Archival documents related to the event of January 6, 1989, when the ship “Dukati” while sailing in the Adriatic, was kidnapped by its captain and his friends, to escape to Brindisi

Dashnor Kaloçi  

Memorie.al publishes some unknown archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive (the fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP) and the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which are made public for the first time, where there is a correspondence of the main officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the Italian embassy in Tirana and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, regarding the event of January 6, 1989, when the ship “Dukati” while sailing in the Adriatic Sea, was kidnapped by its captain, Enver Meta, who had hidden eight of his friends in the ship’s premises and together with them, held the seven members of the crew hostage, until they came to the port of Brindisi. The entire chronology of that serious event that had a great echo in the Italian press, which not only caused a strong diplomatic clash between official Tirana and Rome, but caused a great storm in the ranks of the Ministry of Interior in Tirana, where 15 high-ranking officials of the management chain were dismissed or severely punished, from the sub-officer of the Border Crossing Point at the Port of Durrës, to the Director of State Security, Zylyftar Ramizi, as well as the minister Hekuran Isai himself , which was severely reprimanded in the meeting of the Bureau that continued for several days in a row under the direction of Ramiz Ali, where there were strong clashes between its members, with mutual accusations of abuse and waste, and even family problems that they had.

Information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Italian embassy: “Hand over the terrorists of the ‘Dukati’ ship to us; they are drug smugglers, etc.”

PEOPLE’S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

No. 40                                                                                                  Tirana, on 7.I.1989

EMBASSY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC

           T I R A N E

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Albania presents its compliments to the Embassy of the Italian Republic and has the honor to inform them to transmit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy, the following:

On January 6, 1989, around 10:00 p.m., during fishing in the Adriatic Sea, the fishing vessel “Dukati” with a crew of 9, owned by the Fishing Enterprise of the city of Durrës, was forcibly hijacked. The terrorists used pressure and violence against the 7 crew members, who locked them in the cabins with keys. The terrorist group consisted of: Enver Meta, Bardhyl Vogli, as well as Artan Serjani, Ilir Dervishi, Skënder Vogli, Mustafa Meta, Agron Dervishi, Qemal Nikshiqi and Azem Shelmi. Some of these people were being pursued by police bodies for their drug smuggling connections, while others were implicated in other criminal offences.

The terrorists diverted the course of the ship “Ducati” and took it near the Port of Brindisi, Italy, in order to escape legal punishment for their criminal activity.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, requests the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic, that, in the spirit of good neighborly relations, intervene with the relevant authorities to help the return of the fishing vessel to Albania “Dukati”, together with the seven members of its crew, as well as to hand over the nine terrorists immediately, in accordance with the recognized norms of international law, to the relevant Albanian authorities.

Awaiting a quick response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania reiterates to the Embassy of the Italian Republic, the expressions of its highest consideration.

Tirana, on January 7, 1989

Deputy Minister Sokrat Plaka: “Mr. Ambassador, the terrorists diverted the ship’s course to escape legal punishment…”

                                                  I N F O R M A T I O N

On January 7, 1989, Comrade Sokrat Plaka urgently called the Italian ambassador, Giorgio De Andreis, to a meeting, to whom he handed over a note regarding our fishing vessel “Dukati”. Informing him according to the content of the note, Comrade Socrates told the Italian ambassador that on January 6, 1989, around 8:00 p.m., during fishing in the Adriatic Sea, the fishing vessel “Dukati” was forcibly hijacked by an organized gang of terrorists with a crew of 9 people. The terrorists used pressure and violence against the 7 crew members who were locked in the cabins. The captain of the ship and another member of the crew also belonged to the group of terrorists. He told you that some of these people were being pursued by our police bodies for their connection with drug smugglers, while others were implicated in other criminal offences. The terrorists diverted the course of the ship “Dukati” and took it close to the port of Brindisi, in order to escape legal punishment for their criminal activity. He also told you that the Italian side has been asked to send a captain to bring the ship to Albania. Comrade Socrates then pointed out to the ambassador that the Adriatic Sea is calm and peaceful and we are worried that such things happen in it. He emphasized to the ambassador that the Albanian ship was forced to enter Brindisi, but it is important that there were no victims. He asked at the same time, if the sailors of the fishing vessel are Albanian citizens, who lived in Albania.

I think, said the Italian ambassador, that some legal procedure will be opened in Italy to deal with this problem.

This problem, stressed Comrade Socrates, is a good opportunity to show our common fight against terrorism.

In the end, the ambassador, De Andreis, said I took notes and I assure you we will act quickly. He asked if a captain would be sent from our side to take the ship. He told you that a captain is being prepared to send him to Brindisi.

                            K. Robo

Ambassador Qazim Tepshi’s information: “We asked the Italian side to extradite the terrorist group”

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

T I R A N E

                                                          I N F O R M A T I O N

                          ON FOLLOWING THE PROBLEM OF THE “DUCATI” SHIP

On January 7, 1989, on Saturday, once after the reception, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reached for the departure to Brindisi and the follow-up of the problem arising in the trawler “Dukati”, friends Genci Gjoka and Mehmet Musallari, of who arrived in Brindisi on the afternoon of January 7.

Immediately, the necessary contacts were made with the personnel of the “Dukati” boat, the border police in the port of Brindisi and the captaincy of the port, from whom the first information regarding the event was received. The first impression from the contacts with the police authorities and the port captaincy were good. The people, who were contacted, such as the chief inspector of the police, the captain of the port captaincy and other police officials, were very correct, they showed themselves to be approachable and predisposed to talk about the problem, how they know it and what they think about it. They showed themselves ready to accept the questioning of the seven crew members of the “Ducati” boat in our presence, agreeing with our being in our role, in this specific case, according to Italian laws, the conditions for granting political asylum of nine people. According to them, the granting of political asylum is subject to a series of conditions, among which the persons requesting it must not have committed such acts that are punishable by Italian laws. In fact, all the acts that have been committed by this group, since the taking of the boat, its abusive use, the kidnapping of the personnel and taking them against their will to another country, the violence used, the pressures and threats that have been made, etc. . They constitute a sufficient basis for not granting them political asylum. On the other hand, with these acts that they have committed, it is completely legal for us to request extradition and for the Italian side to return without any conditions, all the Albanians of this terrorist group.

On Sunday we asked the quaestor for a meeting to see his availability to solve the problem and to see the possibility of making a contact with the fugitive group. The Quaestor welcomed us quite correctly and was willing to fulfill any of our requests, but stressing that it does not come out of his powers. Regarding the problem of the group of nine people who requested political asylum, he said that it was not within his competence to decide. He said that the commander of the boat, Enver Meta, was arrested by order of the deputy prosecutor of Brindisi, Domeniko Catenasi, and everything in his direction is done only by order of the deputy prosecutor himself, while for the others, their situation has not yet been clarified and no no meeting can be taken without the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On Monday we got in touch with the prefect of the city of Brindisi and the deputy prosecutor Domeniko Catenessi. The prefect was correct, but said that he could not do anything, since the problem had passed to the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The same thing was told by the Quaestor whom we met again in the prefecture offices of the deputy prosecutor, D. Catenassi, he said that he had not yet asked the former captain of the boat and that until that moment they could not discuss anything about the problem. At the meeting with the deputy prosecutor, the lawyer Roza Cardone was also present, who was called by us to give an opinion on the way to proceed with the problem. From the conversation with D. Catenassi, nothing was clarified. He was quite rigid in giving explanations, even though he said that he had not asked the arrested Enver Meta, “Because he was busy with work”, in fact it became clear that the real reason was that he had not found an interpreter. Finally, they managed to find a translator, apparently an elderly Albanian who lives in Brindisi, whose name was not revealed to us, but who we think may have been the Albanian, Ndoc Shiroka.

From this moment we did not manage to deepen everything in this direction. The port authorities told us that there was no obstacle to the departure of the boat and the personnel to Albania, as soon as the time problem was clarified and good weather conditions were ensured. With the arrival of the “Himara” boat, everything was resolved properly, as the captain for the “Dukati” boat also arrived. So on Monday at noon, it was possible to launch both boats.

In order to clarify more deeply the legal situation of the problem, I talked for a long time with lawyer Roza Cardone and lawyer Antonio Valordenk, friends of our country who have their offices in Bari and Adefija, and it turns out that the event constitutes a criminal act for which nine are responsible persons who have sought political asylum in Italy. According to Italian legislation and according to international law, the commander of the ship “Dukati” E. Meta, his cooperating sailor, Bardhyl Vogli and the 7 other people who had secretly boarded the ship, should be charged and arrested immediately bearable to:

• Hijacking of the “Dukati” boat and diversion of the route for purposes other than the purpose of navigation:
• Abduction of persons, crew of the ship “Dukati”:
• Damage to the ship during the hijacking (breakage of the power line, anchor, broken windows) and during its collision on the sand:
• Appropriation of the property of the Albanian state, the ship, with abusive purposes:
• Using violence, threatening, insulting and threatening the life of the boat’s crew:
• Performing the above acts in a group of more than 4 people:

To these criminal acts, other acts can be added that are suspected or pursued by the police, such as drug trafficking, smuggling, cooperation with crime, etc.

The non-arrest of 8 people actually constitutes a violation of Italian legality. The arrest warrant should have been issued for all 9 people, even for committing only the hijacking and diversion of the boat, which is also the most serious act. This act is considered similar to the hijacking of planes.

Based on the above, it is necessary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Albanian government, on the basis of the data of the Durres investigation and the request of the Durres Prosecutor’s Office, to request the immediate extradition of 9 persons based on the reasons given above and others that may be available.

                         EMPLOYEE a.i.

                      (QAZIM TEPSHI)

PROCESS – V E R B A L

 WITNESS

In the city of Durrës, on 10.1.1989

In, the investigators, Bashkim Asllani and Agim Ferizaj, of the district investigation, in the presence of the district prosecutor Spiro Peçi, we questioned the witness, Vasil Lefter Koçillari, dt. 28.02.1952, born and resident in the city of Durrës, neighborhood no. 11 St. “Martyrs”, building 266, with 8th grade education, worker on the ship “Dukati”, with the duty of engine driver, never convicted.

Witness Vasil Kocillari was warned about his criminal liability based on Article 202 of the Criminal Code for perjury.

THE WITNESS

              (Vasil Kocillari)

Question: Explain to us, witness Vasil Kocillari, what you know about the activity carried out by the former captain of the ship “Dukati” and his gang on the night of January 6th and the dawn of January 7th, 1989?

Answer: I have been working at the Durrës Fishing Enterprise since 1976. From May 1987, I worked on the ship “Dukati”. Enver Meta has recently been appointed captain of the ship “Dukati” and fisherman Bardhyl Vogli has arrived with him. Both of them were previously on the “Dalip Lala” ship. From the beginning, we other members of the ship’s crew found that the ship’s captain Enver Meta had a lot of company with Bardhyl Vogli, they always sat and talked together.

The crew of the ship “Dukati” consists of nine people. Specifically, they were: the ship’s captain Enver Meta, brigadier Riza Vokshi, I was the first driver, Agron Guza the second and the fishermen Bardhyl Vogli, Sokol Biçaku, Adrian Lako, Fisnik Koçi, Andrea Filjari, Bujar Dalani and Bujar Shullani. But with dt. January 6, 1989, the last two, Bujar Dalani and Bujar Shullani, did not show up for work.

With dt. January 6, 1989, at 3:00 p.m. I went to work as usual to meet my crewmates to go fishing. I met my crewmates. After the captain received the necessary documentation, they went to the ship. Around 17.00 we went fishing in the Adriatic Sea. We usually hunt for sardines, and in this case we went fishing for sardines. After leaving about 20 miles, away from the port of Durrës, we took measures to collect the fish by lights and later to cast the nets to fish.

We also ate dinner as usual, and then the captain of the ship ordered us to sleep. I went to sleep in my room as usual. After I got into my room and lay down sleeping, I heard the sound of the big engine. This bothered me because the ship was not supposed to sail. I asked to leave the room but found that the door was locked from the outside. I called out loud; none of my friends was answering me. Then I got more worried. I continued to call loudly, even knocking on the door to be opened. At this time I heard the voice of Bardhyl Voglit who told me: “Don’t play from the room Vasil and don’t make any kind of attempt, because we will kill you”. In this case, Bardhyli, by means of an iron lever, shot at the glass window to hit me. The lever caught me in the head below the right eye, causing a wound. Then I realized that our ship had been robbed by Bardhyl Vogli and other bandits and those they were going to flee abroad. I tell Bardhyl that he was mean, you are hijacking and robbing the ship of the Albanian state, you are masquerades, and other words. He told me: “Stay wise because you will eat the bullet in the head.” In this situation, I tried to open the door by force, but I found that there were guards at the door and they were waiting for me to hit and kill me as soon as I came out. Shocked and afraid that the bandits who had robbed the Albanian ship would kill me, I stayed alone in my room until the ship reached Brindisi. At approximately 05:30 the hijacked ship arrived in Brindisi, Italy. From the small window I determined that we were in the port of a foreign country, but I did not know whose port it was, but I thought it must be the Italian state. The ship had fallen to the ground and did not move despite the efforts of the bandits who had robbed it. I realized this from the sound of the engine and the crash of the ship on the ground. Sometime later, I don’t know, because I was confused and scared, because I thought that the gang that hijacked the ship would kill me too, came to the door of Fisnik Doci’s room. He just found out that I was also locked inside, took a crowbar and broke the lock with force. After opening the door for me, he told me that he too had been locked by the thugs in another room, and after they had left he had torn the door open. After I came out, I saw a boat in which the bandits had boarded and were going to the pier. Besnik and I went to the sleeping room of the ship, after seeing that this room was also locked from the outside, Besnik and I opened it with levers, tearing the door. In this room, the bandits had locked up our friends: Riza Vokshi, Sokol Biçaku, Andrea Filjari, and Ardian Lakon. In the end, we found that the ship’s refrigerator was also locked; we opened it by force, and found the other friend Agron Buza there. We quickly tried to get the ship out of the place and catch the gang that had robbed it, but we couldn’t because it had taken a seat and was not moving. Riza Vokshi immediately radioed the port of Durres and informed the Fishing Company that the ship “Dukati” had been robbed by its captain, Enver Meta, together with Bardhyl Vogli and some other bandits and we are in Brindisi, Italy. The bandits left by boat while we 7 fishermen are on the ship. From the Fishing Company they received the order not to move from the ship and to ask for help from the captaincy of the port of Brindisi to return. Of the bandits who robbed the ship, I only knew Captain Enver Meta, Bardhyl Vogli, and Qemal Nikshiq, I didn’t know the others, but I saw from afar that there were approximately 10 people on the boat.

Later, the Italian authorities came to us and asked us about the incident, we told them that the ship was robbed by its captain Enver Meta, together with a group of bandits, including Bardhyl Vogli. The bandits locked us in, used violence against us, shot us with crowbars and other tools, and threatened us with murder. We told them that the robbed ship belongs to the Albanian state, the Fishing Enterprise of the city of Durrës. We asked that the group of bandits be punished for the activity carried out, for the robbery of the ship and the violence used against us.

The shipmates also told me about the actions that the bandits led by Enver Meta had carried out. They had also threatened them with a knife that they would kill them, Fisnik Doçi had been tied by the legs and hands, then they had locked him inside, while Agron Guza had been threatened by 4-5 people at the same time with knives and then they had locked him up in the refrigerator room.

The robbers of the ship had made the plan for a long time, they had hidden their friends in the refrigerator of the ship from the beginning when we left Durrës, and after we traveled 20 or 21 miles, they acted with force on us and robbed the ship.

I request from the competent authorities that the captain of the ship “Dukati”, the bandit Enver Meta, together with his gang, who robbed the ship, be punished both for the robbery of the ship and for the violence they used against us, threatening us with murder and beating from me.

I read the minutes myself and after seeing that my words were written correctly, I signed them with my signature.

   THE WITNESS                                                                                         THE INVESTIGATORS

VASIL KOCILLARI                                                                                       BASHKIM ASLLANI

Assisted

DISTRICT ATTORNEY

                                                    SPIRO PECI

Deputy Minister Sokrat Plaka’s letter to the Albanian embassy in Rome: Urgently request the extradition of the terrorists of the ship “Dukati”

PEOPLE’S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS                                                  Tirana, on 14.I.1989

LEGAL OFFICE

No. 161

Subject: Some investigative material is being sent

EMBASSY OF RPS OF ALBANIA

               (Mr. Dashnor Dervishi)

ROMA

1. Attached we send you a note from the General Investigation of our country addressed to the Ministry of Justice of Italy, in which the extradition of the members of the terrorist group that escaped to Italy with the fishing vessel “Dukati” on January 6, 1989 is requested.

