Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents issued by the Archive of the Ministry of Interior which belong to 1968, where it is about a correspondence with some reports with the initials “Top secret”, where the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kadri Hazbiu, Director of The State Security, Feçor Shehu, the First Secretary of the Party Committee of the Vlora District, Petro Dode, inform the Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Hysni Kapo, regarding the extraordinary event that took place at the Pashaliman Military-Naval Base. , where “enemy elements” set fire to the Navy’s ammunition depot. All the detailed details of those reports on the serious event that was repeated and alarm the senior communist leadership in Tirana, where as a result, for “lack of vigilance” were arrested the storekeeper Bajram Bajrami, construction technician Aleko Pango and the normist, Sherif Daupaj. Letter from the first secretary of the Vlora Party Committee, Petro Dode, who informs Hysni Kapo about the Internal Affairs Branch and the Prosecution of that district, who, contrary to the Party’s rules, arrested the communist, Sherif Daupaj, and launched an investigation against the supplier. of the construction site, party member, Ismet Bajrami, without first obtaining the approval of the Party Bureau of that district… ?!
The news given yesterday (June 30) in many print and visual media about the fire that broke out near the Pashaliman Military Base, where to extinguish its flames, many forces from the ground and some helicopters from air, is not an unknown event that happens for the first time! Excluding those of 1997, where most of the wards, warehouses and military depots were blown up, opened and looted almost all over the country, including Pashaliman Base, that ward is one of the most important in the Albanian Army. , before and after the ’90s, there were such events in the period of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha. Not only the theft of weapons and ammunition, but also the burning of its warehouses.
And these events took place in the late 1960s, or more precisely in the early autumn of 1968, when the communist regime of Tirana, through Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, in an extraordinary session of the People’s Assembly, denounced the Soviet armed aggression against Czechoslovakia and the Albanian Army were said to be at the height of their power, and were ready to: “withstand an enemy attack or coalition of enemies, both the NATO Military Pact and the Warsaw Pact, and come out.” victorious over them ”. Which was also sanctioned in the Theses of the High Council of Defense where it talked about the People’s Military Art, as well as being written in large letters, not only on the stands and facades of military units, but also in the regulations and books of the Army Albanian, who taught soldiers and officers in Free Schools, Schools of Non-Commissioned Officers and Officers in Zall-Herr, Laç Vau i Dejës, Bunavi e Vlorës, United School of Officers, “Enver Hoxha” in Tirana, as well as the Staff Academy General, “Mehmet Shehu”.
So in this atmosphere of time, Pashaliman’s Naval Base, which was and remains the pride of the Albanian Army, would be looted and set on fire, an event which would alarm the high communist leadership of that time. Among other things, this is made known by some archival documents that bear the logo “Top secret”, where there is a correspondence between the first secretary of the Vlora Party Committee, Petro Dode and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kadri Hazbiu, and his deputy, Feçor Shehu, who held the post of director of state security, informing the secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Hysni Kapon, about the extremely serious event that had taken place in Pashaliman. For more than the correspondence between them, we are familiar with the documents in question which Memorie.al is publishing in full and with the relevant facsimiles.
Report of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Feçor Shehu, for the Central Committee, for the fire in the depot of Pashaliman Base
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS FOR SECRETS
FIRST DIRECTORY Exemplary Nr. 1
Nr. 1915 Prot.
Tirana, on 4.X.1968
CENTRAL COMMITTEE of the ALP
INFORMATION
On the fire caused in the warehouse of construction-assembly materials and materials of the Fleet plant in Pashaliman
Having many irregularities in the warehouses of the construction company “Perlat Rexhepi”, such as lack of control by those responsible, mistakes in placing the staff, as both the warehouse keeper and the supplier worked inside the warehouse on the pretext that there was no office (both were) first cousins), it is possible that the fire was set by them, to cover any eventual deficit.
In the end, the fire may have been caused by negligence, as people who had nothing to do with the warehouse, worked in an office set up in the corridor of the warehouse and until 18.00 on 26.9.1968, played chess, smoked and smoked. without extinguishing them and throwing them to the ground, it has also been proven that during the game, under the pretext of watching, other people were introduced, who also smoked.
