“After putting an iron on the door, Lieutenant Baba came to me and…”/ The well-known historian and researcher publishes the documents about Hodo Habil from Kuçi i Vlora

By Kastriot Dervishi

Memorie.al / For years, the name of this partisan was mentioned, who after the war joined the forces of the People’s Defense Division. The murders, and especially the animal tortures against women, made Lieutenant Baba so notorious that the regime itself forced him to punish him.

An ignorant and uneducated, typical representative of the regime of the ignorant began to follow the methods typical of murderers and thieves. Hodo Habil was arrested on 1.6.1947. On June 5, 14, 1947, he was interrogated by Fadil Kapisizi and then by Zoi Themeli and Mustafa Qilimi.

Hodo Habilit, born in 1918 in Kuç of Vlora, illiterate, farmer by profession, of poor peasant origin, illegal from 1942, but a partisan from May 1944 with the 8th brigade, and then in the 6th brigade where he had responsibility up to company commander.

He had gone all the way to Bosnia with the partisan formations. After coming to Albania, he settled around February 1945, with the forces of the 2nd People’s Protection Brigade in Shkodër, “for the pursuit of criminals”, in Koplik. So in April 1945, he says that his subordinate, Pertef Pëllumbi, had tortured several women in the village of Vermosh. From Koplik, he moved to Mirdita with the task of “chasing criminals”.

In May 1947, he arrests and tortures Pjetër Kola Mhilli from Kallmeti. After him, he arrests Kolë Simoni and Gjyste Vogli. Being part of a gang in power, together with another communist, he decided that Pjetër Kolë Mhilli should be shot on the way to Lezhë. The patrol “meticulously” carried out his order. Together with another communist, they decide to shoot Kola and Gjysten. He shot the first one with the same method as Mhilli, while he was late for Gjysten.

Statements of Lieutenant Baba

– Before I committed the murder, I arrested a girl in the town of Fishte, because I was informed that it harbors illegals. After I arrested him, after threatening him, I gave it to the partisans to force him. They tortured him. I then called him into a room and forced two women to strip him naked.

But after they couldn’t undress her, the girl didn’t want to and cried, so I forced her to undress. This, out of my fear, was undressed as my mother did. After I undressed her I left her undressed for half an hour and then I let her get dressed. The naked girl was seen not only by some soldiers, but also by some of the people.

-After 3-4 days I arrested another man in this village and stripped him naked from evening to morning. Then I let him get dressed and released him. I told him to hand over his brother to me. Some residents have also seen this.

– In Mnelle village, I forced two nuns to tell us the connections they had with illegals and who were sabotaging the youth’s journey to the railway. The priest took one of them home because of the pressure I gave him.

– In the village of Kallmet where I shot Pjeter Kole Dushin, before I shot him, I called his daughter at dinner, held her for two hours, and then released her. I didn’t do anything to him.

– I stripped a woman in Dedaj village of Koplik and put her in the snow. I also beat some people there. I didn’t put cats in the man’s pants.”

The trial against Hodo Habil started on 14.6.1947 in the village of Hajmel by the Military Court of Shkodra. At first, the defendant stated that he had been decorated several times, that he was against the ballistas and birders. Various statements about the tortures and crimes of Lieutenant Baba are brought to the court.

Gjyste Gjergj Vogli from Hajmeli testified in court:

“Lieutenant Baba has come to the house of my cousin, Kolë Simon. He tied up his cousin and took them all out. He came from the side of my house and after locking everyone in a room, he asked me where my brothers were. When I told him that I have them outside, he told me to secure the door.

I told him that the door was secured, but he told me to get up and secure it as we were going to make love if I wanted Kola and I to escape alive. Getting up on his own, he told me that he couldn’t eat this thing, to sit with the door open and my brothers would come and catch him. For this he took an iron to put on the door. He came to me with a machine gun in his hand and said: ‘I’m going to pour you out today, I’m pouring out your Christ’, he started doing things to me that I can’t tell you.”

With decision no. 192, dated 15.5.1947, the court declared him guilty based on law no. 41 and sentenced him to death, on the rope. It was left in force by decision no. 154, dated 27.6.1947 of the Supreme Military Court. Memorie.al