letter, I explained to Enver Hoxha all the people who staged those events, such as Sulejman Manoku, Nevzat Haznedari, Llambi Jegeni, Nazmi Brinja, Gole Bashari, Sotir Xhari, Ilia Gaqo, Agja Lamçe, Halil Pulo, Agron Kokona, etc., as well as many of our Security collaborators. I also mentioned them by name and many of the people who were arrested or shot completely innocent, such as Jonuz Kaceli, Sabiha Kasimati, Pandeli Nova, Selman Kapaj, Hamit Osmani, Lamçe Kuqi, Rexhep Osmani, etc. I handed over that letter to my friend Raqi Iftica, who at the time was appointed Director of the Tirana Party Committee by the Director of the Tirana Directorate of Internal Affairs. But after Raqi Iftica denied me at the meeting that I had given him that letter, I sent it by mail to Enver Hoxha. After some time I was called to the Central Committee, but I refused to talk to the man who received me there, asking that I only want to talk to Enver Hoxha. After that, I raised those issues and in a meeting attended by the delegate and Manush Myftiu, who told me to close that issue after those problems had occurred and it was not good to open them anymore and in return he promised me that I would be promoted. I never agreed to back down from those problems even after Manush Mufti introduced me to two close friends to fill my mind with that problem. After that the Security staged a scenario for me as if I had given the inmates of the prison workforce, the censorship of postal control that was top secret and after I was able to escape this accusation that would send me to the shooting, I was fired and although I was a war invalid, they sent me a three-shift worker to the Enver Factory.
This is how he remembered the retired Colonel, Pandeli Përmeti, a former senior State Security cadre since 1945, his dismissal in 1967, after a long letter of 36 pages that he sent to Enver Hoxha, where he denounced many of the stagings and behind the scenes of the State Security, from which dozens of innocent people were convicted. But who is Pandeli Përmeti and what is his past? How did he manage to get into the State Security organs and why did Mehmet Shehu take him to the Ministry of Interior, after not seeing the correspondence with former Minister Koci Xoxe? How the bombing of the Soviet Embassy in Tirana was staged and why Pandeliu at that time was able to release the only person from the 24 arrested who were accused of being implicated in that incident, after previously consulting and obtaining the minister’s consent Interior Mehmet Shehu? How was the order to strike the Catholic Clergy in the Shkodra district given and how did Pandeliu, together with Major General Hilmi Seiti, manage to close many of the files of clerics accused of being agents of foreign intelligence, extracting them? innocent ?! How was the event in Vlora staged and who were the five people who were arrested on the charge that “they wanted to put dynamite on the bridge where Hysni Kapo would pass” ?! Who were the people of the Internal Affairs Branch of Vlora who staged that scenario and how did Pandeliu manage to acquit the five villagers accused of terrorism, after the arrest and shooting of Operational Worker A. L., who dealt with that issue? Why did Pandeli raise those problems with Enver Hoxha in 1967, and why did Raqi Iftica, whom he had a close friend, after taking it upon himself to hand over the letter to Enver Hoxha, deny that he had taken it from Pandeli? What was the State Security scenario from which Pandeli was accused of sending political prisoners working in the prison workshop, the censorship of postal control that was top secret? How could he escape that charge from which the safe shooting awaited him? Why did Manush Mufti ask Pandeli to close those problems, and who were the people he instructed to convince Pandeli to give up the problems he had raised with Enver Hoxha in his letter? Why, after that letter, was Pandeli removed from the organs of the Ministry of Interior, released and forced to work as a three-shift worker at the “Enver” Factory and a night watchman ?! How was the scenario organized with his ex-partisan wife of Mehmet Shehu’s First Brigade, who was fired and expelled from the party? What were the pressures on Pandeli and why did they arrest his son Roland, who was sentenced by an Air Force officer to four and a half years in prison on charges of insulting the Chinese? Regarding these mysteries and other facts, we are familiar with the story of former Lieutenant Colonel Pandeli Përmeti, who himself experienced those events from 1945 when he joined the State Security organs, until 1968 when he left. there as undesirable, because of the letter he sent to the communist leader Enver Hoxha.