We are also sending you three original copies of the investigation materials at their charge, prepared by the Durres District Investigation, which contains the two documents found by you.

2. The notes and materials mentioned above must be submitted by you to a senior official of the Ministry of Justice of Italy, with a note from the embassy. On this occasion, to speak briefly about the event and to request that this event be seen carefully in the spirit of friendly relations between the two countries. To tell him that it is in the interest of these relations that based on known international norms and practices and Italian legislation, act as soon as possible for their extradition to Albania.
3. Before submitting the materials to be photocopied by you to keep the practice there, to carry out if necessary any other action or formality that may be required by the Italian authorities.
4. Talk to the lawyer if it is necessary to submit this material also translated into Italian. If so, let us know immediately.
5. A copy of this material will be delivered by us to the embassy here.
6. This matter should be evaluated and followed very carefully by you, constantly informing us about everything.

DEPUTY

Sokrat Plaka

The request of the General Investigation to the Ministry of Justice of Italy: Terrorists with knives, levers, etc., struck to kill a member of the crew

PEOPLE’S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

GENERAL INVESTIGATION

The General Investigation of the People’s Republic of Albania presents its compliments to the Ministry of Justice of the Italian Republic and has the honor to inform them of the following:

On January 7, 1989, the Durrës District Investigation began the criminal case against an organized group of terrorists, who on January 6, 1989, at around 10:00 p.m., violently hijacked the ship “Dukati” belonging to the Fishing Enterprise in Durrës, with a crew of 9, while fishing in Albanian waters in the Adriatic Sea.

This group consisted of: Enver Meta, Bardhyl Vogli, Skënder Vogli, Ilir Dervishi, Agron Dervishi, Mustafa Meta, Artan Serjani, Qamil Nikshiqi and Arsen Shahini.

His members were armed with knives, iron levers, etc. They used physical violence and insulted the seven crew members who stood up to defend the property and objected to their actions. In cooperation, they beat to death one of the crew members, unlawfully deprived seven crew members of their liberty, tying one person and locking them all in the ship’s cabins with keys, damaged the ship and its equipment her.

After the violent hijacking of the “Dukati” ship, they deliberately deviated from the designated sailing destination and took it to the port of Brindisi in Italy.

The District Investigation in Durrës based on the above facts and on the basis of article 43 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania as well as articles 63,34,49,50,57 and 75 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, has started the case criminal by deciding the taking as defendant and the arrest, approved by the District Prosecutor in Durrës, of the former captain of the ship “Dukati”, Enver Meta, the former crew member of this ship, Bardhyl Vogli, as well as Skënder Vogli, Ilir Dervish, Agron Dervish, Mustafa Meta, Artan Serjan, Qemal Nikshiq and Arsen Shahini, all Albanian citizens.

From the investigations carried out and the acts that are presented together, it has been fully proven that the organized group of these terrorists, in cooperation among themselves, has committed the following criminal acts:

• The crime of robbery (the hijacking of a ship and its abusive use) provided by articles 65 and 12 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of Albania:
• Deliberate damage to the ship provided by articles 67, first paragraph and article 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Attempted murder of a person, provided by article 84 letter “a”, article 11 second paragraph and article 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Illegal deprivation of liberty (seizure of persons), to the detriment of seven persons, endangering their lives and health, as well as causing the physical suffering provided for by articles 94 and 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Misuse of duty by deliberately deviating from the destination of the ship, provided by articles 106 and 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Insults due to duty provided by articles 120 and 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Illegal crossing of state borders provided by articles 127 and 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Serious threats to kill seven people provided by articles 184 and 13 of the Criminal Code of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
• The group of terrorists committed these criminal acts in the surroundings of the ship “Dukati”, which is the property of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, while it was in the Adriatic Sea, in the internal waters and in the territorial waters of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. These criminal offenses have continued to be committed even in the open sea.
• Relying on the legislation of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, on the principles and norms of international law on the fight against terrorism and piracy, accepted worldwide, both by the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania and the Italian Republic, as well as having considering articles 10 and 26 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, article 13 of the Criminal Code of the Italian Republic, articles 661 to 671 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Italian Republic, the General Investigation on the basis of the arrest decisions requests the extradition of the aforementioned terrorists and requests that they surrender to the Albanian authorities.

Such a request was submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania to the Italian Embassy in Tirana with a note dated 7.1.1989.

The General Investigation of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, awaiting a response as soon as possible, expresses to the Ministry of Justice of the Italian Republic, the assurances of its high consideration.

Tirana, on January 13, 1989

The great echo in the Italian press of the escape of the ship “Ducati”

Italian press

Bar newspaper “Tribuna BUSININESS”, dated January 13, 1989, publishes an article with the title: “There in Durrës, in my house, 17 people in two rooms” and with the title: “The dramatic story of Enver Meta, the escaped Albanian captain in Pulja” and subtitled: “The captain of the trawler, “Dukati” gives a new version of the facts that happened on board and I know that I will not see his wife and daughter again”, prepared by Pino Minunni. It says: “Enver Meta, 30-year-old captain of the Albanian fishing vessel, “Dukati” left on the ground in the morning of January 7 in the area opposite the Bridge of the Petro-Chemical Plant of Brindisi, has given his own version of the facts of Dr. Domeniko Catenaccit, deputy prosecutor of the Republic at the Court of Brindisi, who, based on Italian laws, accused him of “seizure of persons”.

A version of the facts parks, as is understandable and predictable, aspects and moments, apart from the details, the same and different at the same time, regarding what the seven crew members showed that they did not “betray” the government of Tirana and which constitutes the first official cover of Albanian sources, which were used by the press.

We are forced to underline that for us, it does not matter which of the two versions will be the truth, being one or the other uninfluenceable for the meaning and closure of this event. That’s why, and only as a duty of the chronicle, we bring back the “story” (or a collage of some descriptions of some news, which we managed to have in our possession) of Captain Enver Meta, 30 years old (but it tells…50?) a story from which emerges a character who resembles a prematurely aged and deeply decrepit man, but who wants to start living again in a different way. A sad character for a few lines, simple, maybe even tired, but for whom the “terrorist” costume would fit a little too big. For convenience, the writer imagined that his story was provoked by some question of ours (which we obviously could not ask).

“For six years I have been an employee of the Albanian state, Enver Meta asserted, as commander of the trawler “Dukati” with a tonnage of 220 tons and an engine of 600 horsepower and a crew of eight.”

– Have you had any legal measures?

“If I had any problem with Justice, I would not be a civil servant”.

-What is your profit?

“About 130,000 lira in 15 days, that is, about 260,000 lira per month, always when the meteorological conditions allow for fishing”.

-What is the cost of living ratio?

“So, of these 260,000 liras per month, we need to return about 100,000 liras to the state, which is the rent for my apartment. A flat consisting of two rooms and a kitchen”.

– How long do you live there?

“17 people, my father, my mother, two brothers with their wives, 8 single brothers and of course me with my wife and 4-year-old daughter”.

-A woman and a girl?

“A woman and a girl that I know I won’t see again, no matter how this event ends, which I organized with my brother and seven other friends, (employees and clerks of the Port of Durrës) about three months ago first”.

– Why won’t you look at your wife and daughter again?

“If I stay in Italy, it will not be possible for me to meet them. If I am forced to return…”

– What would wait for you?

“At first, prison and then…”

And we come to the madness of escaping to Italy, always according to Enver Meta’s version.

“As I said before, we organized it three months ago. We had to wait for the right moment and take advantage of unexpected facts. We also needed to be convinced of an action of this type that endangered life. But the perspective or rather the mirage of living in a country like Italy has strengthened our idea and our courage”.

-How and when do I start crossing to Italy?

“On Saturday, January 7, at 4:30 p.m., a regular departure from the port of Durrës for fishing was scheduled. I knew that the crew would not arrive on board before the previously set time. So around 1:00 p.m. I boarded all seven friends, including my brother, Mustafa, two years younger than me. I stowed four of them in an unusable refrigerator, two under the wheel and one in my cockpit. When the crew members got on board, they didn’t notice anything. We went to the open sea and cast the nets. Around 21 o’clock the fishermen, as usual, went to rest. Together with a friend, who, like me, had chosen to try to escape (and who was arrested on Tuesday morning by the Brindisi Investigation for “collaboration in the seizure of persons”), I locked the door of the barn where the crew rested. At this time, I steered towards the nearest Italian coast, or rather the Port of Brindisi, where I arrived about 6.00 o’clock the next day, Saturday, remaining at a point in which there was no depth. I launched a small boat into the sea, in which I and eight other fugitives took a seat.

-The crew members, were they still asleep?

“They woke up when they noticed that the trawler had stopped sailing. They noticed that they were locked in the key, burst the gate, managed to get out and see the small boat leaving in a hurry… hope”.

                            Italian press

The newspaper of Bari “La Gazette del Mezzogiorno”, dated January 21, 1989, publishes the article with the title: “Both Albanians were released, a condition of necessity”, and subtitle: “We got out of prison and were transferred to the refugee camp where they are also their other seven countrymen”, written by Piero Argentiero.

In it, among other things, it is said:

“The two arrested Albanians accused me that we had seized the crew of the trawler to come to Brindisi, and that they asked for political asylum, they declared themselves innocent, because they had acted in the conditions of necessity. The decision was given to the first section of the Court after a short meeting in the council room. The President of the Court was Dario Pafundi, judges, Gaetano Buonfrate and Vincenzo Farina. Previously, the prosecutor, Domenico Gotenacci, had requested the punishment of the trawler’s commander, Enver Meta, 31 years old, from Durrës, with 23 years in prison and for Bardhyl Voglin, 23 years old from Durres, with one and a half years.

In fact, as stated above, both were declared innocent and were released from prison and transferred to the immigrant camp, where the seven Albanian immigrants have been for several days, who arrived in Brindisi on this trawler on the morning of January 7. In his speech, the prosecutor said that: “A crime has been committed even though they understand the reason that drives both defendants to act in this way.”

The defenders, lawyers Epifani, Melpignano and Crescenzo, requested acquittal. Enver Meta and Bardhyl Vogli seized the seven crew members of the trawler “Dukati” in order to carry out the boarding of the other seven. Upon arriving in Brindisi, the nine asked for political asylum, while the sailors who had been seized denounced the incident and asked to return to Albania immediately.

The report of Qirjako Mihal, the first secretary of the Durrës Party Committee, for the Central Committee of the ALP, on the escape of “Dukati”

LABOR PARTY OF ALBANIA                                                                      SECRET

DISTRICT PARTY COMMITTEE                                                                     Copy

                   Durres

No. 37 Prot.                                                                                       Durrës, on 12.01.1989

R E L A T I O N

ON THE EXTRAORDINARY EVENT OF THE “DUCATI” FISHING MOTORCYCLE

OF THE DURRUS FISHING ENTERPRISE

On 6.1.1989, around 4:40 p.m., the motor fishing boat “Dukati” of the Durrës Fishing Company, with its crew of 9, went hunting.

After the fishing boat was prepared, it was provided with the necessary documents, as per the rules: the preliminary check was carried out by the dispatch of the fishing fleet, and before departure, the border service check was also carried out. From the subsequent data it appears that: After leaving the port of Durrës, at 5:00 p.m. on 6.01.1989, he gave this radiogram: “We left the port for horse mackerel” (square) 24. Then, until 07:40 a.m. dated 7.1.1989, the fishing boat “Dukati” was not connected by radio with the dispatcher of the company. According to the rules she had to connect every 2 hours.

At 07:40 on 7.1.1989, the fishing brigadier of the ship appeared on the radio and informed that: “At 22.00 on 6.1.1989, we dropped the electric line to hunt. The number one cop with several other masquerades took the ship and sailed the course 240 degrees and brought the ship ashore in Brindisi”.

After this announcement, we went to the fishing enterprise, we saw the actions for launching the ship, and we met with the dispatchers, fishermen and managers of the enterprise to get acquainted in advance with all the work done for launching the ship. We also clarified that in the motor fishing boat “Dukati”, apart from the crew, there were 7 other people, one of whom was a fisherman in this company of the crew of another motor fishing boat.

On 10.1.1989, at 01.30, with the arrival of the motor fishing boat “Dukati” in the port of Durrës, we once again met with the 7 fishermen, members of the crew, who after facing many pressures returned to their homeland. During the conversation, they explained that: on 6.1.1989 at 4:30 p.m., the crew of the motor fishing boat gathered to go hunting. After they boarded the motor fishing boat, the non-commissioned officer of the border crossing checkpoint, Vrenoz Doganaj, was notified to do the check according to the rules. The former captain of the motor fishing boat, the enemy Enver Meta, had taken it back with him from the bridge in order to make it difficult to enter it for inspection. The non-commissioned officer of the border service did not board for control as defined in the regulations, but signed the documents for departure from the bridge. After 22.00 on 6.1.1989, the 9 enemies, who were armed with knives and other tools, quickly isolated the 5 fishermen who were on vacation, used force against Agron Guza, who they locked in the barn of the cash registers and to Fisnik Doçi who tied him up in the captain’s room. At this time, the enemy Enver Meta turned off the auxiliary engine, turned on the main engine and, changing course, moved forward. At 05.30 on 7.1.1989 they arrived in Brindisi, Italy, bringing the ship ashore. During this time, the 7 fishermen remained isolated, tried to free themselves, but could not, as they were kept under the constant threat of the force of these enemies.

At the moment when the enemies were getting ready to abandon the ship, they used sharp hostile expressions towards the fishermen and towards our country and threats such as: “Don’t move, don’t make any kind of maneuver because we will count them in the flowers of the forehead”, “get out When you see Brindisi in Italy through the lens, you see Europe with your eyes.

“Here in Brindisi we will see television without an antenna, not like in Albania where we used to climb on top of the apartments and move the antennas left and right”. After they have left, the fisherman Fisnik Doçi, who was tied in the captain’s cabin, frees him and with a crowbar opens the doors of the rooms where his friends were locked. The seven tried to get the ship out of the shallows to return to their homeland without submitting to the control of the Italian authorities. They didn’t manage to do this as the day dawned and the port captain came and pulled them out of the shallows. The enemy Enver Meta, who had a good command of the Italian language, accompanied by the militia, came to the ship, where our fishermen understood the language, gave explanations about the event and showed the places where he had hidden the enemies and locked up the ship’s crew. As our fishermen also explained, the enemies had entered the crate barn.

From the analysis made by the District Party Bureau of this event on 12.01.1989, it appears that: The Enemy Enver Meta, in a secret way, taking advantage of the repeated lack of border control, has hidden seven foreigners on the ship, with whom he previously prepared the escape plan. He along with others benefited from the liberalism in control, they had noticed this liberalism in time. As the fishermen explain, the petty officer, instead of inspecting the vessel from corner to corner, has let it escape. There was no physical check on the ship continuously, but only a check of the crew and documentation. On the contrary, when ships arrive from abroad, very fine checks are made on them and their crew. These shortcomings have been noticed and accepted in the district Party office, the director and secretary of the Party office of the Fishing Enterprise, but they have not raised them forcefully in the confrontations they have had with the border authorities, nor have they informed the Committee of Party of the district.

The analysis of the event, which was followed by us, was carried out in the bureau and in the base organization of the Party and in the technical council of the fishing enterprise, in the base organization of the Border Crossing-Control Point in the Port of Durrës, in Department of Internal Affairs and at the headquarters of the Naval Combat Fleet.

Analyzes were also made in those enterprises where other persons, fugitives, who are not effective in fishing, worked. These analyzes were characterized by a high sense of responsibility, with a critical spirit towards the violation of rules and regulations, of work discipline, towards the manifestations of liberalism, indifference and acclimatization in the performance of assigned tasks, and measures were determined to correct the situation.

The organization – base of the Party of the sea sector in the Fishing Enterprise, deeply analyzing this ugly event, concluded that many flaws and weaknesses have been proven in the performance of the task, starting from the guard to the main managers of the enterprise. The manifestations of indifference during the entry and exit of people in the enterprise and fishing tools, the breaches of discipline in the connection between the hunting tools and the dispatch, in the concessions and liberal attitudes during the control of the tools, especially before the departure for hunting, were discussed with emphasis, by the chairman of the branch of the fishing fleet and company managers, etc.

For these shortcomings and weaknesses, the basic organization of the Party specifically stopped and punished the director of the company Vath Çollaku with a note on the registration card, defined concrete tasks to correct the situation, to strengthen the control and to increase the account requirement for the strict implementation of the rules.

