Dashnor Kaloçi
The fortieth part
Memorie.al/publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (the fund of the former PPSh Central Committee), which belong to the year 1982, where there is a file with relations, reports, instructions, information, letters, minutes of meetings of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, etc., regarding the “hostile activity” of the member of the Political Bureau and the Minister of People’s Defense, Kadri Hazbiu, as well as some of his closest collaborators, such as : Feçor Shehu, Mihallaq Ziçishti, Llambi Peçini, Zoi Themeli, etc., who were accused by Enver Hoxha, as “the main collaborators of the police agent Mehmet Shehu”. In the file in question, there is also a document with Kadri Hazbi’s self-criticism, dated September 27, 1982, sent to Enver Hoxha and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, regarding “his poor work at the head of the Ministry of of Internal Affairs and the lack of vigilance, for not detecting hostile groups, all of which the party and Comrade Enver had discovered”. In this document, the former head of the Ministry of the Interior writes: “From the beginning of September, when I was getting my hair cut, a driver who works with the transport lines abroad came to me and told me that, returning from abroad, the drivers they had spoken badly about my fate. I didn’t ask him what he had been told, but I told him to go and report it where it should be. He added in more detail that he had spoken to the companion who stays with me, which I ordered him to report. He told me that he had done this. I don’t know whether I told him about this case or not, friend Hekuran. After a few days when I returned from a 3-4 day service, my family told me for the first time that they are taking us on the phone and so on, in meetings they ask about you, where are you and how are you, because we have heard things not good, as if we have escaped as a family abroad, as if I have been dismissed from my position as Minister of Defense, etc. I told you that anyone who asks about us, you say we are fine and don’t engage in further conversation. I emphasize that these things have spread so much that even one of the workers who serves in my family left without expecting that something is happening with me and my family. All these things, I told my friend Ramiz, together with my opinion that there is not enough fight against these harmful slogans and that they are spreading from Tirana in the first place”. Likewise, the document in question also contains the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity of Kadri Hazbi” from the period after the war when he was in the position of Chief of Army Security, which has brought fierce debates, they all discussed, starting from: Adil Çarçani, Hekuran Isai, Simon Stefani, Manush Muftiu, Rita Marko, Prokop Murra, Photo Çami, Lenka Çuko, Pali Miska, Besnik Bekteshi, Muho Asllani and Llambi Gegprifti. Even the debates and strong tones in that meeting were not absent between Enver Hoxha and Kadri Hazbiu, which continued throughout the meeting, for several sessions. But for more about these, we know the document, which is published for the first time by Memorie.al
Continues from last issue
The document with the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity” of Kadri Hazbi was analyzed
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY TOP SECRET
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
RECORDS
OF THE MEETING OF THE POLITICAL BUREAU OF THE PPS CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON OCTOBER 8, 1982
Agenda:
- Discussion on the serious words of friend Kadri Hazbiu
- Approval of the report on transport to the plenum
All members of the Political Bureau are present at the meeting.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEETING
The meeting was opened and led by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the PPS, Comrade Enver Hoxha.
Discussion on the serious crimes of comrade Kadri Hazbiu.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: For them, there has been a deserved but also undeserved respect, and in a word, a certain cult has been created for them. And the cult is created, both from familiarity and from fear; because we must not forget that the organs and departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of People’s Defense are two oppressive weapons of the dictatorship of the proletariat, directed against the internal enemy element and external. In the Ministry of the Interior, it depends a lot on how this or that functionary understands the directives of the Party. If he understands it well, then the people will love and respect him. But if you get it wrong, it will naturally cultivate fear and insecurity among the masses, which hurts the Party.
After the suicide of Mehmet Shehu, in addition to the analyzes we did in the Bureau, I want to emphasize that with Comrade Kadri and the other comrades of the Secretariat and the Political Bureau, of course we talked more often about these issues. But I talked especially with Kadri, with Hekuran, and with Ramiz. After the suicide of Mehmet Shehu, we worked constantly to fix the situation a little, to put this on the road, that’s why we held frequent meetings with each other, we exchanged a lot of information, after which we made decisions, within the norms of the Party and state laws, which, as you know, have consisted in the arrest of a number of Mehmet Shehu’s main associates.