Pandeliu: How I got into State Security
How did Pandeli Përmeti get into the organs of the Ministry of Interior and why did Mehmet Shehu call him to work there? In this regard, he recalled: “Seeing my past as an assassin with guerrilla units in the city of Korça and then as a partisan of the IV Brigade where I was wounded twice, in April 1944, I was called and I was appointed to work in the bodies of the Ministry of Interior, appointing me at the beginning that Head of the Section in the State Security for the “Third Province” which at that time included the whole North of Albania. Back in 1948, when I was serving as Chairman of the Internal Affairs Branch of Mallakastra district, I went to meet Mehmet Shehu, at his home in the village of Çorush, who at that time, after being hit by Koci Xoxe, was locked up there and waiting for them to come and arrest him? Although I knew the situation Mehmeti was in at the time, I went to see him because I had respect for him since the time of the war and my wife had been a partisan in the First Brigade. When I went to his house in Çorush, Mehmet Shehu was surprised by my presence there, because none of the main cadres of the Mallakastra district had gone there to meet him. Some of his relatives had gathered at Mehmet’s house that day, and one of them asked him how he would react if the Security Forces came to arrest him. Mehmeti responded by saying, “I have a ‘Belgian’ here at home and I will fight them to the last drop without falling alive into their hands.” At the end of 1948, when Mehmet Shehu came to the post of Interior Minister, he ordered that secret correspondence be seen between me as chairman of the Mallakastra Internal Affairs Branch and former Minister Koci Xoxe, because he suspected that I was not at home. his I had gone loaded by Koci. After Mehmeti made sure that there was no correspondence between me and the former Minister of Interior and that I had done that on my own initiative, in December 1948, he called me in Tirana and appointed me Deputy Chief of Section. in the Second Branch of the State Security Directorate ”, Pandeliu recalled the period when, as a sign of gratitude, Mehmet Shehu took him to work in Tirana.
Staging for the Catholic Clergy Strike
One of the behind the scenes and machinations used by the State Security at that time, was the one that was done against the Catholic Clergy of Northern Albania and mainly that of Shkodra. Regarding this, Pandeliu recalled: “There, from 1952-’53, according to the order given by Enver Hoxha to the Minister of Interior, Mehmet Shehu, he assigned me to work for some time in the archives of the Ministry of Interior, to issue some very extra documents. secrets related to some of the main cadres of the Party and the State, which Enver needed. There I had the opportunity to look at other documents, such as those related to the crackdown on the Catholic Clergy. In those documents I saw that around 1950-’51, by order of Enver Hoxha, Mehmet Shehu had called a special meeting, Monsignor Bernardin Shllaku (Catholic Archbishop of Albania) and had given him an ultimatum that within 24 hours, he would go to Shkodra and to convene the High Council of the Catholic Clergy, and to decide the proclamation of the Catholic Church as independent of the Vatican, as the Albanian Orthodox Church was independent. At the end of his speech, Mehmeti told Shllaku that: if he did not do that, the Albanian Government would take the strictest measures until the elimination of the Catholic Clergy. Monsignor Shllaku immediately responded to Mehmet, saying: “I am 71 years old and so far I have never been harvested, so what have you done with me, take a bath now.” With these words they were separated, and later the Catholic Clergy was given another option, where they were told to make direct contacts with the Vatican and the Pope, and through the diplomatic channels of the Albanian Government, to inform them. that the Catholic Church in Albania would have a connection with the Vatican only spiritually, and administratively it would depend on the Albanian Government, just as other religious beliefs in Albania depended on. But even though contacts were established with the Pope, even though a statute was printed by the state, nothing changed and the Albanian Catholic Church remained dependent on the Vatican “, testified Pandeli Përmeti, regarding the pressure that was put on the Catholic Clergy in Albania, that he to be separated from the Vatican.