The organization of the enterprise approved the proposals of the technical council and for lack of responsibility in the performance of tasks, the chief engineer of the enterprise, the head of the fleet branch, two dispatchers and the head of the administration, were dismissed from their duties and an investigation process was requested for the dispatcher who was on duty at the time of the event. etc.

Such analyzes were also made in the body of the branch of internal affairs. The basic organization of the Party of the control point – crossing the border at the sea port, for marked weaknesses in work, expelled from the Party the non-commissioned officer who performed the control of the motor fishing boat before going out to sea and proposed to be prosecuted. The investigative process against him has started.

The Party Committee of the district, taking the trigger from the previous events that happened in the merchant fleet, in the sea port of N.N. The Port has intensified the work with the basic organizations of the Party and their levers in all the enterprises that are included in the aquarium of the Port, to create a more complete concept among the communists and other workers about the border. For this purpose, from time to time we have organized meetings and conversations with employees, communists and cadres to strengthen vigilance both at the water’s edge and in the depths. In implementation of the tasks set by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the ALP, the Party has become active both at the district level and in enterprises where there have been more concerns, such as in Portin Detar, Kryevidh, Sukth, etc.

With preoccupation, we followed these problems also at the headquarters of the water’s edge area to solve some problems and concerns that they currently had. For this purpose, a program of measures has been drawn up and its implementation has been requested.

On the basis of a study carried out by the Department of Internal Affairs, the problematic workers of the waterside enterprises were identified and they left their hand in hand during the second 6 months of 1988, 13 of them were ordered to the enterprises that gradually dismiss others and take constant care to recognize new workers.

We have paid special attention to the strengthening of the organization of the Fishing Enterprise Party through the continuous increase of its effective. From 1986 until today, its workforce has gradually increased from 37 to 55. The addition of 18 communists came from 10 new admissions and 9 communists sent from other enterprises. At the same time, 8 candidates were sent there to do the internship of the Party candidate only for the year 1988. However, we are once again reviewing the improvement of the distribution of communists, especially in large-tonnage and shellfish motor-fishers.

In addition to the problems of strengthening the internal life of the Party in this enterprise, a complex of technical-organizational measures has been drawn up and is being implemented, which provides for the improvement of the company’s perimeter, the more accurate definition of responsibilities, the improvement of the company’s internal regulation, etc.

In addition to the responsibility of the Party organization and the directorate of the fishing enterprise, the office of the district Party Committee came to the conclusion that the Party’s base organization of the security sector of the Department of Internal Affairs, which with a more in-depth should precede the discovery of this organized hostile activity and, to recognize and warn the appearance of liberalism for the implementation of rules for the control of fishing gear.

The Executive Committee of the People’s Council of the district is responsible as it has not exercised enough control to strengthen discipline, to implement the rules and regime in economic enterprises, especially in those by the water.

In the work of the District Party Committee, there have been shortcomings in the more organized fight against foreign propaganda, in the sense of the wider development of the manifestations of the class war, in undertaking concrete actions in the fight against indifference, as well as in the evaluation responsibility from the organizations – the basis of the Party of these problems, fighting one-sidedness, to deal only with economic problems. The Office of the Party Committee of the district drew attention to the fact that the basic organizations of the Party and those of the masses, the directorates of enterprises, do not sufficiently follow the lives of their employees outside normal working hours. In this context, drawing lessons from this serious event, we will bring to the end some measures that have been determined before, such as the completion of the surrounding wall in the entire aquarium of the Sea Port, after which the possibilities will be created that, all businesses on the water’s edge, to be taken over by the police. Measures are also being taken to establish strong rules, for the entry into these enterprises, both of their employees and of others who go there for work needs, apart from the work that needs to be done in the eastern part of the Sea Port as well as all the enterprises located in this aquarium must be guarded by police forces, as well as its northern part.

It is also necessary to consider the complete boundary of the aquarium of the port, since until now only the Seaport area has been considered as such.

Also, we are working to create a fairer concept to consider border not only foreign ships but also our ships, including fishing ones. The realization of this is considered with the fulfillment of the requirements for increasing the effective of the border post.

The Bureau of the Party Committee of the district after this analysis deepened the responsibilities and measures, dismissing the secretary of the Party Bureau of the Fishing Enterprise and its director, with a serious remark on the registration card, of the Secretariat of the Party Committee and a serious remark with a warning for dismissal from office, of the director of the Sea Port “Enver Hoxha”.

It approved the measures taken so far in the body of the internal affairs branch and to deepen the position for other sectors of the Internal Affairs Branch in the Party Committee. Charged the Executive Committee of K.P. of the district, to stand against those who have broken the rules, who do not control the implementation of decisions, especially for the establishment of rules for entering and exiting economic enterprises.

FIRST SECRETARY OF THE DISTRICT PARTY COMMITTEE

QIRJAKO MIHALI

The report of Simon Stefan, the secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP that covered the organs of the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”, about the incident with the ship “Dukati”

Top secret

                                                              R E L A T I O N

ON SOME PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE ESCAPE OF 9 PERSONS

WITH THE FISHING VESSEL “DUKATI” IN THE AREA OF DURRES

On January 6, 1989, the hostile group consisting of 9 people, led by the former captain of the ship “Dukati” Enver Meta, hijacking the ship and its crew of 7 fishermen, were able to accomplish the act of escape to Italy. From the persons of this group, 3 are fishermen, 2 employees at the “Enver Hoxha” Port, 2 employees at N. Qumështi, one at N.N. Port and one at NTUS. All of them are from the Durrës area. Their age is 20 to 30 years old.

This gang made the escape by taking advantage of the reduction of the vigilance of the communists and the employees, of the Party organization in the Fishing Enterprise, of the border and the Department of Internal Affairs itself: for the incompetence of the cadres of the employees of the internal organs, the violation of the rules and control for the entry of people into the territory and fishing vessels, as well as navigation rules.

From the analysis of this event, it appears that the appropriate lessons have not been learned from previous events, therefore, in this case as well, a number of deficiencies and violations of normative acts and established rules have been proven, among the most important of which are:

• There is marked liberalism in terms of the implementation of established norms and rules.

Many conclusions that emerge from the analysis of this event have similarities with those from some other such serious ones, such as the non-implementation of the rules we have. So also in this case, the instruction of August 1984 “On the preservation and protection of the sea and air border”, signed by the ministers of Defense, Internal Affairs, Transport and Light Industry and Food, which states that “Ships of RPSSH, commercial and fishing, when sailing in and out of territorial waters, for every two hours, give the respective companies through the liaison station on the shore, their location and give the latter to the BUD”. it has not been implemented for years, it has not been followed and the relevant bodies and individuals have not been held accountable.

Thus, out of 15 vessels that were hunting on 6.1.1989, 11 of them did not make this notification as required. We emphasize that these flagrant violations of the rules were also used in this particular case by the former captain of the ship, who announced only the departure time of 17.40, while he had to announce every two hours, about 7-8 times throughout the night. If this requirement had been regularly implemented, the act of this gang could have been prevented.

Violations of the rules of the border regime have been found and criticized several times.

• They are allowed, in violation of all the rules, to circulate and enter unauthorized persons in the port and fishing area up to the ship. And in other enterprises of the port system, there are no strict rules for the entry and exit of people. Although for years funds have been given for the construction of the surrounding wall of the eastern part of the port, and tasks have been set to be completed in March 1988, this enclosure has not yet been completed.
• There was a lack of fine-tuning of fishing vessels before they were put into service. The interest from the company staff and ship captains is only for the technical condition of the ships and fishing gear. Even the border control is done with only 1 non-commissioned officer, and in most cases, fine physical checks are not done by them. These have been exploited by enemy elements, hiding in our and foreign ships.
• The operational situation is not properly recognized by the security body, therefore global work is done. These enemies, although they worked in different enterprises, managed to organize and make the escape. But the important thing is that our Counter-Intelligence has not come into contact with any of them. The fact that in the ranks of those who escaped there was also an ex… (This has happened other times), makes you think with what agency the facilities are covered, how safe and qualified it is, etc. We add that this…., for the last two years, has not given any information about other people with a tendency to escape, no information about other people with a tendency to escape, and no signal about the preparation of this terrorist group. The possibility that he is one of its organizers is not excluded. One more…. the next day, the day the escape took place, he didn’t come to work at all and when asked, he once said that my father was sick and the second time that he was supposedly sick himself.

Weaknesses in this direction are proven by the fact that from 1984 onwards, 16 people tried to escape by boat and 11 other people managed to escape. Of these people, there are some of them who were pursued by the State Security for the tendency to escape and have escaped the control of these bodies.

From the agency network there is very little data on escape trends by means of navigation. The operational workers and the port agency are more inclined to the recognition and detection of the lighter and more common hostile activities, such as agitation and propaganda, smuggling, theft, technical issues, etc., not enough information about violations of the rules of security of the port and navigation and little work is done to discover and prevent the tendency of escape and the discovery of the activity of foreign agencies. The pursuit of quantity at the expense of quality, work for hype and euphoria, displays of comfort and acclimatization with the situation, liberalism and lack of accountability are present in the insurance business.

The previous events and this last one show that in the Durrës region, foreign intelligence has acted and continues to act intensively and subtly. Although more than 50% of the problems in pursuit are for espionage, for years the Security body has not fallen into the current threads of foreign discoveries, despite the constant orders and requests made by the Party leadership.

The above weaknesses prove, among other things, that the selection, direction and control of the agency is not working properly.

III. On the part of the Department of Internal Affairs, there was a close understanding of the performance of the port security service. Although the laws, the decisions of the Government and the normative acts of the Minister of Internal Affairs clearly define that the Port of Durrës is a prohibited border area, contrary to them, by the colleagues of the Department of Internal Affairs of the district and the Ministry of Internal Affairs , only a part of the port has been recognized as such, the part where the “Enver Hoxha” Port Company is included, while other companies around the aquarium of the Port of Durrës are not included in the prohibited area. Although for years there has been a study on the increase of forces and the organization of the border service in the entire territory of the port, it has not yet taken the path of the solution.

The liberal conception of the port as a frontier has led to permits for port workers being issued by the enterprise itself and not by the Department of Internal Affairs. Also, this has had the effect of not exerting enough effort to take measures for lighting the port, surrounding it, for the provision of vessels and those of communication, as well as the necessary material base for the performance of the border service, as as the border inspectors did not even have lighting beacons to check the premises of the ships in the interior. While the connection between the service places of the soldiers and the department was missing. These concepts and practices should not be allowed and the port of Durrës should be evaluated and treated the same as the border zone.

• The work of the Party in the district and in the Internal Branch has not responded adequately and properly to the peculiarities of the Durrës district, the concerns and problems that have arisen in the port in terms of vigilance for the prevention of hostile activity. The Party organization in the Fishing Enterprise, but also in other port enterprises, those of the border departments of the Department of Internal Affairs and the Party Committee of the Durrës District itself, are not well on the guard of the implementation of the Party’s orientations for border regime and relevant laws and regulations.

There is a display of openness and globalism in the work of the Party in dealing with and taking measures to solve problems. Although in the port, case after case, there have been attempts and escapes, compromise with foreigners, etc., the Party’s base organizations have not gathered on initiative and have not been stopped by force. Thus, for the escape of a person in December 1988, via the “6 February” ship, the base organizations were not preoccupied and did not analyze this event. Of the 16 base organizations of the port enterprise, only two were banned. This attitude is justified by them with the fact that “we did not have an order”. Such positions have been held for other cases as well.

Although the District Party Committee has gone to these enterprises, it has dealt with the negative events rather in the moralizing plan, of increasing vigilance in general, without dwelling deeply on their causes and taking concrete political-educational and organizational measures . Even a given task has not been followed. Thus, the District Party Committee had the objective of completing several tasks for securing, strengthening the order and regime in the port territory within the month of June 1988, but their implementation has not yet been completed.

Due to insufficient work with people, an unfair concept has been created among the communists and fishing workers that “the greatest danger comes during fishing from foreign ships” and the dangerousness of the internal enemy element has been underestimated. It was noticeable that the base organization, as well as the bureau of the Party of the Fishing Enterprise and that of the Port, were more inclined to deal with economic problems. The communists did not raise problems and concerns regarding the aspect of vigilance and maintaining the purity of the moral-political image of the employees. Thus, the basic organization and bureau of the Party in Fishing had not dealt with problems of vigilance, except when it was discussed about a party member who, with other fellow fishermen, had entered into relations with the Italians at sea, give and take fish and booty. Although there were a number of violations on the ship, in navigation, in fishing, in announcements during navigation, etc., no communist had raised a problem about them. Even the crew of the ship that escaped, as far as it turns out, did not have a special reaction.

Similarly, the basic organizations of the Party in the Department of Internal Affairs (with the exception of the one at the Border Control Point) were not detained for escaping in December last year or for other cases. As a result, the measures to strengthen the work were also missing. This was justified by the fact that “we did not have an order” and they were satisfied with the handling of this problem by the state side. Even for negative events that happened at the border on a national scale, the Party’s basic organizations had not reflected enough on their conditions.

The above shortcomings speak to the fact that in the activity of the basic bodies and organizations there are still manifestations of adaptation to the situation, of liberalism, and of sick familiarity; there is a lack of control and account demand.

• The event also demonstrated the need for some improvements in a number of normative acts.

The directive of the four ministers has not been analyzed in detail by these bodies, which has led to different interpretations and avoidance of responsibility by each other.

For the use of radars of the border forces and for their interaction with the BUD (Naval Military Base), no joint normative acts have been issued.

The decision of the Government instructs the bodies of the Post Telegraph that the connection of the vessels with the relevant enterprises is done only through the radio link of the Post Telegraph. From all the enterprises, as well as from the BUD and the Department of Internal Affairs, it is raised that the direct connection of the ships with the respective enterprises will be more effective. This has been done in the past.

It is requested to improve the communication between the fishing enterprises, the Merchant Fleet and the BUD, by putting into use the teletypewriters, which, although available from the BUD, are not in use. Currently, the communication between the BUD and these companies is done by phone, which has led to inaccuracies in receiving and recording notifications about the location of ships and not revealing the concrete responsibility of the parties.

There is a need for the service at the BUD signal-observation point to be done by a specialized group of 3-4 people, and not by all staff officers.

There is room to improve and strengthen the service rules at Border Crossing Points in general and at ports in particular. Also, there is a need to specify and better standardize the rules for the interaction of the Internal Affairs bodies, with the enterprises that have activities in the ports, with the Naval Combat Fleet and the Naval Military Base.

VI. A number of cadres are responsible for the incident:

• Comrade Qirjako Mihali, as the first secretary of the District Party Committee, has great responsibility for all those weaknesses that are observed in the Party organizations of these enterprises, as well as in the organizations of the Border Party and the Department of Internal Affairs. He himself has manifested a lack of vigilance and control both towards the base organization and the Internal Affairs bodies, not only for this case, but also for other events in the Port of Durrës. For these we propose to be punished with the measure “remark with a note on the registration card”.
• Comrade Agron Tafa, as head of the Department of Internal Affairs in Durrës, as far as it turns out, has not learned from the analysis made by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, his work when he was in Tirana and from the subsequent events in Durrës and elsewhere. He has done a thorough job in mastering the operational situation. Again, manifestations of liberalism and lack of control over subordinates, weakness in interaction and taking full measures with the Party levers, in maintaining and protecting the Border, deficiencies in detecting and preventing the hostile activity of the current threads of the agencies have been noticed. the foreigner. It has not taken full measures for the detection and prevention of attempts and escapes by means of navigation. For all this, we propose that he be dismissed from his position.
• Comrades Ferit Zeneli and Enver Pata (commander and commissar of the Border Forces Command) did not take seriously the advice, warnings and measures given by the Party for the proven weaknesses in the border forces. They have shown liberal attitudes in the exercise of help and control over the organs of the unions at the base. The control and accountability of Border Command cadres at the center has been weak. They have manifested narrow understandings and manifestations of formalization, templateism and shallowness in the organization and performance of the border and Sea Port service. There are manifestations of globalism, routine and one-sidedness in the pursuit of tasks. For this, we propose that they be punished with a “severe warning with a note on the registration card” and warned to strengthen all the work of the regime at the border.
• For this event, the most responsible comrades in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, especially those of the 1st Directorate of State Security and those of the Command and Headquarters of the Border Forces, bear a heavy responsibility, who should be warned and analyzed with a high sense of responsibility these events and to take measures to strengthen the work and control in the entire apparatus and bodies of the subordinate departments, establishing a strong military discipline in all their work.

SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF APS

SIMON STEFANI

Tirana, on 13.1.1989

The secret report of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hekuran Isai, regarding the punishments and severe measures that were given for the “Dukati” incident

PEOPLE’S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

SECRET

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Specimen No. 3

No. 281 PROT

Tirana, on 13.1.1989

I N F O R M A T I O N

FOR THE ESCAPE OF 9 PERSONS FROM THE AREA OF DURRES

On January 6, 1989, 9 people escaped with the motorboat “Dukati”, including Enver Halit Meta, born and resident in Durrës, aged 30, married with 2 children, captain of the motorboat “Dukati” and Bardhyl Jakup Vogli, born and resident in Durrës, 22 years old, unmarried, with 8 years of education, fishing worker.

The other seven people with good moral and political standing, except for one…., who has been convicted 3 times for theft of public property and his mother…, after she divorced the father of…. escaped in 1966 and is currently in the USA.

How was the escape accomplished?

At the time when the fishermen were not in the motorboat, Enver Meta and Bardhyl Vogli, organize the introduction and hiding of 7 enemy elements in it.

At 5:40 p.m., the motorboat was launched in the fishing region, maintaining communication with the dispatcher until 8:00 p.m.

After arriving at square 24, the fishermen have dropped anchor and stretched the electric line, Enver Meta organizes the service, leaving Bardhyl Voglin on guard, while the others let them rest. At this time, he brings out the enemy elements from the place he had hidden them, organizes the isolation of the fishermen, turns on the engine of the motorboat and sets out on the path of betrayal.

Why did these enemies manage to escape?

• These enemy elements made the escape, without being detected and punished, because the State Security bodies did not track them from the stage of compaction and organization as a group of 9 people. The main cadres of the Security of the Durrës Internal Branch, and in particular those who have been held in connection with…, have a heavy responsibility both for the incapacity of the detection force and for the violation of the norms related to the authentication of the secret network informative.

The fact that…. came from the ranks of the convicts, who even after being released continued the hostile activity in the group for escape, made it necessary to increase vigilance and implement with high discipline the norms of work with the secret information network.

Also…. his mother had run away, he had taken an interest in her, he had also started correspondence. He had informed the Security bodies in Durrës about this, but these bodies had not done the necessary verifications to see their accuracy and authenticity. He had also informed about…, apparently to put the State Security bodies to sleep. Even this data was not verified and specified.

Comrade Agron Tafa, as head of the body, has special responsibility for this serious event and for the violation of the norms of the operational activity; The 1st Directorate of State Security, Comrade Zylyftar Ramizi, is also responsible for the fact that although they have been to Durrës several times, they have not been stopped for a concrete and effective work in the major issues that preoccupy the State Security in this delicate district.

• The escape was made for the violation of all norms and rules in the control of the border service, although a few days before, attention had been drawn and a series of orders had been given on the occasion of the introduction of another worker on the commercial ship that reached Ravenna, Italy.
• The rules for the physical control of the motorboat were not applied. The Border Control, which according to the rules had to enter all the environments where border violators can be hidden, due to negligence did not do it, but was content only with lining up the crew from afar, even he did not get on the boat at all. He was arrested for this.

– The border service guards at the location of the fishing gear did not detect the enemy elements who entered the motorboat without permission, although they did not have the motorboat more than 30 m away.

The causes of these serious violations are based on liberalism in the implementation of the norms and rules established for maintaining the border in the water sector. They prove the lack of discipline in the control of our vessels, with the mistaken opinion that the crew is chosen and the enemy element that can be hidden has nowhere to go, because the vessel will return to the center after fishing.

As it turned out from the border guard and the fishermen, such violations have been made other times. These violations of the rules of the border regime were studied, known and exploited by the enemy Enver Meta.

For violations of the rules of service, compromises and in-disciplines of some soldiers in service, we have findings and we have had information, for which during the last 3-4 years, we have stopped, discharging the command of the checkpoint in the port twice of Durrës, we removed and replaced compromised soldiers with foreigners with gifts, smuggling watches, even selling gold. For this purpose, we have doubled the guards near the foreign ships. But the serious event that happened shows that even these measures have not been effective.

The incident burdens the command of the Durrës Border Battalion with heavy responsibility, for lack of control and not establishing strong and rigorous military discipline, for adapting to a sick situation.

In addition to the direct responsibility of the base cadres, the Border Forces Command, Comrade Ferit Zeneli, Enver Pataj and Ismail Skeja, who, although they have often gone to Durrës, have also had a heavy responsibility for these shortcomings and weaknesses. established rule, discipline that the border service measures require.

The event was analyzed in the security and border sector, concrete tasks were assigned to improve the situation. Concrete tasks were assigned to the Security sector to verify and discover the hand of foreign discoveries.

The matter was also analyzed in the Collegium of the Ministry, where with a critical and self-critical spirit, I, as the Minister of Internal Affairs, took out my responsibility for this event.

The collegium of the Ministry, according to the degree of direct responsibility, also took measures. They were released (with different terms):

1. Deputy Chairman of the Durrës Internal Affairs Branch, which manages the Security sector and is subordinate to the port, Comrade Shemsi Spaho.
2. Head of the Security sector for the city of Durrës, friend Arif Mezini.
3. The Operative worker who had……., friend Hamdi Medani.
4. Commander of the Durrës Border Battalion, Comrade Sabri Keçi
5. Commander of the Crossing Control Point at the Port of Durrës, Comrade Adrian Lala.
6. Commanding officer at the Border Command in the Ministry, Comrade Kaplan Vani.
7. Commander of the Durres Port Police Post, Comrade Bajram Idrizi.

• 2 cadres related to the event were dismissed from their existing functions: the chief of staff of the Durrës Border Battalion, Sadik Ahmeti, and the head of the Port Security section, Pëllumb Dedja.
• They gave you a “Remark with a warning for dismissal from duty” on the state line to the comrades: Agron Tafa, Zylyftar Ramizi, Ferit Zeneli and Ismail Skeja as deputy commander of the Border Forces, which directly subordinates the border crossing checkpoints.

Some other issues that may also be related to the above problem.

1. It is true that the tendency to escape has been and is acute. Our organs for this tendency perform a large volume of work; in their pursuit they spend a lot of time, strength, means and money. For this trend from 1984 until now, nearly 2 thousand people have been followed, 398 people have been arrested, 1100 other people have been counseled and unmasked by the Party bodies, the authorities and the Departments of Internal Affairs. With all these measures from 1984 to the first 6 months of 1988, 354 people managed to escape abroad. Besides these, 495 people were caught trying to escape to the border areas.
2. Since the liberation and up to the last year, 11,800 people have fled Albania as adults. Before 1955, the escapees had a class character, they were mainly enemies of the popular and declassified power, while after these years and until now, they are mostly not people who are politically or ideologically hostile to the popular power, but for the most part they are degenerate people and young people, influenced by bourgeois-revisionist propaganda for a promiscuous and liberal life, have been young people with vices and acts of hooliganism; most of them have not put themselves to work and have had a tendency to be lazy, they have not approached and have not been organized with youth organizations.
3. The last event proves to us that our ports located inside the cities are not treated as border lines from where the enemy element, especially the internal one, can carry out and carry out hostile activities, even escaping. Specifically, 6 economic enterprises carry out their activity in the port of Durrës, where around 10,000 employees circulate in the entrances and exits. Today, the right to port entry slips for employees who work on land are owned by the company directorates themselves, while for those who work and board vessels, the Departments of Internal Affairs have the right. In addition to the liberalism in the implementation of entry-exit rules, the improper fencing of port territories, the poor lighting of this fence, the existence of several entrance-exit gates, etc., also have a negative impact.

Such a situation is approximately in other ports as well. We think that in addition to the measures to improve the fences and the lighting of the ports by the economic enterprises and the authorities, strong measures should be taken for the entrances and exits to the ports by both our internal affairs bodies and the directorates of the enterprises. The guards of the post-blockades of the ports should be subordinated and this service should be performed by the border forces, because today those for boarding and disembarking the ships belong to the border forces; whereas in the post-blocks for entry and exit, some are police, some are owned by the companies themselves.

4. The analysis of the event on the ship “Dukati” also highlights the necessity of strengthening the coordination between the enterprises of the means of navigation, the border and the army. Here there is room to clarify any flaws in the orders and instructions, but coordination is especially required to rigorously apply the existing norms and regulations, for the coordination of works covering the border radars and the army radars in the protection of the water surface, to strictly enforced the order that when the ships go out to sea, they should radio the center every two hours. In this regard, there are flagrant violations. Only on the night of January 6, 1989, 13 fishing vessels did not comply with this order. Also, according to the rules, the fishing enterprises do not provide the border command and the army with the vessel movement plan with the forms specified for this issue.

MINISTER OF INTERIOR AFFAIRS

      HEKURAN ISAI

Politburo meeting for the incident of the ship “Dukati”

ISSUE FOUR: “MISCELLANEOUS” (THE EVENT OF DURRES)

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: For the ugly event that happened in Durrës, we were presented with materials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the Party Committee of the Durrës district and from the apparatus of the Party Committee, Comrade Simon Stefani. Friends have read the materials. Now what questions or remarks do you have about these materials? Just speak as briefly as possible.

COMRADE RITA MARKO: I have a few questions for Comrade Qirjako. In the report presented by the Durres District Party Committee, no serious and deep analysis of this problem was made.

These negative phenomena that have occurred show that in Durrës there are elements of enemies who operate and organize and the party in the district is not in charge of the situation. What responsibility do you have for this event, friend Qirjako? Another question: on what criteria are sailors employed, either in fishing or in the merchant fleet?

I have this question for Comrade Hekuran. How is it possible that your colleague is put in the port, for two years does not give data and is kept as such in your organs? This is not the first case, there have been other cases. Similarly, the two brothers, Jakup Vogli and Bardhyl Vogli, were working at the port, one a crane operator and the other on a motorboat, when it was known that their mother had escaped. Why is this allowed?

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Following on from this, I would add: do not the colleagues of the Ministry have the opinion that the security employee is the most loyal person, who can be trusted unconditionally?

COMRADE ADIL ÇARÇANI: I have another question for Zylyftari, following this one. When an associate for two years in a row does not provide any data, is it kept on the basis of the Platform? Or how do you measure the effectiveness of the activity of associates?

COMRADE RITA MARKO: I have this question for Comrade Hekuran and the Head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Durrës. Does the Department of Internal Affairs have data that people enter the port and come into contact with foreigners, even port employees? If you have data, why haven’t you taken action? You personally, friend Agron, have learned lessons about the escape to the Inn of Hoti of the enemy Minella Andoni, who came to the Directorate of Tirana, took what he wanted and ran away, causing us a lot of trouble?

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: I have a question for Comrade Ferit. Customs didn’t do the check, as it seems they had, but the Border Control Point did checks at the time the boats left? What about you, Ferit, did you go to the Port of Durrës and make surprise checks to see how the border control officers perform their duties?

COMRADE MANYSH MYFTIU: I also have questions, Comrade Ramiz. From the reports I read, I did not understand how the protection of the border is guaranteed. There is an organized system for border control. According to the regulation, who was supposed to control this part of the border? Here it was said that there have been omissions in the implementation of the regulations. Who made these concessions? These phenomena speak of a general and serious violation of the border protection regulations.

Secondly, some serious things happened in Durrës. Do the Party and Security bodies know the real political situation and the activity of enemy elements? The negative phenomena that happened in Durrës show that the situation there is not good.

To you, friend Agron, this is the second time that organized escapes have happened to you, the first time Minella Andoni’s gang escaped from Tirana by car, this time 9 people escaped from Durrës by fishing boat. What insurance work do you do there?

Likewise, we have data that our fishermen have relations with Italian fishermen when they fish. They talk to each other in the middle of the sea. Are the boats checked by Security during fishing? I had these.

COMRADE LENKA CUKO: In the material of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is said that there is a worker with bad habits in the Fishing Enterprise. Why haven’t the Internal Branch and the Party Committee of the Durrës district taken measures to remove them from the port? Are these people known only on paper or are they not removed from there because there is some sentimentality?

I have a question for friend Qirjako. How has the party’s work been built in Durres and how is it different from the past after the unpleasant things that happened in the port of Durres?

How did the district Party committee and Comrade Qirjako himself work to intensify the work of the Party’s base organizations? These were my questions.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Next, who has questions?

COMRADE HAJREDIN ÇELIKU: I have too, Comrade Ramiz. If the fishing boats did not give a signal, out of 15 that were there, the company should raise an alarm. Or must the ships signal at all costs?

How was it possible to organize 9 people to carry out this hostile action and neither the Security bodies nor the Party in the district find out?

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Security, I still don’t know how it happened.

COMRADE HAJREDIN ÇELIKU: Why hasn’t the study on strengthening the border at the port been implemented?

COMRADE LLAMBI GEGPRIFTI: I also have a couple of questions, Comrade Ramiz. There is an order signed by the four ministers for the discipline of the Port of Durres. In the material it is stated that no lessons were given on the implementation of this order signed by these ministers. Why was this allowed and how was the control of the implementation of this order organized? It is said that fencing and lighting have not been done in the port. We ask for the fencing and lighting of simple enterprises and no longer of the port. Why is this condition allowed?

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: We don’t know how these 9 people got on the ship.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I know that they entered during the day. I have more questions? There is no. Friends answer the questions, but briefly and accurately. General things we do not want. Comrade Hekuran has the floor.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Comrade Rita, asked why the internal affairs bodies kept this colleague in the port, when he has not given any information for two years. This collaborator was recruited in 1984, in secret cooperation, and was chosen by the rogue, vagabond, and escapist elements. So, this one was chosen from the scum, so to speak, to reveal the scum. He worked….. at the port and was brought in by us to discover these contingents. Since he gave information about…, but that was not verified, this put the State Security bodies to sleep. Here is our responsibility. This is a lack of vigilance and lack of responsibility.

COMRADE RITA MARKO: It happened several times that…., they ran away.

COMRADE HEKUARN ISAI: The remark is correct. Comrade Ramiz says, don’t have the opinion of the Security bodies that…. are the most trusted people? This opinion does not exist, I say this absolutely.

COMRADE RAMZI ALIA: What about the opinion that Security employees are the most trusted, honest, and fairest people?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: I personally do not have this opinion, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I am talking about the State Security bodies. Then why is it allowed, Comrade Fierit, for the Security employee to go to the border? Then it happens that he escapes, as Minella Andoni escaped. Doesn’t this speak of a great confidence of the Security employee?!

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: In general, this opinion does not exist, Comrade Ramiz. If we process spies, these cannot be honest people, because they will process with close people who have faith. If we want to detect thieves, we have the most “chosen” among thieves. There have been cases where we have punished them… when they have given us false information. However, there were also… who have given true data, on the basis of which the criminal elements have been put in prison with legal facts. This has caused the operational worker to think that… he is an honest person. This captures…. and disinformation begins, so we are forced to use other means. In such cases, we have excluded them…. as liars or we arrested them. Of course, I cannot claim that among the thousands… that we have, we have achieved the goal. We need to dig deeper into finding…. Here is our responsibility.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: Why didn’t you pursue this…., when you knew that…. did he run away? Did he try to escape?

FRIEND HEKURAN ISAI: N…. he had escaped since 1960.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: This…. did not even provide data. What does the platform say about these?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Here, Comrade Adil, our minds must work, because the platform does not define these things so finely. This person is drawn to…., having…. escaped.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: He also, being… there was a tendency to escape.

FRIEND HEKURAN ISAI: I don’t know that he had a tendency to escape by being…. We have cases where… they betray us. We try to select, but apparently, we are not able to do this. Here is our weak work. We had dozens of data that citizens connect with foreigners at the port. Some of these have been caught by Sigurimi. According to the guilt, we put some in prison, and some we counseled. Likewise, we removed dozens of soldiers who we suspected of having relations with foreigners. And smugglers. A week ago, a citizen gave the soldier four gold coins to help him connect with foreigners. The florins were caught, but we could not catch the citizen.

COMRADE RITA MARKO: This happened on January 6.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Were the gold coins found on the street?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: The gold coins were given to the soldier by a citizen, so that he would allow him to communicate with foreigners. The citizen had told the soldier this before. The soldier immediately informs the command. As a command measure, he sent another soldier to that ship, when he was giving the gold to the soldier, the citizen also saw the other soldier. He got on his bike and sped away.

FOTO ÇAMI FRIEND: Does the soldier know the citizen who gave him the gold?

FRIEND HEKURAN ISAI: You don’t know friend Photo.