However, we haven’t gotten to the core of the problem yet. Now until we get to where we need to be, there are two things here. The point is that through the investigation, it becomes imperative that we expose all the activities of these dangerous enemy elements. But the result in this regard will depend both on their availability and on the skills of our investigators. So the case for us for now is still not complete. To this day we are ahead of the discovery of a very dangerous hostile activity against the Party and the Government, but this is limited in time and in people.
Therefore, we should not consider what we have achieved as the only means of discovering this activity. Then there is the other main issue, which we need to clarify. It is our duty to know better where these enemies have operated, how they have communicated with each other, what means they have used and exploited legally and illegally, openly or covertly, what agency have used, the forms and methods of discovering these truths and all this accompanies the personal investigation that is done to the arrested.
In addition to others, I talked several times with my friend Kadri, to whom I told him that he made mistakes, but he himself admitted that he made mistakes when he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “I made mistakes from lack of vigilance, from sick familiarity, or from good faith and kindness,” he explained to me. But for the information he received or when hostile acts took place, was the Minister of the Interior allowed to blindly rely only on the trust he had in the person who presented it to him, not delving into them properly, without thinking about the danger they presented.
I have always accompanied this to Kadri with the advice to be frank, that he is an old communist and a member of the Political Bureau, and he knows well how to fight the enemy. I have also asked Kadri to help Comrade Hekuran, after his departure as Minister of Internal Affairs, because he did not have the experience of Kadri and, of course, he needed help and clarification, especially in these very turbulent situations dangerous created by our enemies. As I am finding out now, from the discussion of comrade Hekuran, Kadri’s help for him has been very limited and, for secondary issues.
But I also had another goal, that I ordered Kadri to help Hekuran and to do this not with assumptions, as he has done during this time, but especially by making him aware of the main actions that have been taken in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As it turns out, nothing and no help has been given to Kadriu Hekurani in this regard. It is impossible to have worked for 30 years in a department, such as the Ministry of the Interior, and not to have issued acts and made decisions there, both good and bad. Especially when now, we are discovering that a dangerous group of enemies has been operating there.
Whether Kadriu understood this or not, I don’t know, but I think he didn’t understand, that’s why he didn’t delve into his work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One day he came to me and said: “Comrade Enver, I have prepared a self-criticism”. To tell you the truth, I immediately answered that there was no need for self-criticism since, we know you, and you have worked there for a long time and it is natural that you have made mistakes, I answered. “Please, let me read you the self-criticism and listen to it,” he asked me.
Since he persisted a lot, I said, “Well then, I hear you.” And I listened to his self-criticism. Then when he asked me to take over this self-criticism, I refused. I don’t hold this self-criticism, I told him. Why didn’t I keep Kadri’s self-criticism, while I have a duty to accept a self-criticism that comes from a friend, especially when he is a member of the Political Bureau?! To tell the truth, I did not express this to Kadri in the meeting that I did not want to disturb him because we had big work ahead in the Army sector.
That’s why I told him that I wouldn’t keep it, even that it wouldn’t be necessary to keep it. However, friends, I want to tell you that the self-criticism written by Kadri was very general and there was nothing important in its content. He there, if I’m not mistaken, only claimed that mistakes were made in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, therefore he had no way to escape from them, that he himself has flaws, etc. In self-criticism, Kadri Hazbiu hit Mehmet Shehu as well as all other enemies in a row.
But concretely, this self-criticism didn’t really warm me up. And my general opinion was this, and I said this to myself that Comrade Kadri, has not delved into the analysis of his work in the Ministry of the Interior, this was conspired and complicated with the hostile activity of Mehmet Shehu and agents that he had placed around Kadri. But now, in the archives, there are facts that are coming to light one after the other, and of course there will be others, which would have cost the lives of socialist Albania and the Albanian people.
These cannot remain closed to collect dust, especially after all those great events that we have lived through in the last few months, that is why we had to ask for some explanations from our side to Comrade Kadri, because he is the only comrade who is alive and who can explain them to us. I read the self-criticism that, with my advice, Comrade Kadri was asked to discuss in the Political Bureau. I completely reject this self-criticism as unacceptable, because not only is it not Marxist, but there are a lot of excuses and tricks, there are a lot of denials and assumptions, even with provocative accusations against the members of the Political Bureau.
