Saimir Maloku
Memorie.al/publishes some of the unknown stories of Sajmir Maloku, a former military engineer who graduated with a ‘Gold Medal’ at the University of Tirana, who was arrested by the State Security on May 13, 1976, in the presence of 600 people in a large movie theater in the city of Burrell, accused of being a “potential agent of British Intelligence and of agitation and propaganda against popular power and the communist regime.”
Regarding the real reason for his arrest, Sajmir Maloku testifies: “Because the Albanian Public Television broadcast only 4 hours of television broadcasts per day, in 1970, reading a lot of foreign scientific literature, I managed to build a simple electronic television device. (converters of UHF Band to VHF TV signals). This invention of mine made it possible for the Albanian people in the future to watch freely the shows of the Italian and Yugoslav television stations of the UHF Band, especially in the mountainous and coastal areas of our country.
The first question the investigator asked me in the first investigative session was: “You are a famous Western spy, just like Mata Hari. “Tell us, you filthy enemy, your agency activity with the Secret Agencies of 17 Foreign Countries of the West and the World”. This is because the State Security had great doubts about my meetings with foreign tourists over 8 years and the numerous postal correspondences with philatelists of the above countries. Today this investigator is alive.
During a search of our home in Tirana and my hotel closet in Burrell City, State Security found and retrieved the Holy Books of the Bible and Quran in English; many old English books and magazines; some dictionaries and blocks with sketches of modern television antennas; my electronic television equipment with two transistors and a television signal amplifier; etc “.
All these and other events of his life, from: childhood, schooling, youth period with life in Tirana in the early ’70s, pursuit and surveillance by the State Security, graduation, appointment as a military liaison engineer in a department of Burrel, arrest, trial and public unmasking, investigation, prison, etc., Sajmir Maloku has summarized in a book entitled “HOW I SURVIVED IN THE COMMUNIST HELL” (Publication of EMAL in Albanian and English), parts of which he has given for publication exclusively for Memorie.al
Continued from the previous issue
The communist persecutors removed God from Albania, but not from my soul and the people. And today, we pray to God for a better life and that our children and the younger generation do not have our bitter fate. Therefore, communist crimes must be condemned and our persecutors exposed. Today, they roam free, receive hefty pensions, and mock us and their children, murmuring behind the windows of magnificent villas, traveling the world from one hotel to another. This is mainly because their wives privatized and bought the best shops in the capital at low prices.
“Why were the communist persecutors and executioners not punished”?!
During the years of Democracy, the Albanian people said: “Why were the communist persecutors and executioners not punished?! Why is the West silent about this?! In all countries of the world, the laws of their justice punish anyone who commits a crime against people and society as well as the persons who hide these crimes. I ask the West a question: Are the crimes of communist persecutors, and are they still called crimes today or did the dust of oblivion cover them? Why is the international community silent and did not help the layer of former political persecuted in Albania in condemning our persecutors who are still alive and today roam free in Albania and in the world?
During these 28 years of Democracy, no communist persecutor was convicted of inhumane crimes in Albania. This shows that the seeds of communism are still in Albania and have not completely disappeared. I pray to God that this seed does not sprout and grow again in our land. The fable of my life was “120 Communist Wolves and the Democratic Lamb.” Communism taught the people to sing and listen every day to the revolutionary song “The pickaxe in one hand and the rifle in the other.” While today, in Democracy, the Albanian people walk with the slogans: “We love Albania like all of Europe” and “Opposition, but brothers”.
Communism incurred colossal expenditures for the Army and for the fortification of Albania, and this could cause a person or a small child to starve to death, from lack of medicine and food. Now in Democracy the state budget is being used for the construction of roads and highways as well as new airports, hospitals and schools. Here is the great change of Democracy to Communism. If during the communist regime our people moved only inside Albania, surrounded by barbed wire as if it were a prison or a very large concentration camp, today it moves freely in European countries and everywhere in the world.
“Communism was like a mangy goat with its tail up.”