COMRADE LENKA CUKO: When there was information, Comrade Hekuran, that the citizen would come to meet the soldier, why didn’t the Security work?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: We have captured a good part of these elements. A soldier was caught boarding the Korean ship yesterday.

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: Since the citizen gave florins to the soldier, it means that they have met other times.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: He ran away as soon as he saw the other soldier.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: There have been cases where citizens are connected to smugglers and foreign sailors.

COMRADE RAMZI ALIA: What did you have to add to this, Agron?

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: The issue of the florins is as follows: A citizen went to the Romanian ship and told the soldier that I have some things that I need to work on with the foreign sailors, will you allow me? The soldier told him, it is not time now, but come at 9 o’clock in the evening. At the same time, the soldier notifies the command. Measures were taken for this, but the citizen did not come that night, he came the next day. The next day the soldier was on duty on another ship. So the citizen went the next day and gave the gold to the soldier. The soldier tells him to stop, but the citizen gets on his bike and leaves the port.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Did the Security Command take any measures at the port before the citizen arrived the next day?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: In this very serious case, the head of the Department of Internal Affairs himself, Comrade Agron, had to go, even friends from the ministry.

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: The citizen met the soldier twice.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The soldier announced in advance the command about the citizen who was going to meet him. She sent another soldier for reinforcements. But the security agencies slept. This is a dilettantial job, not an Insurance job! For this blatant case, Hekuran himself or your assistant had to go, but stay in the center!

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: A question was asked, why haven’t the negative elements with bad habits been removed from the port? Over the past two years, 100 or so elements of this type have been removed from the port, systematizing them for other jobs. Are there others to remove? Among the 12,000 workers who work at the port, there may still be negative elements. These were questions that belonged to me.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Now Comrade Qirjako Mihali has the floor.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Comrade Rita, you ask what responsibility I feel for what happened in Durrës.

I, as the first secretary of the district, have a great responsibility for this serious event that happened in Durrës. We have analyzed these problems in the district Party office and we have also taken our responsibility. From the analysis that was made, it turned out that the work of the Party’s basic organizations is not at the right level, the problems are not posed in the sense that we are discussing them today. Our responsibility lies in that in the district Party office, we have discussed and discussed economic problems more than the problems of maintaining the moral image of our people. The basic Party organizations in the port had to pay special attention to the problem of education, taking into account that the workers there are in daily contact with foreigners and under their pressure they can do illegal and anti-socialist actions. .

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I have information that your children, Qirjako, enter the port freely, take the boats and go hunting at sea? Anyone can enter the port, Qirjako?

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: My children enter the port with permission, friend Ramiz.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Does your licensed driver come in?

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Comrade Ramiz enters with permission.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Why do your children and others have to enter from the port to go out to sea for fishing or for a walk? Is the port a border area?

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: No one has entered from the port, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: I say with responsibility that no one entered the port without permission.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Did they enter with permission?

FRIEND AGRON TAFA: With permission, yes.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Who among the members of the Executive Committee and the Party Committee of the district enter from the port to hunt in the sea and with what right?

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: No Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: I entered, Comrade Ramiz.

COMMAND RAMIZ ALIA: Why do you say Agron that no one has entered?

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: With the exception of Comrade Qirjako, no one entered the port, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: While I do not exclude anyone for implementing the border rules. But I know that not only Comrade Qirjako, but also others enter the port. The driver also goes behind Qirjakos to take something he needs. There are designated places to go fishing in the sea, and not to enter from the port, which is a border point. This is not good, Qirjako. Any of the Bureau’s friends and other friends can go out to sea for fishing, but without breaking the rules. The rules are the same for everyone, and we must all follow them.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: A question was asked here, by what criteria are workers and sailors employed. Those who work in the border area, such as the port, must have a good biography, so the basic criterion is the biography. Yes, in some cases it has saved us, because there are not as many documents for workers as there are for cadres. As Comrade Hekuran said, this year a general study was done for the economic enterprises that are in the border area, and in this context, we removed some employees who had a bad biography from the port. Friend Lenka says: why aren’t they all removed? Out of 20 employees, who were expected to be removed from the fishing company, with the study that was done, 13 were removed, so there are 7 people left, so we cannot remove them all at once, not for sentimentality, but for do not create worries and alarms in the family.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The report states that after the event that happened, a boy got on the ship “February 16” and was going to escape to Ravenna, Italy, and none of the organizations – the base of the Ship Party – gathered to draw conclusions about this matter. So the party organizations are waiting for instructions.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: In the basic organization of the “February 16” Party, a special analysis was made of what happened. He participated in that meeting as a delegate and secretary of the district Party Committee. The conclusions of the meeting of the base organization of the Party of the ship “February 16” have been given to the Party organizations of other ships, so that they can analyze their work. To date, 12 Party-based organizations have analyzed this problem, while the other ships are outside.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, the report states that: of the 16 basic Party organizations that the port company has, only two of them have analyzed this problem.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: The ship “16 February” belongs to the Merchant Fleet. However, in the basic organization of the Port Party, no analysis has been done on this problem.

COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: Yes, the incident happened inside the port.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: It happened in the port, but the ship belonged to the Merchant Fleet. Therefore, the analysis, in the first place, had to be done in the organizations of the Merchant Fleet Party, that the person who tried to escape got into the merchant ship.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: For the incident that happened on the “February 16” ship, Comrade Qirjako was satisfied with the analysis made by the Party’s base organization and left the job at that. This was a loud alarm bell. Therefore, for this friend Ferit Zeneli, you should have drawn conclusions about the entire border at the port. The Party Committee of the Durrës district, the Department of Internal Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself should have drawn conclusions and not act like firefighters who put out the fire where it falls and run away. But you didn’t do this, so it happened again on the “Dukati” ship, even worse.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Comrade Manush said that our fishermen talk to Italian fishermen at sea and we are not impressed by this. This is not true. We have removed those fishermen who have done such actions from the fishing enterprise and made them a problem in all fishing vessels. I took care of this work myself.

COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: From the contacts we have had with the secretaries of the basic organization of the Party with communists, and from the study of the minutes of the meetings, it results that this problem has not been dealt with by you to the extent it should.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: This problem, Comrade Simon, has been addressed. But the working group that was tasked by the Central Committee of the Party to study the documents and the protocols of the meetings of the Party organization, did not meet me at all as the first secretary of the district and tell me that we have issued such and such problem. That doesn’t seem fair to me.

COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: The working group was tasked with giving me the data and not you.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Don’t worry too much, Qirjako. Here we have the material. If you do not agree with any of the issues raised in it, you have the right to argue it.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: I am also saying this because, by meeting with me, anything could be clarified from there and we would not have debates here. In this sense, I have the remark, friend Ramiz. Friend Lenka asks why workers with bad habits have not been removed from the port. We have removed some of these workers and will continue to remove others, so we could not remove them all at once.

COMRADE LENKA CUKO: These elements could be removed sooner, Comrade Qirjako, so that what happened now would not happen. Yes, that’s not the problem. The fact that all these negative phenomena are happening in the port speaks of the fact that in Durrës no intensive ideo-political work is being done to educate people, to increase revolutionary vigilance at work and everywhere, from the first secretary and the five secretaries of the Committee of the district Party, without mentioning other cadres. Several such cases have occurred in Durrës. In the first days of January, one hid on the foreign ship to escape, then it turned out that “he was drunk, sick”.

The meeting of the Political Bureau about the escape of the “Dukati” ship

ISSUE FOUR: “MISCELLANEOUS” (THE EVENT OF DURRES)

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: We have gone to the port from time to time, friend Lenka.

COMRADE LENKA CUKO: Why is the work you do not effective, Comrade Qirjako?!

FRIEND RITA MARKO: Why haven’t you taken measures to implement the rules and decisions that have been made for port weaving?

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: We have stood by this problem, Comrade Rita. The director of the NN of the Port was dismissed two months ago for procrastinating the problems and we appointed another one.

COMRADE PROKOP MURRA: The Directorate of Fisheries is breaking the rules with both feet today, Comrade Qirjako. Here is the date. 16 BUD stopped the ship “Shkodra” that had entered Himara without any notice and will stop them if they violate the border rules.

COMRADE ADIL ÇARÇANI: In a report sent to me by Jovan Bardhi, it is said that the fish is given without being unloaded from the boats. Jovani himself is responsible for this.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: I don’t know about fish being sold before being unloaded at the port, but we have had cases where people are given fish. The police have caught people with trawlers of fish outside the Fishing Enterprise. We have made this a problem.

COMRADE ADIL ÇARÇANI: Such phenomena do not only occur in fishing vessels, but in the entire port. The port has become like an inn, where people enter and exit as they please. Why isn’t the port surrounded, Qirjako? Are the investments missing?

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Investments for port fencing have been granted. The work has started and will continue in 1989. We have our responsibility here, but to start the construction of an object, such as the expansion of the port, without making the fence, this does not seem fair to me. We build a simple enterprise and the siege is made, then the facility is built.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Don’t look at the isolated phenomena, Qirjako, don’t reduce the problem to the escape of 9 people. Let these 9 people and 90 like these go on the asphalt! Albania cannot deal with vagabonds. But this shows another thing that the rules, laws and norms that we have are not applied. According to the regulation approved by the four ministers, the fishing vessel must announce its location every two hours. But I say that the ship should announce every hour. Why didn’t the radars give a signal for warships to go out and capture him? What is done like this? Why are laws and regulations not enforced?

COMRADE PROKOP MURRA: You are very right, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Then put order in your department, Prokop. The problem should be looked at more deeply. The causes that led to this event must be found. No one knows how these 9 people got into the boat on a sunny day and escaped to Italy without being dictated to at all. These people have been in a working relationship, but no party-based organization was concerned why ix or epsilon did not go to work, only when the Italian television gave it, even he declared that the captain has returned to take the vagabonds, which does not help us it was said by these of ours. This clearly shows that everyone has been asleep, from the State Security, the Army, the border forces, the Party organizations, the border guards and even the sailors. This speaks of great weaknesses of the Party’s work in the Durrës area, of the Security, border and Army bodies. There are rules for guarding the border, but they are broken and none of these bodies bear responsibility.

The main thing is to apply the laws and rules that you have adopted. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should implement its own rules, its own border and its own army, no concessions should be made. The Party put you in charge of the Army, Prokop, so put order there, don’t ask around. I am giving you the order to pull out the fours and capture the ships that violate the rules, whether civilian or military. Qirjako says the port is not surrounded. Why will we keep people with barbed wire, friend Qirjako. This is not the way to prevent negative phenomena. In principle, this is wrong. The main one is the ideological education of employees, the implementation of laws and rules, increasing vigilance at work and everywhere.

Keep going, Qirjako!

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Comrade Manush asks how the 7 sailors were locked in the ship. We don’t know anything except the explanations given to us by the fishermen.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: No one knows for sure about this. The report states that at 5:40 p.m. the ship went out to sea and radioed, after that it was not heard, but no one was concerned about it, although everyone knows that, according to the regulations, the ship every two hours he had to be in radio contact with the fisheries directorate.

COMRADE QIRJAKO MIHALI: Here is the mistake, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: There is no mistake here. This indicates that when the rules are violated no alarm is raised. For the specific case, the enemy used this and organized the escape. So breaking the rules is one of the problems that worries us the most.

COMRADE Ferit Zeneli is speaking now.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: This event, as far as we have analyzed and judged it, has its source in the first place in the non-implementation of the norms, in the liberalization of the cadres, which is then related to the lack of control on our part in the depth and breadth that is required.

I am briefly answering the question of how they got into the ship. On the day the incident happened, the soldier returned three civilians with irregular documents and two others who did not have documents, precisely because they were in violation of the rules. And with the intervention of the chief engineer, as the soldier says, the non-commissioned officer tells him to allow these people to enter the port. This fact shows that the order you gave a year ago at the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, which was made for the escape of the enemy Minella Andoni, was not understood by our subordinate cadres.

The responsibility for the incident, in the first place, lies with me, the commissar of the border forces and our subordinates. This ugly event happened precisely because our subordinates were not educated to follow the rules.

Have we checked? a question was asked. The command of the border forces has carried out many checks at the border points, even at 2 o’clock in the morning, and for the shortcomings that have been observed, in the last 3-4 years we have dismissed two commanders of this border control point, we have moved with dozens of soldiers. Measures have been taken against the non-commissioned officer who flagrantly violated the rules. Likewise, in order to avoid interference and external influence on the effective, we have duplicated the border guards. But the bad thing is exactly here that the rules and norms are violated and the orders are not implemented. Here is our responsibility.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Why haven’t you worked out the detailed regulation signed by the four ministers in each department, ship, etc.?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We have broken down the order of the four ministers in detail with the cadres of commandos and border posts. In the Ministry of People’s Defense, together with Comrade Kiço, we have gathered and discussed this problem several times.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: But why is its implementation not checked?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Are you talking about the specific case, Comrade Ramiz?

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I don’t have it only for the specific case, but as a whole the order signed by the four ministers has not been implemented.

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: Didn’t the ship contact the Department of Internal Affairs by radio?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: The Department of Internal Affairs is not related to vessels.

COMRADE PROKOP MURRA: The ship had to radio the Directorate of Fisheries and let them know where it was.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Based on the regulation approved by the four ministers, if the ship does not report every two hours by radio, the Directorate of Fisheries must immediately notify the BUD and not the Department of Internal Affairs.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I mean, you, as the commander of the Border, cannot know what is happening at sea, if the Directorate of Fisheries does not notify you? Then the mistake is in the regulation signed by the four ministers. The ship must notify the crossing control point and the BUD every two hours, otherwise the border guard cannot be checked.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Excuse me, Comrade Ramiz, let me explain this. With the Ministry of People’s Defense, we have established a regulation that within three miles in internal waters, the border command will respond and it receives all notifications.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I told you that the Fishing Enterprise does not notify the Department of Internal Affairs! How does the command of the border control point know that the ships have not left the territorial waters? Who announces it?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We have data on all the fishing tools that are in the areas where we have placed the radars. Outside this range, we do not hear, except when the BUD notifies us.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: BUD has no way to notify, because fishing does not notify BUD.

COMRADE KIÇO MUSTAQI: I’m sorry to clarify a bit, Comrade Ramiz. The regulation states that the fishing enterprise notifies the border control point. This then notifies the BUD. The BUD must notify the Ministry, the fleet and so on. When the army had the border, it notified it and the BUD. So here there is a violation of the rules from our side as well. We have analyzed this problem.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: This is what Comrade Kiço says. So every time the vessels leave and return, they notify the border control point and the BUD.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Who should the ship notify every two hours?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Every two hours the ship must notify the Fishing Enterprise.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: This is a strange regulation! Why does the ship have to notify the Fishing Enterprise every two hours, to tell them that it has caught fish?!

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: He should inform her so that she knows where the ship is.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, the ship did not notify the Fishing Enterprise at all and the border control point did not find out when it left the territorial waters.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: That’s what happened, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: You are in charge of protecting the border, Ferit, but you have not organized the work in such a way that you are informed every two hours about the ships that are at sea. The regulation has this wrong.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: It is not our job to cling to regulations, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: It is precisely the regulations that must be caught, so don’t underestimate these things, Comrade Hekuran.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: We don’t have a lack of regulations, but there have been violations of them. According to the regulation, every two hours the ship must announce its location. But there were those who did not notify and no measures were taken to return the ships that break the rule. This is not done and it became common now.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: How do you know that the other ships have not announced where they are?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: The records show that they did not notify.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: But who controls those recordings?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: From an inspection that was carried out, in one day, 11 vessels were found that had not announced where they were while fishing.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The regulation, I repeat, says that a vessel in the open sea notifies the Fishing Enterprise every two hours of its occurrence, but in fact the vessels do not do this. This is exactly where the regulation is wrong, Comrade Hekuran. Ships must be checked every hour by the border control point, so that the border is aware of which ships are entering and leaving the port and where each is located. It costs nothing for the Fisheries Enterprise radio operator to notify the crossing control point. If it says that X ship is not, then the checkpoint will notify the BUD that X ship in this square is missing, so check it with radar. Yes, this should be in the regulations. Therefore the border regulations should be very strict.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Yes, we cannot keep the ships under control with the radars we have.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The BUD should check the ships with radar. Did the port checkpoint notify the BUD that this vessel is not in range?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: The ship did not announce either the crossing control point or the BUD.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: This is exactly what I am saying, that this is a major flaw in the regulation. Say that there are no rules, only familiarity and “friendship” and this has become commonplace now. What else did you have, Ferit?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: After the event that happened last year and the orders you gave us…

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Let go of last year’s event. He tells us about the incident of the ship “Dukati” and the ship “16 February” that happened now.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: That of the ship “16 February” happened in December. At that time I was in Kukës and Dibër.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: It doesn’t matter where you were. It is important what measures the Border Directorate has taken to strengthen border control?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Comrade Hekuran sent a friend from the ministry to the analysis made by the Internal Affairs Branch of Durrës about the incident that happened on the “16 February” ship. But with the incident that happened on the ship “Dukati”, we judge that the analysis was not in-depth.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Specifically, what measures were taken? This is what we want to know.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: A position was taken regarding the cadres, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: This incident does not speak of the fact that border control is so weak, that people can enter and exit as they want and when they want at the port!! Did you not draw this conclusion? That’s why I told you not to be like the firemen who put out a fire and run away. General conclusions should be drawn for the events that occur.