Enver: Kadri, hit Clergy
But how did the events with the Catholic Clergy unfold and how was it handled by the Albanian Government? In this regard, Pandeliu recalls: “At the beginning of 1955, Enver Hoxha summoned the Minister of the Interior, Kadri Hazbiu, and ordered him to take the necessary measures to give a strong blow to the Catholic Clergy, by arrested all the clerics who were considered the most dangerous, for the Party and the People’s Power. This order of Enver Hoxha was announced by the Minister of Interior, Kadri Hazbiu, to Major General Hilmi Seiti, who at that time was the Director of the Internal Directorate of Shkodra Region, who at that time had subordinate districts and Shkodra, Malësia Madhe, Lezha, Dukagjini, Puka and Mirdita, where most of the Catholic Clergy was located in Albania. After Hilmi Seiti became acquainted with the order of Kadri Hazbiu, who had informed him that it was “custom-made from above”, Hilmiu asked the Minister to send him for help to the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Shkodra Region, an officer from the State Security Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and specifically he had proposed that I go there (Pandeli Përmeti). Minister Hazbiu granted that request to Hilmi Seiti, whom he had a friend and loved very much. So after that, in the first quarter of 1955, by special order of the Minister, I was sent to serve for a period of six months, at the Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Shkodra Region. There Hilmi Seiti received me as a brother and after creating all the conditions for me to work as well as possible, he told me about the order that Enver Hoxha had given to Minister Kadri Hazbiu and himself, as well as the reason why he had asked me by name. and not another man. Hilmiu made available to me all the investigative files of clerics who had been convicted by the courts (with death and other sentences), to study and extract the implications of the clerics who were free and on the basis of those implications, will proposals were made by the Shkodra Internal Directorate to arrest them. I started studying the files and extracted their implications, extracting them in machine-printed extract and placing them as a separate file for each clergyman who was free. The minutes of the convicted clerics included many of the clerics who were free, including Monsignor Ernesto Çoba (after the death of Bernardin Shhllaku he was appointed Archbishop of the entire Catholic Clergy of Albania) and Father Marin Sirdanin, who was one of the best historians of Albania. In my study of those files, I noticed that there were great contradictions between them, where various events and clerics were badly confused, and there were major inaccuracies in their statements. From what I saw there I was fully convinced that during the investigation, the arrested clerics had been badly tortured and as a result of the treatment given to them, they had deposited untrue and untrue things. For everything I saw there, I immediately informed General Hilmi Seiti, telling him my thoughts. I told him that for the clerics who were free, not only was there no evidence and legal evidence to propose to arrest them, but I was surprised how those clerics were convicted by the courts of those materials that were in those files. Hilmiu approved all my thoughts and told me: ‘I have entrusted this matter to you, because I have full confidence that you will do it properly, because we are dealing with an order from Enver Hoxha, which we have to justify it with strong facts “, recalled Pandeli Përmeti, at the time when he was charged with looking at the files of the priests of the Catholic Clergy in Shkodra, following the order of Enver Hoxha, who had told Kadri Hazbi to hit Clergy.
Soviet colonel in Shkodra
But what happened next to the files of the Catholic Clergy in Shkodra and what was done to hit the clerics who were free? Regarding this, Pandeliu testified: “After my six-month service in Shkodra expired and I did not find it reasonable to study there, I asked to return to Tirana, near the branch where I was effective and where I was chairman. , Colonel Halim Xhelon. But contrary to my request and the order of the Minister, my service was extended for another six months to work in Shkodra. According to this order, I continued to stay there, for that further attitude seemed futile to me, for I was not convinced by the files I saw that there were implications for the clergy to make proposals to arrest them. During that time, Hilmi Seiti called Monsignor Ernesto Çoba and Father Marin Sirdani to his office and advised them to be careful in the future. They thanked Hilmi and left, realizing the subtext of Hilmi’s advice, which meant that “from above came the order to strike them, so they had to take measures to protect themselves.” This happened at a time when Enver Hoxha was awaiting proposals for the arrest of other clerics. After some time, seeing that Hilmi Seiti was not sending the proposals for arrests to the Ministry, quite unexpectedly, Kadri Hazbiu sent a control team to Shkodra, which was headed by Colonel Halim Xhelo and together with him, was a Soviet Colonel, named Dimitriev, who served as an adviser to the Homeland Security Directorate. Upon arrival at the Internal Affairs Directorate in Shkodra, they met with Hilmi Seiti, where they called me. During that meeting, Halim Xheloja started to hold Hilmi accountable, because he had neglected and had not made the proposals for the arrest of the clergy, according to the order he had received from the minister ?! Hilmi initially spoke calmly, arguing that: there was no legal evidence for their arrest, but without telling him anything about me. But after that, Halim Xhelo started talking to them arrogantly and held them accountable in such a way, which made the situation very tense and Hilmi responded in the same tone, saying: ‘Here in Shkodra I am Minister of the Interior himself and I do not depend on you ‘. Seeing the situation, I intervened and argued that: in those files there were no implications of the clergy and there was no need to make proposals for further arrests. After that, the Soviet advisor Dimitriev pretended to be convinced and with that the controversy was stopped and the meeting was closed and they returned to Tirana “, Pandeliu recalled that meeting with Halim Xhelo and the Soviet adviser, who were sent to Shkodra to strik Catholic Clergy.