So, Communism was like a mangy goat holding its tail up, while today democracy is like a double-headed eagle, flying free everywhere in the world. This is why the Albanian communist regime was the most brutal, dangerous and bloodiest regime in all of Europe, where tens of thousands of people were innocent victims because their ideal was today’s western democracy. In addition to being sentenced to many years in prison by the courts and discrimination against the people, the communist regime tried to completely destroy the personality and health of political prisoners, until their disappearance without a trace.
I must emphasize that although the communist regime was collapsing day by day, he decided to take revenge on me, two weeks after the fall of the monument to the communist dictator in Tirana. On March 6, 1991, when I and some of my friends were at the head of a demonstration in support of the Democratic Party, attended by over 10,000 protesters on Kavaja Street, the Communist Police fired a sniper rifle. of high precision, three times against me, with the aim of physically eliminating me in revenge for my great contribution to the dramatic events of February 20, 1991 in Tirana.
“Spartak Deliu, suddenly appeared in front of me and was seriously injured in the head”
A 14-year-old boy, Spartak Deliu, suddenly appeared in front of me and was severely wounded in the head. The bullet hit him above the eyebrow and hit him in the back of the head. A few minutes later he died in my arms, in the building of a neighborhood ambulance, which was 50 meters away from the scene, in the presence of doctor Mr. Lika, nurse Filda Heta and another doctor, who were and worked diligently to alleviate wounds and save lives. Then I, with tears in my eyes and exceedingly sad, holding in my arms this martyr of Democracy, descended from the second floor of the Ambulance.
His companions placed the victim’s body on a three-wheeled motorcycle and took him to the hospital and then to his home, from where he would be escorted to his final residence. Some residents of my neighborhood, who were near the Ambulance building, overheard the conversations of the State Security officers, who among them expressed the opinion that the intention of the Police was for me to be killed as a cause of my contribution, in the demolition of the dictator’s monument and in democratic movements. This criminal act forced me to hide in the houses of Tirana for a few days, where my friends and acquaintances opened the doors of their houses to me and with them their noble hearts.
This extremely criminal and cruel event, I have reflected in some print media, as evidence of communist crimes. Throughout my life I have thanked God who saved me three times from death. First, when I was born pregnant, with a fairly small body weight. Second, when I was in the basement of the Burrell Home Affairs Branch for nearly 200 days. Third, in the painful events of this day, which showed the cruel and bloody face of the communist regime in Albania. And how shameful and offensive it is for the people, when you hear today, in the time of Democracy, that the nostalgics of communism boast of the events of World War II, but hide and remain silent about the crimes of the communist regime.
This is because during the Second World War, Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu who were the main commanders of partisan formations, and killed quite a few honest fighters, while after the Second World War, they became ruthless dictators towards our people. With the victory of Democracy, the President of the Republic at that time, Mr. Sali Berisha, decorated Spartak Deliu as the First Martyr and Martyr of Democracy. Also, with the decision of the Municipal Council of Tirana, a memorial was erected in his honor. But in the last two years, the Municipality of Tirana, dominated by the Socialist Party, removed this memorial in order to erase the traces of communist crimes, as is happening with many other memorials of the martyrs of Democracy.
I remind the Socialist Government of the famous expression: “The sun is not covered with a sieve.” By analogy, the crimes of communism cannot be erased, because they are in the memory of the people and are becoming known through electronic and print media. It is very painful to remember mainly the events of 1973 – 1976, when I watched with dozens of young people, who together with their families were interned in the worst and most lost villages of the country, because their fathers were imprisoned or shot for Western thoughts. These boys and girls of the capital, were mostly peers with me or friends of the University or the neighborhood. After many years of exile, these handsome boys and girls were weakened and faded like flowers withered by hard work and poor living conditions in the place of exile. Some of them committed suicide, or did not start a family.
While dictator Hoxha and Prime Minister Shehu, in their speeches before the people, proudly said: “We condemned the enemies of the class who wanted to overthrow the popular power, but also cleaned the capital from their accursed offspring.” Even today, the Albanian people continue to experience in their brains the countless crimes of communism and the great depression that our dictatorial regime caused to our society. People clothed with the power and nostalgia of communism, try to hide or minimize these cruel crimes for certain political purposes. They forget that every crime or murder has a perpetrator, and our layer day by day is denouncing these criminals.