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We tried to get as deep as possible into the problem of this event. For the “16 February” ship, the non-commissioned officer violated the rule. This was a communist and secretary of the basic organization of the Party.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: What did you find?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We found that there is no fine check on the ships that go out to sea. on cadres who had violated the rules were taken into custody.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: What should be done to protect the border?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We had thought that within the first 10 days of January, an analysis would be done in the Departments of Internal Affairs and other border departments for the incident that happened on the “16 February” ship. Yes, some shortcomings were corrected by the comrades on the spot.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: For the “February 16” ship incident, you should have drawn conclusions for all the border departments, Ferit!

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: The sub-officer neglected the fine check on the “16 February” ship.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: So, the non-commissioned officer is to blame?!

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We are to blame, Comrade Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: It’s not like that, Ferit. If it was the issue that one person is to blame, you removed him, the problem was solved?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: No, it is not resolved.

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: The alarm is not raised when the border is violated?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Come on, Comrade Manush.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: We have the clone on the ground and if a person tries to cross, the border post gives an alert. At sea, what means are there to signal that ships are leaving territorial waters?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: We have no tools for the sea. An alarm, in the sense that friend Ramiz said, is not made, so the remark stands completely.

COMRADE MANUSH MYFTIU: When the ship does not announce its location every two hours, then how does the port transit control point check it?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: The ship reports every two hours to the Fishing Enterprise and not to the port crossing control point. Now we will put it in the regulations to notify the checkpoint at the port, as Comrade Ramiz said.

Comrade Hajredin asked a question, why the study that was done for strengthening the border at the port has not been implemented. After the event that happened in Han i Hoti, let’s say it openly to the Political Bureau, we focused our attention on the Port of Durrës. The first measures that were taken were the siege of the port, where work continues, and some other measures to strengthen the border. Comrade Qirjako also helped us to surround the port with a decision made by the district Party Committee. We proposed to make some organic additions to the eastern quay of the port that is being built, thinking that with this we would better secure the port.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Are the non-commissioned officers of the checkpoint paid or unpaid?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: They are on salary, Comrade Ramiz.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Are they from Durrës?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Only one is from Durrës. One is from Tepelena.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Only two non-commissioned officers are at the checkpoint?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: There are three non-commissioned officers for the control of the internal means of the ships.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: What are the duties of the officers?

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: Officers have the duty to check foreign ships and our commercial ships that come and go from abroad.

The study for the port was completed in December of last year, but other ministries had debates about the encirclement of the port, some agreed and some did not agree to build the port. There were also debates about the placement of guards. In conclusion, they all agreed, but we still haven’t presented the study to the government. We have a very big responsibility for this very serious event. I express to the Political Bureau that, without being intimidated by the pressure that our enemies put on us, both external and internal, we will not lack neither devotion, nor loyalty, nor conscience to carry out our duty. The Party, the Political Bureau has the full right not only to hold me accountable for this, but also to dismiss me from office.

The meeting of the Political Bureau about the escape of the “Dukati” ship

ISSUE FOUR: “MISCELLANEOUS” (THE EVENT OF DURRIS)

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Good. Agron Tafa is speaking now.

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: I am answering the questions that belong to me. As far as…., there was no evidence that there was a tendency to escape, after we drew him into the interaction.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Of course! Do not go into details!

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: For the event that happened now, I have a heavy responsibility, I am aware of that. It hurts me that, after a year that the Secretariat of the Central Committee did the analysis for the escape in Han i Hoti, I come to be tried again in the Political Bureau, for the same disturbing problem.

However, I have been and will always be exacting in my judgment and the positions of the Party. With an open heart I tell the Political Bureau that I have reflected and fought to implement the remarks, orders and measures taken by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party for the escape to Han i Hoti of Minella Andoni’s gang.

I have tried to understand your fair criticism and orders, friend Ramiz, and to reflect on the improvement of the work. I have tried to reward the Party’s warm and benevolent attitude towards me with work. For this I fought in two directions:

• First, as a member of the Party Central Committee, after the analysis made by the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee on the event in Han Hoti, fully convinced of the correct assessments and judgments of the Party, I have tried to lead by example at work. personally, and to justify the trust that the Party gave me. In the beginning, I tried to get to know the problems of the Durrës area as quickly as possible and get down to business. I immediately took my family with me. I felt in my heart that I had obligations and was indebted to the Party. With my personal example, I influenced my subordinates to mobilize them to work. I have been connected with the Party’s power bodies in the district and I have tried to communicate directly with them to highlight the problems and concerns of the work, to ensure their help and leadership. In this perspective, I think that I have not held reservations and, as a communist, I have made an effort to justify the Party’s faith and the name as a communist.
• Secondly, as the head of the Department of Internal Affairs, I have made an effort and will put all my efforts into carrying out the orders of the Party and yours. Comrade Ramiz, to act more skillfully and intelligently for the detection of hostile and malicious activity. The conclusions drawn after the escape to Han t Hoti and the special orders that were given for the port, as a possible channel for hostile activity, I tried to work with all the cadres and links and organize the work to close the paths that could were used by enemy elements, as was used in the present case. For the problems of the port, we made a special analysis with comrade Qirjako, we made special plans, laying out concrete tasks for each cadre.

We have taken some measures for the port. Measures have been taken to remove people with bad biographies who do not deserve to work in the port, to strengthen the regime of entry slips, to secure foreign ships with two soldiers instead of one before. This was done because of the great pressure from foreigners to compromise them and the calamities we have had recently.

Based on the analysis that was done in the collegium of the ministry with Comrade Simon, we took some general measures for the port, with concrete work plans. We rightly judged the construction of operational work in the port, especially in the brigades that worked in contact with foreigners. But despite all the measures that were taken, it must be said that the event that happened does not justify them.

The responsibility for these two events is in two directions: firstly, as an organ, the Security did not provide information about all this hostile activity that took place in the port and, secondly, for lack of control over……that turned out to be traitorous.

From the data we are providing now, it is clear that this activity is not random. These elements have manifested foreign shows, they liked the debauched life, foreign music, some have connections of interest with persons in Italy or with visitors who have been there. They have gathered to organize this escape, but our Security has not smelled their activity. We are carefully following this work with the aim of discovering the hand of foreign Discovery, especially the Italian one, whose activity is not only early, but also current in the Durrës region.

As always and this time, the event is the direct consequence of the pronounced displays of liberalism. They existed, the event clearly demonstrated. The enemies had smelled that there was no control, so they took courage and entered the ship. The petty officer of the checkpoint knew that the control of the port command was weak, so he did not check the ships in accordance with the regulation. The company and the fishermen saw that there was not a full control on the ships and accepted the situation. These deficiencies were also highlighted in the accountability meeting. Lack of control cultivated mind size and conditioning with the condition. In the Fishing Enterprise, the concept that fishermen are frontiersmen and do not go to other countries has taken root, which is why the control was weak.

The signal for this escape was the escape attempt of the person who entered the “16 February” ship, which was going to Ravenna. We took some measures to strengthen the work in the ward command. Police services, even duplicating guards, especially for ships with cargo, such as the “16 February” ship.

However, to put it bluntly, we are far from what the Party wants, for the implementation of regulations and norms to get into people’s blood. The work of the Party has a strong influence on this problem, but also the personal example of the cadres.

The pressure on cadres and staff to make concessions and compromise is strong. The spirit of justification, hesitation or non-self-critical attitude towards oneself and one’s friends are also not without influence.

However, I understand that the event is serious and for this I feel responsible before the Party. But I have firm faith in the judgment of the Party and will spare nothing for its interests.

I had these, friend Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Comrade Kiço Mustaqi is now speaking.

FRIEND KIÇO MUSTAQI: The escape of the fishing boat is a serious event. From the three reports I read, it appears that: if the rules we have set for the border were applied, this would not have happened.

It seems to me that the organizational and administrative measures taken after the event on the party and state lines are more complete, but this issue should be looked at more deeply. And we, as the minister, for this event took our responsibility for the Fleet Command and the operational directorate, as well as took the relevant measures, demobilized two officers, dismissed one from duty, and others. From this event we drew the conclusion that the War Fleet should follow the situation at sea and cooperate with the Merchant and Fishing Fleet.

The army has many delicate points, that due to carelessness in the implementation of the rules or from a hostile action, serious political and military events can occur.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: The “Partizani” cinema in Tirana burned us down with a cigarette.

COMRADE KIÇO MUSTAQI: We are seeing the implementation of rules, the strengthening of discipline and control more widely in every direction and link of the Army.

For all these shortcomings I have my responsibility before the Political Bureau and the General Staff. I will look deeper into these problems to increase the demand of the account and be stricter against any show of liberalism in breaking the rules in the Army.

In Comrade Fer’s discussion, I think there is bias. You, as the Commander of the Border, comrade Ferit, should have read the order carefully. The order states that the Fishing Enterprise must notify the port crossing control point every two hours. This order is from when the Ministry of National Defense had the border. If it is the work that should come out a four. The Navy has taken them out and will take them out. But the problem is not here. The problem is to strictly apply the rules and norms in the Army, in the internal affairs bodies and in the civil sector. Therefore, Comrade Ferit must follow the implementation of the rules closely.

In the report of the Party Committee, Comrade Qirjako had to go deeper into the analysis of this event, to bring out the responsibility of the Party Committee apparatus and his personally for the low level of the party’s work in the district.

It should be reflected now; we note that orders with four signatures are not needed. Therefore, we must review the orders we have issued. Orders must be clear.

I have divided the sea into squares to control it, so that no foreign ship enters for a general aggression and I do not look at it from the other angle. The main problem is that the rules have not been followed, starting with me. I have not asked my deputy to account for the implementation of the rules, so that he should also ask his subordinates. I did not ask the Commander of the Battle Fleet, Skënder Doçi and Ndue Jakut, to account with that force that they should report at the appointed time for the implementation of the combat duty. The demand for the account has been weak and for other issues that the divisions have had, therefore I bear responsibility together with the General Staff for these phenomena that have occurred. I had these, friend Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Good. Comrade Zylyftar Ramizi has the floor now.

COMRADE ZYLYFTAR RAMIZI: The “Dukati” ship incident is serious. This, as well as the event in Shkodra, have as a common factor the violation of norms and rules by the Border Security agencies, where I, Comrade Ferit Zeneli and Agron Tafa lead.

This event becomes even more serious due to the fact that a year ago an analysis was made in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party about the escape to Han i Hoti. Comrade Ramiz in his speech held at the Secretariat meeting emphasized: “Internal affairs bodies should understand this event as an alarm bell and through its analysis, better identify the weaknesses that are noticed in the organizational aspect, in the implementation of rules and in the fight against foreign manifestations and the familiarity of liberalism. This always requires the establishment of a rigorous discipline in the application of the rules”.

The facts show that these phenomena occurred because there was a violation of rules and norms. Here is my responsibility.

For the implementation of a military order, it is not necessary to do a political job and have professional preparation. You can enter the border post and port crossing checkpoint only with the permission of the border authorities accompanied by a passport. The chairman and deputy chairman of the Department of Internal Affairs do not need political work and professional training to require the implementation of one of the basic norms, that of authentication with all types of operative work, of the secret information network and, in particular, of the work of the accomplice that resulted from hostile and malicious activity.

I, Comrade Ferit and Comrade Agron are directly to blame for this.

Without denying the results that have been achieved during this period in the work of the Ministry and the bodies at the base, as the Party and you, friend Ramiz, have determined, there have been flaws and weaknesses in the bodies of internal affairs. So, the remarks that are made about the bodies of internal affairs, stand. But, in addition to the weaknesses that still exist in the internal affairs bodies, there are also occasional displays of arrogance, which, in my opinion, have their source in the past. Manifestations of this magnitude are also expressed in operational activity, in the violation of norms, in receiving, following and processing. Despite all the fight that has been done against such shows, we still find unfounded processing, follow-up beyond the deadline. These are rare cases, but with serious consequences, that have their basis in the past. Likewise, with all the great work that has been done in the ministry against this concept, there are cases when the chairman and deputy chairman of the Department of Internal Affairs measure the work of the Operative Worker by the number of processings and not by the work done for detection and prevention of hostile activity. This is a wrong concept with very serious consequences.

There are still key cadres who do not burden themselves with work, who do not participate directly to solve concrete problems. They want to protect themselves and offload the work to the grassroots.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Is there familiarity in the internal affairs bodies, starting from the Ministry staff?

COMRADE ZYLYFTAR RAMIZI: The minister and the deputy ministers have made direct and open criticisms in the meetings of the collegium and in the meetings of the ministry’s directorates. I say this with responsibility.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I have no doubt that Hekurani does not criticize, that he is familiar with his subordinates. I am talking about the familiarity in general that has existed for many years in the State Security bodies and that stems from the nature of the closed work of these bodies. The familiarity in Security workers is just like the intellectual arrogance that is characteristic of mental work people.

COMRADE ZYLYFTAR RAMIZI: I cannot absolve that the rules are violated, but there are cases. Exactly this rule was violated in the present case. If it hadn’t been stepped on, it would have turned out that… it was in hostile positions. But… it gave data until the last month.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Pal Mëlysh’s father also came here, Zylyftar.

Our ambassador in Italy calls Hekurani and tells him to come or not, John. This John was the father of Pal Mëlyshi. But the Security employee of our embassy in Italy did not bother to say that this is the father of Pal Mëlysh, who was one of the exponents of the reaction and a furious enemy of our people’s power. And the director of the Third Directorate in the Ministry is not worried at all. Hecuran took it for another John and told him to come. Now to protect you, even though he felt the responsibility, Hekurani said I did it. The ambassador did not have to call the minister and ask whether or not so-and-so should come to Albania. But even Hekurani had no right to take the ambassador on the phone and tell him to give the visa to so-and-so. That’s the rule. However, precisely because the rules are not followed, such things happen. For this case, no measures were taken against the Security employee in Rome and the director of the Third Directorate.

This is what I mean, Comrade Zylyftar, when I say that there is familiarity in the internal affairs bodies. For the case I mentioned, the rule was violated both by Comrade Hekuran and by the ministry. Therefore, let’s apply the rules and norms that we have set. This is the fundamental problem.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Regarding the implementation of the rules, you are completely right, Comrade Ramiz. We cannot pretend that there is no familiarity and liberalism in the bodies of internal affairs and Security. Familiarity and liberalism appear, in the first place, in the violation of rules and regulations of discipline, from the military link, and up to the command staff. If the rules and norms are applied by the command and superior cadres and if there is an effective control from our side, as the minister, the soldier cannot abuse, neither the border command nor the Security can tolerate. However, the effectiveness of the control leaves much to be desired, so serious events occur that cost us in every direction.

FRIEND RAMIZ ALIA: Good, Hekuran! Are friends crazy?

COMRADE RITA MARKO: The incident on the ship “Dukati” is very serious and places responsibility on the Party Committee in the district of Durrës and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The two escapes that happened years ago in Shkodër, in Vermosh and Hani e Hoti, and the events that happened this year in the Port of Durrës, on the ship “16 Shkurti” of Ravenna and that of “Dukati”, are related to the Popaj case . These, in my opinion, open many problems for the party.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: They opened an external political problem.

COMRADE RITA MARKO: The events that happened in these situations are an organized activity of the enemy against our country. But the friends of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and those of the Durrës district, have not properly taken this into account.

Now another channel was opened, they also escape us by means of ships. There is a risk that they can escape by means of export cars.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: And by airplanes.

COMRADE RITA MARKO: From all that has happened, it appears that the enemy element at the border point, especially in some such centers, has the ability, ground and opportunity to organize. It is organized not only in small groups, but also in large groups. But apparently, we do not know the situation in this regard.