Kadriu tries to throw the mistakes not only at the enemies of the Party, who have been convicted or died, but also makes some insinuations about the friends of the Party forums, which is very dangerous because they are defamation, they are attempts to justify the mistakes that he has done during almost 30 years of work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Comrade Kadri, recognizes in his self-criticism, the mistakes and responsibilities he has in: “not discovering this wild activity”, as well as for the fact that in this network: “important cadres of the State Security bodies were involved”, where he directed.
He admits that: “all the war that our Party has continuously waged with external and internal enemies, all the dangerous conspiracies, at all times, have been discovered and attacked by the Party and Comrade Enver. This lack of these organs, It constitutes an inexcusable weakness in their work, and I am aware of the responsibility that falls on me,” he says. Comrade Kadri emphasizes that his vigilance was very low and his contribution was insufficient for the discovery of Mehmet Shehu’s work as an agent.
But on the other hand, after saying these general things, Kadriu seeks to exonerate himself and minimize his responsibilities. He says: “I also influenced here”, note “me too”, meaning like all of you and I had faith in the person of Mehmet Shehu, but I did not do my duty as a member of the Political Bureau. That Kadriu has not done his duty as a member of the Bureau, not even as a member of the Plenum, this is proven by what he said in his self-criticism: “I have not always ensured, at the right level, the understanding of the Party’s orientations, and on this basis, to educate the people who were required to implement the norms required by the Party”.
But not following the Party’s guidelines is a dangerous thing for every communist. We are tired of speaking in principle and in practice, for the whole Party, but especially for the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But in Comrade Kadri’s self-criticism, we expected an in-depth analysis, not only for some random mistake that a communist, even a member of the Political Bureau, makes at work, but, for him to tell us, how it happened that for 30 years that he has headed the Ministry of the Interior, not only has he not discovered hostile anti-party activity, but it shows that this ministry has been in their hands and they have manipulated this institution as they wanted.
This is a very heavy thing. And Kadriu, what did he see and hear?! What did he do and how did he react?! This is what the Political Bureau wants to know. This is where Comrade Kadri must deepen, to help the Party and first of all himself. We don’t know comrade Kadri to be naive enough to throw all those around and under him, the “beautiful” ones we all know, such as: Mihallaq Ziçishti, Feçor Shehu, Zoi Themeli, Llambi Peçini, and others Mascarene.
Comrade Kadri was not one of those who kept his distance (out of shyness or respect, as some wrongly assume) with fellow leaders in high positions. Therefore, even Mehmet Shehu, and even less Beqir Balluku, who had operational and state ties with Kadri Hazbiu, could not work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, without having him as a friend. This could not stick.
Comrade Kadri, in order to justify himself, points out in his self-criticism that another mistake in his poor work was: “the lack of determination to raise the issues and things as I thought, wherever and whenever had different opinions on many issues”, which are actually capital issues, but as Comrade Kadri asserts, he called these consumed in the discussions with Mehmet Shehu and Beqir Balluk, with whom he had connections on the state road.
In any case, – Kadriu emphasizes – “I raised my opinion even higher” and below he adds: “The absence of Comrade Hysni at this time, when such important issues related to my correctness towards the Central Committee are being analyzed, makes it difficult to clarify enough of them”. But on this matter, I am not lingering, because you have all spoken.
The implication of the fellow secretaries who have dealt with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense, and especially Comrade Hysni, is an attempt to compromise with malicious intent, an unacceptable and reprehensible insinuation since, not only do we know Hysni’s loyalty and partisanship, which proves that even in 1975, he knew nothing about the great violations that had been committed in the Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, I am alive, and Hysniu has never raised any objections or doubts about Comrade Kadri. Kadriu himself says that I have not missed opportunities to explain things to Comrade Enver. Then if he had reservations and doubts, why didn’t he tell me?!
Or the “fairy tale” spread by Mehmet Shehu that: “Let’s not disturb Comrade Enver” played a role here, with the diabolical goal of isolating me from my friends and from work. I have never accepted this, neither they nor now. We live for the Party, for the People, for Communism. I will not allow isolation and I will not endure it as long as I have breath. Memorie.al
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