Our persecuted political strata do not interfere in the historical problems of what contribution many communist criminals made during the National Liberation War, but we testify to their crimes during the communist regime. They defend the thesis that whoever was a partisan or a communist, did not commit cruel crimes against other people. This reminds you of that famous proverb: “People say, here is the bear, while the hunter says that I have not yet found the footprints of the bear.” The communist dictatorship itself was a state crime in violation of the Criminal Code and the Justice laws of this state. The good work of the Authority for Information of Former State Security Documents and the Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes as well as the Institute for Democracy, Media and Culture, the Institute for the Integration of Former Political Persecuted and the Online Crime Archive of communism on the digital platform “Kujto.al”, with founder Agron Shehaj – former PD deputy are making an open unmasking of these criminals, who hid their crimes, but the opening of the files showed the opposite.
“How did I learn the names of the 120 State Security officers who had followed me?”
Just as in a family when one of their men dies suddenly, it seeks to know the diagnosis of death, so also our stratum seeks to know through old documents of the former State Security, who their criminals were as: former State Security officers, undercover collaborators, investigators, judges, other prosecutors, and the horrific torture they inflicted on their families. I was also very shocked and had a great spiritual liberation when I learned the names of more than 120 State Security officers and their associates who had followed, monitored and eavesdropped on me and my family as if we were the most agents. of the West in Albania. This is just like the scenes in the movies, where a herd of 120 rabid wolves’ rushes in and tries to catch the lamb in the herd and tear it to pieces.
Time showed that the infamous plan and their filthy activity against us was a complete failure and discredit before the people and the communist state. They accused me and my father of being a spy like Mata Hari and of England. The indigenous people of Tirana and that of Central Albania, at that time used an insulting and vulgar expression for the officers and spies of the State Security: “These have become like a scoundrel following us from behind”. In those former communist countries where the truth of these crimes has been revealed, society has moved forward as in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and others. While the opposite has happened in our country, where democracy has no day of victory and nostalgic people dance every day as if in Albania no crime occurred during the communist regime.
The Western-backed Democracy broom should give these nostalgic people the right punishment and remove them from state institutions by blocking entry visas to Western countries. Our people want democracy to move forward as in Western countries and not be restrained by these people who until yesterday despised these countries and today are removed as if they were their friends. It is our people as true witnesses to these horrific events and their anti-Western speeches at the time of the communist dictatorship. Dictator Hoxha and Prime Minister Shehu in their bombastic speeches in one hand held and shook the olive branch, while in the other the knife with poison. Democracy is clearing day by day the great dust that had covered the truth of communist history. God says, “Confess to purify your soul from the sins you have committed in this world, because otherwise, the Hell of curses awaits you in the underworld.” Therefore, all the criminals and their secret collaborators who are still alive, or their sons, instead of apologizing to our family and the families of the victims, are doing the opposite today.
It is surprising that today, the members of the Socialist Party pretend not to be descendants of the Communist or Labor Party and on the other hand defend with the greatest fanaticism the ideal of these two previous parties and their crimes. We, the former political persecuted, did not take revenge on their people, but they should not protect our criminals and persecutors or make fun of our suffering. Democracy is showing that as long as the shadow of communism is in Albania, the political situation is even more turbulent. As a result, the morale of our people has dropped day by day and the youth wants to leave our country.
“Albanian communism in 1989, suddenly invented us and issued the ‘Kanun of Ramiz Alia”
Today the nostalgics of communism have awakened from lethargic sleep and openly annoy the layer of our suffering. If a century ago in a large area of Northern Albania the “Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini” prevailed, Albanian communism in 1989, suddenly invented and issued the “Kanun of Ramiz Alia” according to the model “Gorbachev of Katowice – Poland”. From this “Famous Communist Kanun of Ramiz Alia” we secretly got the infamous Law no. 7501 i dt. 19. 07. 1991, which destroyed the old properties of the peasantry and the citizenship”. In the years of democracy, as a result of this “infamous testament of the last communist President Ramiz Alia”, thousands of people were killed, among them in vain for a handful of land or a water line. This is because this “canon of the communist alla model” instructed the communists to mock our layer of politically persecuted people for property and to divide it as they pleased. This prevented most of the former owners from taking over their properties.