The meeting of the Political Bureau about the escape of the “Dukati” ship

ISSUE FOUR: “MISCELLANEOUS” (THE EVENT OF DURRES)

COMRADE RITA MARKO: This event shows that the situation in the Durrës area is generally not good, that there is a disturbing problem in this area, therefore the members of the Party Committee and in particular, Comrade Qirjako, should learn from what happened. This event shows that not only have the rules been violated, but also the Security agencies do not take into account that the Port of Durrës has been a main facility for foreign agencies. The port has always had a number of workers in different sectors, even when there were not many mechanisms, there were more workers. Ever since Spiro Kote’s heroic act at the port, there has always been the risk of action by foreign agencies. The military rules of the border regime were violated because the Security, Police, and operational workers at the port did not perform their duties. Even the work of the Party and the authorities in the 6 port enterprises has not been at the right level. So this event happened not simply because the rules were violated, but because the security bodies and the checkpoint at the port did not exercise strong control over economic entities. At the port is “Inter Club”, other customs, so all these problems must be seen in the complex. Surely there must be other phenomena in the port. I am also impressed by the case of the citizen who gave the gold to the soldier and could not be caught, although the command was informed about this in advance. This is a very serious thing to do regarding this matter that we are discussing today. The escape that happened in Han i Hoti, last year was not a lesson for Agron Tafa now in Durrës. The Durres District Party Committee did not learn from this event either. In the report presented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, especially the Durrës District Party Committee, there is no deep analysis of this problem, no conclusions are drawn, no serious attitude is taken towards the cadres, for the responsibility they have for this serious event, and no the basic Party organizations are tasked with the important role played by these delicate sectors. The responsibility for this lies with the Party in the district, the Fishing Enterprise, but the greatest responsibility lies with comrade Qirjako and the comrades of the Party and the office of the Durrës district. I have the impression that these friends are not worried about what happened. The Department of Internal Affairs is also in charge, with Comrade Agron in charge. As proposed in the report of the Central Committee of the Party, as well as being dismissed from office, because the mistakes are serious and repeated, he did not make self-criticism either. Ferit Zeneli proposed for himself that we dismiss him from office, while my friend Agron Tafa did not. Measures should also be taken for Ferit Zeneli. Measures should also be taken for the friends of the First Directorate and for Zylyftari. Comrade Hekuran should learn more lessons about the weaknesses observed in this sector, that these mistakes are not only repeated but have created concerns for the state and for our entire Security system. Hekurani should have more organizational strength to take things to the end and be more demanding of his subordinates and fight weaknesses at work. Despite all the skills he has and the work he does, comrade Hekuran has not found the strength to fight the familiarity and escalate the closed work. He must discover some internal problems himself and must precede them with concrete solutions and make them aware, not when these things happen. We must admit that there are great weaknesses in the Border and Police bodies. The police force is not felt enough by the citizens, there is some uncertainty about the preservation of property, order, and in some cases mistakes have been made. These problems have been beaten by the police comrades, but they have not taken them to the end. Therefore, both the police and the border must be strengthened a lot, of course without excluding other important bodies such as Security. Comrade Hekuran’s mistakes as a minister are serious. I will tell the Political Bureau and for an action for a bad action of his son, let the friends know. Hekurani’s son, who is in the fourth year of the University, together with some street gangs, went to the Faculty of Economics, and broke the windows, lamps, and worst of all, beat the teacher. You should go to the faculty, friend Hekuran, and condemn this action of your son, because you are a parent. I personally felt very sad when I found out. We have to look at these things as well. Friends should also be very careful about their lives. I am of the opinion that some dens, I mean the hunting ones, should be closed and given to tourism. I believe that my friends understand, I care more about their lives. However, some employees of internal affairs bodies find hunting necessary for the nature of their work. Regarding the measures of friend Hekuran, a remark should be given. I also have a remark for the comrades of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party. The report presented by the members of the apparatus was very good, but always after the events take place, the apparatus of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau, must announce. As we said, the bodies of internal affairs, and especially Security, are a closed sector and the whole cannot be included in their work. Regardless of this, the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party must stay very close to these bodies, control them, help them, but also inform the Political Bureau when there is a disturbing problem. I have the impression that the apparatus of the Central Committee has not raised it as a problem at the Political Bureau, for the work of the internal affairs bodies. As a member of the Political Bureau, although I am connected with these bodies, indirectly, I am not satisfied from this side. Therefore, I think that the apparatus of the Central Committee should not be the judge only when things happen. Very serious things have happened to us in the security agencies, and we have coped with them. Enemies and foreign agencies try to hit the most sensitive sectors, such as Security. Therefore, we must be strong and agile to cover and prevent hostile activity. The Party Committees in the districts should stay closer to these bodies, and help their effective to grow as much as possible as a political level. The heads of the Internal Branches in the districts are members of the bureau of the district party committees. So where is their responsibility for this problem? Even the members of the Tirana district Party Committee, in my opinion, are not held accountable enough to the internal affairs bodies. Work should not be measured only by meetings, but by results. Comrade Zylyftar said that work is only measured by results, but he himself is measuring it by the meetings he has held. On Sunday, the “Partizani” cinema burned down. Therefore, the Party Committees in the districts, and the apparatus of the Central Party Committee should be in charge of the internal affairs bodies. This will be helpful for their work. This apparatus should help and encourage the district party committees to get deeper into the work of the party in these bodies. This will be helpful for their work, and will strengthen these bodies in the fight against enemies. The control of the Party must be strengthened in the ministries. That’s all I had.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Okay, who else will speak?

COMRADE FOTO CHAMI: I, friend Ramiz. The case they are discussing is extremely serious and because it is not the first time such things happen. This happened before some other events, especially after the escape to Han i Hoti, for which all those criticisms were made by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, and measures were taken. The last event that happened in Durrës showed that the comrades did not reflect deeply and the measures taken were one-sided and partial. And in this case, the phenomenon that has been criticized several times by friend Ramiz was repeated, that when a defect is discovered in a sector or an event like this occurs in a field, measures are taken only to eliminate this defect and not to prevent these phenomena in all sectors nationwide. Regarding the event we are analyzing, everything is quite clear. The enemies were able to carry out their work due to significant weaknesses in the field of vigilance, discipline, implementation of rules, in the exercise of control and other measures that are taken to prevent such acts. There is a serious lack and weakness in this direction and in the work of the police, border and security bodies, in the work of the Party and economic enterprises. All of this is widely discussed in the materials that have been presented, especially in that of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, the material presented by the Durrës Party Committee is shallow, it does not make a deep and comprehensive analysis of the problem and the situation that led to this bitter event. The material talks more about what was done than what happened. The main and most important cause of the weaknesses that we are criticizing should not be looked for in organizational flaws, technical deficiencies, non-implementation of rules and lack of control in this regard. These are the main causes, but the main factor that led to this event is the ideological aspect, the underestimation of the enemy’s work, the spirit of liberalism and indifference, which have led to flagrant violations of discipline, breaking of rules, lack of control and others. These gave opportunities to the enemies to realize their goal. It seems that there is a great misunderstanding in the class war, as if now the class war has softened, as if the enemies have become kinder, wiser and calmer, that what we are going through is a period of calm and pre-occupation alone it’s the economy. Extinguishing the political vigilance, the revolutionary spirit, spreading the spirit of liberalism and indifferentism, have been and are the main goals of our enemies, internal and external. This spirit is especially dangerous when it affects the organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Party organizations. But this is very dangerous in a port city, such as Durrës, which has a large and heterogeneous population, entering and exiting from inside and outside. Here is the great responsibility of the Party Committee of the Durrës district and of Comrade Qirjako as the first secretary of this district. Qirjakoja itself, in my opinion, does not set a good example in this regard. People say that he is more concerned with hunting than with work. And other jobs in Durrës do not go well. Deficits in industrial and agricultural production are large, the problems of supplying the people are worrying. Therefore, I agree with the measure that is proposed in the material of the Central Committee of the Party for Comrade Qirjako. While the main cause of this event is the ideological factor, I also see my responsibility in the weaknesses that were criticized here. For the issues of ideological and political education, we have held seminars, we have carried out checks in the districts, but apparently the effectiveness of our work has not been at the required level. From this analysis we must draw lessons and reflect more deeply, intensify the ideological and political work of the Party with its levers for educating people.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Comrade Pirro Kondi is now speaking

COMRADE PIRRO KONDI: The Durrës event, as friends said, is very serious also due to the fact that it happened after 2-3 other events of this nature. As Comrade Rita also said, seeing the problem in the prism of the work of the Party, the heavy responsibility for this event, in the first place, lies with the Party Committee of the Durrës district. Considering the causes that led to this event, the Party Committee of the Tirana district has responsibility in terms of the spirit of liberalism that is observed in the implementation of the decisions of the regulations. The “Partizani” cinema in Tirana burned down, precisely because there was no control for the implementation of the regulation. We try to make checks on the discipline at work that the arrival and departure on the schedule of the employees, the violation of which has serious consequences. Violation of the rules leaves a path for hostile activity, for theft and damage of socialist property. In this regard, there are many shortcomings in the organization of work, as Comrade Foto said, there is liberalism, starting from us. These phenomena are not evaluated with a political eye, so the appropriate measures are not taken to avoid them. We must reflect with concrete measures. The second issue I have is for the internal affairs bodies. From the work of the Internal Directorate of Tirana, but also from the work of the ministry itself, I find that there is a not in-depth work with the collaborators and the agency. Some things from the ministry and from the side of the Internal Directorate of Tirana, I cannot speak for the Internal Branch of Durrës, must be seen in the concept of the task. The main one is how to get in touch with associates to prevent hostile activity. Thus, the task of internal affairs bodies is to get in touch with collaborators to prevent hostile activity from the beginning. If 9 people organize to escape, 1 of them must be discovered by the Security authorities, therefore the professional development must be at the required level. A person can only carry out hostile activities and not be detected, but when this is carried out in an organized manner, the Security employee has no professional training if he is not detected. I found that in the organizational aspect of the Internal Directorate of Tirana, there are many flaws and a great fragmentation of links. I have pointed out this to the colleagues of this department, and I have suggested that they see this problem together with the ministry. Yes, and in the ministry, it seems to me that there is a big fragmentation of links. Many branches, sectors, and sub-sectors have been created, there are many controllers in charge and few employees who deal with the organizational work of Security. So there are more papers and the main work is left. Therefore, this matter must be viewed with great responsibility by the members of the Security. This problem is generally addressed to the dicasteries, but particularly in the internal affairs bodies there is a large fragmentation of links that then lead to other actions. As the comrades said, the report presented by the Central Committee of the Party is good. I also agree with the proposed measures.

COMRADE PALI MISKA: I am also saying some thoughts, Comrade Ramiz. Such events have serious consequences for our country. These have opened up big problems that we have been able to overcome. But the latter adds to the consequences more than it is repeated. These serious situations have a pronounced political character and the main responsibility lies with Comrade Hekuran and Comrade Qirjako. The incident in the Port of Durrës shows that no lessons have been learned from the events that happened before. For these phenomena, a deep investigation should have been done in the work of the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and they should have worked with the directives of Comrade Enver for these bodies. The speech delivered by Comrade Ramiz at the meeting of the Secretariat of the Party’s Central Committee, which made an analysis of the escape in Han i Hoti, excites you. In this speech, he raises big problems, and talks about those issues that Comrade Enver has also talked about. There they talk about familiarity, about the closed work of the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I am of the opinion that both the Party Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as this ministry itself, together with its bodies, did not work properly with the speech of comrade Ramiz. If they had learned from this speech, such events would not have happened. We have given the enemies, both the Italians and the Yugoslavs, a weapon in their hand, and this is a minus for us. That’s why they accuse us of keeping it surrounded by barbed wire and other things.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The Balkan meeting opens tomorrow.

COMRADE PALI MISKA: The people and our state should not suffer for the poor work done by one or the other employee of the internal affairs bodies. These are capital and important issues for our state and society. That’s why we have to appreciate them deeply. The District Party Committees, especially those of Durrës, Korça, and Shkodra, without excluding the border districts, should have done an intensive ideological and political work against foreign manifestations, and for the prevention of malicious activity and crimes, because for many phenomena border districts suffer negatively. The district Party Committees should do a frontal job in breaking down the conclusions and orientations for the event that happened a year ago, in Han i Hoti. In the district of Korça, there are many tendencies for escape and for crimes that appear in different forms, but we were able to identify them and hit them at the right time. Last year, two groups were caught and put in prison for the tendency to escape. The party in the district has intensified the fight against the influence of foreign shows, organizing various meetings and activities. But these negative phenomena are not rare in the Durrës district or in any other district. Therefore, Comrade Qirjako and the department he leads must learn from what happened. I raised it in the 6th Plenum of the Central Committee of the ALP, that our example is extremely important for strengthening the work of the party in the districts. We must devote ourselves wholeheartedly to solving the problems that concern the party and the people. We should not give people a reason to talk about this or that action, but be correct in our attitudes. Therefore, the criticisms that were made about the weaknesses in the Durrës Party Committee should teach Comrade Qirjako lessons.

Like my friends, I am of the opinion that in the presented report, the Durrës Party Committee took things lightly, gave information that “this and that happened”, that is, there was no in-depth analysis of the Party’s work in the district. Along with the intensification of the work of the Party, the detective work of the internal affairs bodies should also be intensified. This depends a lot on the task that the Party Committees of the districts assigned to the internal affairs bodies, on the control we do for their implementation, on the demand for accountability, so we criticize or pat them when they do not do their duty. Also, in this context, should the work be improved in terms of the information provided by the internal affairs bodies. The information must be real and not fictitious. In the district of Korça, negative phenomena and the actions of malevolent elements are indeed evident, but any channel of the Greek or Yugoslav agent’s work has not been discovered so far. Surely there are channels that work and the Greek and others. These are big problems for our country.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: We would be naive to think that there are no channels, it is even absurd.

COMRADE PALI MISKA: For the events that happened at the border, many measures were taken, disciplinary measures, state measures and party measures, some comrades were released, some were sentenced to prison. Many employees of these bodies have been punished with measures. This burdens either the Party committees of the respective districts or the Ministry of Internal Affairs with moral responsibility. The battalion commander is directly responsible for the escapes that occur at the border, he is on fire, but the district Party Committee also has moral responsibility for these phenomena. Therefore, do not insist only on punitive measures, because measures do not solve everything. For the escape of these 9 people, several cadres will be dismissed from their duties. In the end, the enemy aims to take as many measures as possible against our people, to compromise as many cadres as possible. I am not saying that measures should not be taken or that they should be mild, but the main thing is the preventive work that must be done to cut off the birth of these phenomena, so that our people do not make serious mistakes. I agree with the measures proposed in the material of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party. This will be a great lesson for the Party Committees of other districts as well. Even the members of the Political Bureau who are in the districts, should evaluate these problems well and take measures to prevent such events from happening again. The main thing is to strengthen the unity of the people and ensure a peaceful life. I had these, friend Ramiz.

The meeting of the Political Bureau about the escape of the “Dukati” ship

ISSUE FOUR: “MISCELLANEOUS” (THE EVENT OF PATIENCE)

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: There are 700 guards in the industrial enterprises of Tirana, friend Adil, and they still steal. What control is this? We have said that if it is necessary, the guards in the economic enterprises should also be placed under the direction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

COMRADE ADIL ÇARÇANI: If it has been established that the connection is not made properly through the PY, as it is said there, why is there no proposal to change it. So the guards should be equipped with radios and communicate directly with the police and not leave things until the events happen. These comrades have a great responsibility for this. They should take measures to strengthen control over economic enterprises.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: From a report that the Ministry of Food Industry gave me about fishing, it appears that it has only seen the implementation of the tasks of the plan and has not exercised any control over the implementation of these rules.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The relevant bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Army are primarily responsible for the implementation of the rules. So the border guard at the port crossing control point should not allow anyone to enter the sea outside the rules, no matter who he is. Likewise, the BUD commander must not allow ships to cross the square at sea, otherwise he will draw the squares. So apply the rules without making any concessions.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: There is no order and discipline in the port. This is because the harbor is not fenced, and we know that when the fishing boats come from the sea, people jump from the walls and take the fish without unloading. This is how the economy is damaged. In conclusion, from the non-implementation of the rules, negative phenomena occur with serious consequences for the economy and in the political aspect. The Party Committee of the Durrës district, the border bodies of the Department of Internal Affairs with Comrade Agron, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Comrade Hekuran are responsible for other problems.

I agree with the remark that friend Rita made about the excesses that friends do in hunting. And I sometimes overdid it, but I didn’t violate the rules for fishing, because I don’t hunt fish. I will be careful in this regard.