The analysis showed that in that warehouse there was no order in the placement of materials, since the company had allowed them to be placed in a place, carbine, oil paint, linseed oil, mattresses and quilts, cloths, electrical materials, plumbing, etc. In addition to these, whoever came to the warehouse and came out with work and unemployment, the warehouse was not provided with guards, at least during the night and its main door was not locked.
By order of the managers of the enterprise, a barracks that were offices for the employees of the administration was demolished and these employees entered the corridor of the warehouse.
In agreement with the command of the garrison in Pashaliman, the control of other warehouses of this base was organized, from which it emerged that:
There is no internal rule on material storage, e.g. charcoal barrels, kept together with engine parts, domixhana with alcohol and sulfuric acid, are kept with materials that can cause fire.
Additions are made to the lines on the shelves of materials contrary to the technical rule.
There is a lack of fire-fighting measures, including the base’s own fire truck, which was misused and stripped of its fire-fighting equipment, and so on.
From the ascertained deficiencies, it is noticed that the orientations given for strengthening the combat readiness, including the measures for storage of warehouses, have remained only tasks raised theoretically in the plans, while in practice no measures have been taken.
From what has been said above, we come to the following conclusions:
The Security Section in Pashaliman and the Internal Affairs Branch in Vlora, in this case, did not perform their duty well. In the timely detection of enemy attempts, as well as in clearing the base of unwanted elements, which in fact had both in construction and in the military unit. For example, in one case the Security found that three people had bad biographies, the problem led to the Commissioner of the Submarine Brigade, who did not remove them with the pretext that they were not dangerous, and the comrades of the Security, although not convinced, did not. ‘ made it a problem above.
Comrades of the fire service of the Internal Affairs Branch in Vlora did not make a fuss near the command to enter the wards, in order to control and help to take measures for fire protection.
The command of this unit and the construction company did not pay due attention to the implementation of government orders (No. 2 dated April 15, 1967) for measures against fires, requirements for the placement of materials in warehouses, external security of the warehouse and had allowed the placement in a building of civil and military materials.
Controls by the teams of the Ministry of People’s Defense are not extended to the systematization and control of materials in warehouses, their provision and enforcement of fire regulations. Likewise, the comrades of the Ministry of Construction and the Executive Committee in Vlora have not been involved in these problems.
Given the lack of findings that led to the above event:
propose
To make the problem once again, especially for military facilities, the rigorous implementation of the government order No.2. dated April 15, 1967.
Consider the possibility of introducing the fire service of the branches of the Internal P. even in military facilities, or unable to organize this service by the Ministry of People’s Defense, putting on alert both fire-fighting vehicles and relevant personnel.
For military facilities under construction, in addition to the control by the Ministry of People’s Defense, to exercise control by the Ministry of Construction.
Based on the shortcomings identified during the inspection of Pashaliman warehouses, we think that the Ministry of People’s Defense will inspect other warehouses in each department.
The shortcomings observed in the work of the State Security Bodies should become a problem with all operational security workers, in order to prevent in time any attempt of the enemy in the economic sector.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE 1st DIRECTORY
FEÇOR SHEHU
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Minister Kadri Hazbiu’s letter to Hysni Kapo
Comrade Hysni
Regarding the material submitted by the Security Directorate, I emphasize:
The situation is intolerable and the commands of the relevant bodies must take the matter seriously in order to establish order. Otherwise, if we continue like this, we will be in front of the unexpected in the army depots.
The problem is getting worse because the materials are being added, they are being used more and more and it is giving way to violating the rules of storage and losing control.
In addition to the Army and Territorial Security Bodies, there are also important and difficult tasks. These bodies are not understanding and are not applying quickly to the task, to detect violations, and worse, to fight relentlessly to correct the shortcomings.
They still continue to consider the task performed only by making presentations before the commands.
Therefore, in addition to the sentence, to propose to the responsible cadres, in the disorders of the wards, we are provoking for this issue a meeting with the cadres of the Security of the Army and the bodies of Internal Affairs.
With respect
KADRI HAZBIU
Letter from the First Secretary of the Vlora Party Committee, Petro Dode, to the Central Committee of the ALP
ALBANIAN WORK PARTY Secret
COMMITTEE OF THE CIRCULAR PARTY Example No.1
Vlore
Nr. 395
Subject: On the burning of the depot in Pashalima
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF P.P.Albania
TIRANA
As we announced on 26.IX.1968, around 21:30, a warehouse was burnt in Pashaliman where there were various materials of NSHN “Perlat Rexhepi” and the ward of the Navy. This is a serious political event above all and for reasons of place and time when it happened, in addition and the material damage is great.