Revenge against Pandeli and Major General Hilmi Seiti
But what happened to Pandeli and the Director of the Shkodra Regional Directorate of Internal Affairs, Major General Hilmi Seiti, after they rejected the order to crack down on the Catholic Clergy and made no proposals to arrest other clerics? Regarding this, Pandeliu testified: “When I returned to Tirana and started working, my boss, Halim Xhelo, called me and said:‘ Why did we send you to Shkodra to protect Hilmi Seiti ’?! I replied, “I did not defend Hilmi, but only the truth.” After a few days, the Director of the Ministry of Interior, Major General Halil Pulo, called me and communicated to me the transfer to Gjirokastra, telling me that “the party needed it there, because the base had to be strengthened.” Out of desire, I was forced to go to Gjirokastra, but when I went there, a colleague of mine, in co-operation, told me that in the characteristic that Halim Xheloja had done to me, it was said that I was a “suspicious person and an enemy of the Party”! Shortly after I was in service in Vlora, by order of Enver Hoxha, the characteristics of the cadres were read in their eyes, and taking advantage of this, I asked Sulejman Manoku and Harrilla Konomi to read me my characteristics. At first they hesitated, but at my insistence, they read to me and wrote down what my friend had told me. I was horrified by what was written and immediately wrote a letter to Kadri Hazbi, who called me in Tirana, where he had gathered the entire College of the Ministry and where only Halim Xheloja was missing. In their presence, Kadriu told me: ‘Pandeli, you have the right to be disturbed by the characteristic that Halimi has made for you, but we will tear it down and go and work without worrying about your work’. After that, I left for Vlora and after some time, I learned that Hilmi Seiti had been summoned to the Ministry of Interior in a meeting attended by the three main people who came after Enver Hoxha. After two days, Halimi was summoned to the meeting of the Bureau of the Party Committee in Shkodra, where he was severely accused of: “he had softened the class struggle and that he had agreed with the enemies of the Party and the People’s Power.” On that day, April 26, 1960, before the news broke that “Major General Hilmi Seiti had died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage”, his wife, who was in Tirana at the time, left for in Shkodra and found Hilmi still alive, hospitalized, but speechless. Hilmiu with signs told his wife that an officer with a shovel had taken his revolver and forced him to drink an aspirin “, Pandeli Përmeti ended his story, adding that from that, the conclusion is drawn that Hilmi Seiti was poisoned by order of Enver Hoxha.
The plan to overthrow Enver Hoxha
One of the main problems that Pandeli Përmeti denounced to Enver Hoxha in 1967 through a long letter of 36 pages, is the bomb at the Soviet Embassy in Tirana. Regarding the situation in Albania at the time and the reasons why Enver Hoxha was forced to agree to the staging of the incident at the Soviet Embassy, Pandeliu testified: , which had come as a result of the numerous resentments that had accumulated in the people from the extremely tight reforms and the extreme policy of class warfare that Enver Hoxha and his government were pursuing, also exploiting the breakdown of relations with Yugoslavia, services. Anglo-American secrets, in cooperation with several other Western countries, began drafting a plan aimed at overthrowing Enver Hoxha, through an armed uprising from within the country. To carry out this plan, they created and supported the “Free Albania” Committee led by well-known anti-communist exponents who had left Albania in 1944. Around this committee, the exponents of the Albanian anti-communist political diaspora who were abroad were mainly united. they began to get in touch with their people in Albania. After that, some groups of saboteurs from the land, air and sea were thrown in Albania, whose mission was to prepare the ground for the beginning of the uprising “./Memorie.al
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