FRIEND HEKURAN ISAI: Why has anyone broken the rules in fishing?

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: There were excesses, Comrade Hekuran. We have also said it about friend Qirjako, who broke the rules with the motorboat.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Comrade Rita had the warning for me. He said that the friends of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have made it a rule to go hunting, we are hunting within the rules.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Comrade Rita had the remark in general. It is not a problem that the friends of the Bureau do not go out to hunt, those who are amateurs go out, but follow the rules. In addition, Comrade Rita also took into account the lives of the members of the Bureau, that there are some members of the Political Bureau such as Hekurani, Qirjako and Fotua, who go to Buna to hunt fish. Buna is on the edge of the border, so there is a risk of an accident happening there, but don’t forget that such accidents are a very big political problem. Therefore, the border posts should not allow anyone to go fishing in Buna, even the members of the Political Bureau. They have responsibility before the Party, if any danger occurs. Comrade Hekuran’s remark is made for this and not for anything else.

FRIEND RITA MARKO: A scandal could happen.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: The remark is correct; we should limit hunting.

COMRADE ADIL ÇARÇANI: I agree with the other remark that Comrade Pali made, that we must first implement them and set our example in this regard with our families and children. We should avoid excesses, because the people look at our every attitude.

The party has put everything at our disposal, even a lot. Therefore, as friends said, we must be careful in this regard. I will keep this in mind first of all for myself, but I also have it as a warning for all my friends. Regarding the measures that are proposed to be taken, this is the third time that the border has been violated by organized groups, it was violated in Vermosh, in Han te Hoti and now in Durrës. This shows that our border protection is not as strong as it should be. Comrade Ferit seemed sincere in his self-criticism, despite all that he should be dismissed from the position of border commander. First of all, this is done for the sake of work, to strengthen the defense of the homeland, and there is nothing personal about it.

I did not like the discussion of comrade Agron. He did not go directly to the core of the problem to take responsibility, but he did a briefing on the work he has done. Agroni should not have had such an easy time with this case, but as it seems, his work method, sense of smell and professional preparation are not at the right level. The escape years ago from Tirana of the Minella Andoni gang that crossed the border in Han t Hoti and now in Durrës, have very serious consequences for the state. Agroni bears a great responsibility for these escapes, therefore he should be dismissed from the position of Head of the Department of Internal Affairs in Durrës. But I think friend Qirjako should be given a serious warning. Comrade Qirjako should put himself to work better, raise the level of work of the Party in the district, to mobilize employees for the realization of tasks, to raise vigilance at work and everywhere, because Durrës has big and very complicated problems.

For Comrade Zylyftar, I agree with the proposed measure. Comrade Hekuran should also go deeper into the remark made by you, Comrade Ramiz, about the appearance of familiarity that still exists in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I do not say that Hekurani makes many concessions in this direction, but nevertheless, in the ministry and in its bodies down at the base, this spirit of familiarity has not yet disappeared. Therefore, Hekurani should analyze this issue more deeply and draw conclusions. And the remarks of friends will be worth a lot. For such cases, they should not come to the Political Bureau.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Good. Do you have any other comments, friends? (They don’t have) Order friend Hekuran.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: The Political Bureau is rightly concerned about this serious event. The analysis that was made in the Political Bureau and the remarks made by our comrades, based on good intentions, to strengthen the Party’s work in the internal affairs bodies, are a sincere help to us. We deeply understand the responsibility we have for this event. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, unlike other departments, depends on the soldier for the events that happen at the border, so it is a big mistake to take the mind off the soldier. So the main defect is in the contact of the superior staff with the soldiers. The soldier has some officers on his head but apparently they don’t work with the soldier. And our help, as the minister, has not been effective. Here is my responsibility. Therefore we need to shake things up and increase the effectiveness of control in internal affairs bodies down to the base.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Pirrua said that there is a big fragmentation of the links in the internal affairs bodies, so a collaborator can have a big pyramid of officers who control him. This could be one of the defects that has driven you away from concrete work, Hekuran. Therefore, look at the problem of organization in the bodies of internal affairs.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: There is room to see it, Comrade Ramiz. We have shortened two links, but there are still links, from the deputy minister, the minister to the associate, that need to be looked at.

The Durrës event is very serious and I bear responsibility, as a minister, for this. I have reservations about Comrade Rita’s discussion. It seems to me that Comrade Rita completely denies the work that is done in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I do not agree with this.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I did not create this impression. Did you create this impression, you, friends of the Political Bureau? (All answer that they did not create this impression).

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: I personally have this impression.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: You are wrong.

COMRADE ADIL CHARCANI: Comrade Rita’s remark was constructive.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Comrade Rita said to give me a warning. I have no objection to this at all.

FRIEND RITA MARKO: With permission, friend Ramiz!

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Order, Comrade Rita!

COMRADE RITA MARKO: Why do you come to that conclusion, Comrade Hekuran? I criticized the entire work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On the one hand, you agree with the remarks I made, on the other hand, you say I have reservations.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: I have my opinion, which you do not agree with.

FRIEND RITA MARKO: Good. And I have my opinion.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: For the event that happened, I accept any kind of measure, up to dismissal as Minister of Internal Affairs, in case the Political Bureau deems such a thing appropriate.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: No one said this, Comrade Hekuran.

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: I say it, Comrade Ramiz. As my friends said, I am responsible for the work method, for the tact, for not having deeply analyzed the problems in order to get to the end of things. But I have not lacked desire, will and attitude. I have not spared for work neither day nor night.

As for what my son has done, which friend Rita spoke about, it is. A friend from the army came to the boy and together with another one, who is said to be not a good person, they go to the bar by the lake, drink until they get drunk. Then they go to the Faculty of Economics and make a mess, break windows, lamps and other actions. I have charged people to pay for the damages that have been done to the faculty. I have condemned my son’s act as an act of hooliganism in the full sense of the word. To take a stand, to be expelled from school. If such things happen in the bar, the police stop the drunk people and release them the next day, when the brandy runs out, if they haven’t committed a crime. But my son is not a drunkard and a hooligan. This happened now.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Obviously. Was there anything else?

COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: No, I haven’t, friend Ramiz.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Then I am also saying some thoughts. The Durrës event, as the friends also said, is probably the worst that has happened in our country to date. This value is not given by the number of people who escaped, but by the fact that they were a group of different people who managed to organize and realize their hostile goal.

The leaders of the Party Committee of the Durrës District and those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs bear great responsibility for this event. The people are worried in such cases, which affect their insurance. Therefore, they rightly said that no one questions the political loyalty, activity and devotion to the work of the Party leaders and internal affairs bodies, which we are discussing, no one denies the positive results that have been achieved, whether in the bodies of internal affairs, either in the Party Committee of the Durrës District. But I believe that they all unanimously agree with the opinion that this escape also shows many weaknesses in the work of the Durrës Party Committee and the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Analyzing this incident, of course with the data we have today, the pronounced lack of control over the state rules for border protection is noticeable. The incident happened in the middle of the day. Every common man has the right to ask: how is it possible that on a sunny day 7 people, not members of the crew, get inside the ship and no one sees them in the port?! Do we or do we not have organisms that secure the border? Do we or do we not have rules in this regard?

The answer is clear: we have many rules and regulations, we also do checks, and we do not lack people and organizations that deal with this work, but still bitter events happen to us, because there is an impermissible liberalism, which has caused to forget and undervalue the class struggle, to undervalue the existence of enemies and especially to ignore the work of foreign agencies. This is a marked lack of vigilance that is not allowed neither by the Party nor by the internal affairs bodies, which are specialized bodies charged with this work.

The analysis of such events should not be viewed narrowly, that is, this or that enemy escaped, the non-commissioned officer did not check or the radio operator did not work. No, we have to look at the matter more widely. Events like this shed light on the great weaknesses that appear in the work of the Party and relevant state bodies. After you have made a detailed analysis of this event and found a multitude of violations, the question arises: is there complacency in the work of our organisms? There is no doubt that there is much success in the activity of the Party; that we have created a solid unity of the Party and the people with the Party; that thanks to the heroic work of the working class, the cooperative peasantry and the patriotic intelligentsia, great results have been achieved in all fields. Proud are our people who build socialism in extremely difficult conditions, surrounded by numerous and fierce enemies and relying only on our strengths and opportunities. The fact that Albania moves forward, resists and progresses in these conditions, is enough to say that the Party and its organizations are at the forefront of affairs, that the people fight with flesh and soul for the homeland and the results are great. But the successes should not lead us to complacency or a loss of vigilance, nor should they make us forget the weaknesses in the work of the Party as a whole and in the concrete case in the work of the Party in the district of Durrës and of the internal affairs bodies at the base and center.

In the district of Durrës, plans have not been realized for years. This means that the Party organizations do not perform their work properly and that there is a lack of control over the work. Comrade Qirjako, as the first secretary of the district, should better stay in charge of affairs, it is not at all good that he goes hunting from time to time.

If we were to limit ourselves to the issue that happened, we would say that this shows that the Durres District Party Committee has no control over the internal affairs bodies, no control over the border, over other specific bodies within the district , as is the port, which is quite a delicate joint. Of course, the reasons for the lack of control should be found by Comrade Qirjako and the Durrës Party Committee, but in my opinion, there can be familiarity in the port, which is created there in many forms. This familiarity is paved by the leading comrades of the district Party Committee, starting with Comrade Qirjako. These go fishing through the port, thus becoming comrades, brothers, and friends, with those they have to control. But when they see Qirjako entering the port outside of the rules, they release for the second one, for the third one, and so on. The Durrës district is delicate for several other reasons. At the port or at the Foreign Transport Park, it’s hard to get to work. However paradoxical the matter may seem, this conclusion is a reality. The one who becomes a driver in the export park earns money, therefore the one who wants to get such a job, it is not difficult to give money. We have never come across this phenomenon, but I am convinced that there are similar things not only in Durrës, but also in Tirana or elsewhere. These are serious events that must be fought decisively because they are dangerous.

The State Insurance also has a weakness at work. My friends said it, I will repeat it too, about the discovery of foreign agencies, channels, without mentioning anything special that has been discovered, lame. Agent channels exist. No one should be surprised by this. The Shkodra Canal that makes escapes via Buna and Lake Shkodra, or other directions exists. The Saranda Canal also exists. It is a fact that people from Tirana have fled in that direction. The Durres Canal exists. We have 2-3 cases in a row of escapes from the sea that happen to us. How these channels are organized, their connections, who runs them, etc., are problems that must be clarified by the state security bodies. That’s their job, not reporting some totally worthless stuff.

How is it possible for 7 people to escape from Durrës and we hear their names from Radio Bari or Brindisi?! We didn’t know who these were, at least me, when they took me on the phone they weren’t able to tell me any names, even at first they told me that 7 sailors ran away, then they said that there were 9 fishermen, etc. So our bodies did not know either the names or the number, they found out exactly when we listened to the Italian television.

Security control over the activity of the enemies is this, that they gather, organize, take the ship and escape? Organized work by the Party is this, that people are missing from work and don’t know where they are?

The work of the State Security should not focus only on the agitation and propaganda that has been prepared, as an essential issue. Of course, agitation and propaganda is an activity that warns of great dangers and we must get ahead of it, but this is not the whole job of the State Security, just as it is not dealing with some small “fish”.

State security should not be trifled with. He must discover the agent channels, the organized activity of the enemies, their internal and external connections. But this requires a perfect and more agile organization. The remark made by Pirrua that there are many links, chiefs, deputy chiefs, responsibilities, etc., may have a place to be seen in relation to the organization of the agency work of Sigurimi. Perhaps the chain link that exists from the associate to the superior head of Security should be broken. These are residual forms that time has left behind. In this sense, I say that the work forms of the Security must be perfected, and not remain slaves to the old forms. And the enemies have changed the forms of their activity against us. Before, for example, they escaped from the land, while now they also flee from the sea. From this naturally arises the need for better organization of work in the region of the coastal border. If there is any confusion between the army and the border, because before the coast was the border of the army, and now the border has taken over, you should settle these things among yourselves.

The border has even greater weaknesses. The rules at the border must be ironclad and have both organized and surprise control at the border. I have said it before, but I find it necessary to emphasize, the border is not protected only on the border line, although we do not have it well on the border line either, it is protected in depth.

In my opinion, it is not right what Comrade Hekuran told me one day that, if a man, let’s say, from Fieri, who is being pursued because of a tendency to escape, leaves somewhere in another district, the accomplice or worker goes behind him. operative. What is this form of work?! Anyone who shows a tendency to run away must be followed by the operative worker? This is a very primitive form. While other measures must be taken, including the organization of information, its speed, alerts, and even the establishment of control rules at specific points that are closer to the border.

Border and Security comrades should carefully study all the existing rules, and on this basis propose the existing changes, and on this basis propose the necessary changes, so that the defense of the homeland is done smartly.

To strengthen the work of the Party, which is really crucial, as everywhere, in the work of the Security and Border agencies. I agree with the remark made by Comrade Rita about the apparatus of the Central Committee, which submits the reports after the events take place. We have fewer reports before the events happen, about a flaw or weakness in the work of the Police, Security, or the Border. The remark must be accepted, it is constructive for our work.

Party propaganda, as Comrade Foto said, plays a special role, but it must be strengthened. Communists in all fields must increase vigilance, which means applying rules, norms, and laws to cut the path of the unexpected. Therefore, the Party and its bodies should work better in this direction.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the Ministry of National Defense, must give great importance to the control of regulations. Every controller, even the one charged with seeing to the wearing of the uniform, must go with the regulation in hand and report according to the regulation.

In the army and at the border, we have to be very strict in enforcing the regulations. I have the impression that all the comrades who go to control the border, whether they are from the army or from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, think “we know all the regulations”. We don’t know the regulation. It is the same as with Party Status. We all know that three recommendations are needed to be accepted as a party member, but the Statute Sector has the duty to look at the materials one by one. If he did not do this, he does not apply the Party’s norms.

From the standpoint of protecting the interests of the Party and society, I think that the fight against unhealthy familiarity and friendship with each other should be strengthened. These manifestations must be fought in the internal organs, finding the strength for this purpose. Strength is found if everyone is and is required to be correct by implementing regulations and norms. Familiarity is created where violations are allowed in the name of the company, of the trust that the insurance worker has, etc. The most loyal people are those who follow the laws of the state, the norms of the party, rules and established regulations. Loyalty is concrete and not abstract, general.

I agree with the measures proposed by the comrades. Agroni and Feriti should be dismissed from their duties. This is not a question of political belief, nor of a lack of piety. But the lack of ability, control, and organization. Apparently these fellows are liberal in terms of control at work. Their guilt is so great and repeated, that the people and the Party cannot understand their position in the position they have. I agree with the proposal to issue a warning with a warning to Comrade Qirjako. I also agree with the proposals that Comrade Hekuran and Comrade Zylyftar are given a warning. Let’s be clear, friends, it is not the remarks that solve this situation. Therefore, everyone should put their chests to work, to improve and advance the work of the Party. Such events have great political effects, both internal and external. These depress our people, and give the external enemy arguments to fight against us. I had these issues. If you agree, we close it (friends agree).

Order friend Ferit

COMRADE FERIT ZENELI: I am fully convinced of the responsibility I have for this event and I tell the Political Bureau that wherever I will be I will reward them with my blood. Long live the Party, Long live you friend Ramiz.

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: It is a great satisfaction that the Party has not lost its political trust in us. I also made a commitment to the Shkodra event at the Secretariat, so it is difficult for me to make another commitment, I am completely demanding about the Party’s positions. I have no faith in the Party at all.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: We do not question the political faith of any of you.

COMRADE AGRON TAFA: This is very important to me.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Okay, then we close it. Friends invited to leave.

Goodbye

                                      PROJECT-FRAMEWORK DECISIONS

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Do you have any remarks about draft decision B/3. There is no. Do you agree with the draft decision 3/1? (Friends agree)

For Agron, what will we do?

COMRADE RITA MARKO: Until measures were taken to remove him from office, he can no longer remain the Head of the Department of Internal Affairs.

COMRADE KIÇO MUSTAQI: If the proposed measure has arrived, it is better to appoint the other one, because he has heard about it.

COMRADE PROKOP MURRA: I also say the same, Comrade Ramiz, that in case the dismissal was discussed, it should be removed because everyone knows about it.

COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: Agron’s dismissal from office has been discussed in the Durres District Party Committee and in the ministry.

COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Okay then. We are done for today. Farewell and health./Memorie.al

CHIEF OF THE GENERAL SECTOR

Fatmir Zaloshnja