Although it is not yet known exactly, materials with a value of about 500,000 Lekë were burned or out of use. The belief so far is that we are dealing with a diversion caused by enemy elements.
There is another possible but unconvincing variant, that of intentional burning by the storekeeper and supplier, who may have stolen and caused the burning to lose track and that again is hostile action.
Investigations to uncover the causes and people who burned the warehouse continue. However, we have reached some conclusions where the most important are:
There has been a marked lack of vigilance on the part of both the leaders and the basic organization of the NSHN Party, as well as of the Party organizations and the command of the military unit.
The guidelines related to the organization, functioning and systematization of materials in warehouses have been violated.
In a silo divided by three warehouses with plywood or pupuli were three warehouses, one of the NSHN and two of the military unit.
Inside the warehouse was an office where the storekeepers, normists, suppliers, etc. were staying. Various employees entered and left the office, and the warehouse doors were unsecured. In this office, chess, smoking, etc. were played.
Appropriate measures were not taken by the military unit to have the various fire-fighting vehicles on standby, above all the fire engines were not on standby.
All of these have left room for action for enemy elements. We emphasize that during the last two years there have been three other fire cases at the base, such as that of the submarine, in the cotton depot and a fire in the pier.
There has been no strict control over people entering these facilities. In the Party organization came out, e.g. that: there continued to be people who had previously worked at the base, but who had subsequently left or been expelled and were still on the post-block list.
Although the leaders of NSHN have gone several times to the building that was being built, they have not helped and take measures for their part to fix the anomalies that there were in the building.
Base managers have not taken the necessary security measures for the various base facilities.
After the incident, a series of swift measures were taken. The meeting of the Bureau of the Party Committee was held, and measures were taken to systematize and regulate the other bases of the base.
Meetings were held with directors and secretaries of the party’s grassroots economic organizations to learn from this, to strengthen the revolutionary vigilance and to control and take serious and swift action on the anomalies that could be in their enterprises. .
In NSHN “Perlat Rexhepi” the meeting of the basic organization of the Party of the construction site of Pashaliman took place. Measures have been taken to keep the burned warehouse ready no later than October 10. Such measures by the Party and the state have also been taken in the military unit of the base.
After some more data is obtained, from the ongoing investigations, the Bureau of the Party Committee will specifically analyze this issue to find out the necessary lessons and other tasks related to this and in some cases. other fires we have had in recent times.
The Justice Bureau has so far arrested 3 people, Barjam Barjami, a storekeeper, Aleko Pango, a construction technician, and the communist Sherif Daupaj, a normist, who last left with Alex Pangon from the office where they had been drinking cingare and where they had played chess and left the warehouse window open.
We emphasize that the arrest of the communist Sherif Daupaj was made without the authorization of the Bureau of the Party Committee. For this, he warned the comrades of the Branch and the Prosecution to strictly respect the orders of the Central Committee of the ALP on the procedures for the arrest of the communists.
In addition to these, it has been allowed to investigate the member of the Party, Ismet Bajrami, as a supplier in the construction site, who is the first cousin of the warehouseman who was arrested and who supplied the warehouse that was burned.
SECRETARY I K.P. DISTRICT
PETRO DODE
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………
Feçor Shehu’s information for the Central Committee of the ALP
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS “TEPER SEKRET”
FIRST DIRECTORY Exemplary Nr. 1
Nr. 1915 Prot.
Tirana, on 4.X.1968
I N F O R M A T I O N
On the fire caused in the warehouse of construction-assembly materials and materials of the Fleet plant in Pashaliman
On September 26, 1968, at 9:53 pm, a fire broke out in the high-mentioned warehouse, where various materials were found, which were worth over 1 million ALL.
From the analysis made to you at the scene of this event, we conclude that this act was committed:
By hostile persons with counter-revolutionary intent, exploiting the great disturbances that have existed at the base of Pashaliman.
It is worth noting that the military facility, since April 1967 when a fire broke out in a submarine, has had three other fire cases.
A person who is being pursued by the Security in the village of Dukat, before this warehouse was burned, has expressed his desire for such an act.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE 1st DIRECTORY
FEÇOR SHEHU
Memorie.al