The victim of not taking these properties was also the majority of our stratum. It is astonishing how Ramiz Alia, the last communist President and the rulers in the time of Democracy called us former owners of all persons who were old and lawful owners who also had old maps and documents of their properties. This highly wrong and unjust policy caused this great mess with the division of old properties. Like Ramiz Alia, the dictator Hoxha invented and left as a legacy to this people before his death the famous opera “Albanian Communism”, where he was “the composer and its main conductor”. With the demolition of the monument to the communist dictator on February 20, 1991, the music of this infamous communist opera stopped. But these last six years, with the victory of the Socialist Party in the Parliamentary Electoral Elections, the music of this above communist opera continues to be heard with the change that it has a new conductor and is being broadcast on dozens of Albanian TV channels, enjoying Enverists and their nostalgics. Western countries and the democratic people of Albania were surprised and expressed dissatisfaction that the Socialist Government and its Ministry of Culture ordered and gave permission to the Central Film Archive for many private, national and state television stations to rebroadcast communist feature films and documentaries in uncensored way.
The layer of political persecuted rightly stated in the media that these anti-democratic actions above are a real proof that the Socialist Party is the successor and nostalgic of the Communist (Labor) Party. Surprisingly, Western diplomacy and our people today are silent, while the younger generation is perverting and saying that it is better to leave Albania and live in the West because communism is being re-established in our country. “How did this old drum of Communism not stop, which falls every day for almost 80 years without a break and deafened our ears ?!” The tree of Communism during the last 80 years, deeply planted its roots in the Albanian land. Even today its fruits are eaten by the nostalgics of Communism.
I say to these nostalgic people today: “Eat, nostalgic communists, and keep eating, but one day this cursed tree will wither and fall on your heads.” As I have pointed out before, the television retransmission in the last six years of these Communist films and documentaries is a black mark on democracy in Albania. This is because the United States, Great Britain, Western countries, the religion and the stratum of the persecuted are insulted and insulted and the dictator Hoxha and the communist regime, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Tito, the Albanian-Russian, Albanian-Chinese friendship, the cult are praised. of the individual about the dictator Hoxha and his speeches at the Communist Party congresses, communist propaganda to young children and youth, etc. This is an unprecedented shame and a serious insult to democracy in our country as well as a step back in Albania’s integration into the European Union. This shows to the western world the true face of the nostalgia of communism in Albanian politics.
Therefore, not only the US and EU countries, but also the Albanian Parliament must take a joint decision that whoever praises and comes out with the portraits of dictator Hoxha, will be banned from entering Western countries for 5 to 10 years. This is also for those people who today are deputies, mayors or prefects of the Regions and others who praise the dictator Hoxha and threaten the leaders of the persecuted political associations. My body proved what Albanian communism was, where I went through the most severe tortures. That is why I have a great moral and spiritual obligation to defend democracy and to expose the Enverists and nostalgics of communism.
These are the instructions of the US State Department and the Council of Europe to uncover the truth of the crimes and the communist past in Albania. Dictator Enver Hoxha and his communist regime brought a “stream of tears” to thousands of mothers and relatives of innocent victims over 47 years. I call on all politicians of the left, right and the Center to accept our above demands in respect of the terrible suffering of our persecuted political strata. If you respect our stratum, you also show respect for the Vatican, the US and Western countries. This is because thousands of victims and revered priests, in front of the firing squad, said: “Down with dictatorship!” Down with Enver Hoxha!” “Long live the US!” “Freedom – Democracy!” other. Remember, dear politicians, that our demands and protests against the communist regime in those years were fair and democratic, because freedom is the most precious thing for a people/Memorie.al
