By Petrit Palushi
Rrëshen, Summer 1975
***
In the summer of 1975, another drama by Havzi Nela was being played during the Rrëshen investigation.
(8 years ago, on Saturday, May 6, 1967, on Shëngjergji Day, he and his wife were arrested for fleeing Albania, after being returned to the border by the Yugoslav police forces. Some time later, they sentenced him to 15 years of imprisonment, while the wife with 10 years.)
From then on, since they moved him to the brink of extinction, at the very minimum of his life, they were now desperately seeking another desolation for Havzi Nela, retribution.
The scene for preparing the retrial was ready, studied in detail beforehand.
The regime had to penetrate deep into the shackles of Spaç prison camp 303, pursue it again, try to undo it there as well, as if it were human beings.
The actors (actors) who were playing the next drama of Havzi Nela after the first sentence or who were playing the drama of his retribution, are quite calm, even though they are kneeling in spirit and mind.
Both those who were outside the 303 prison camp in Spaç (prosecutor, operative, officers, investigator and all the helpers), but also those who were inside that prison camp (reporters, absorbers, all eyes and ears of the words of Havzi Nela – accomplices with him and who then easily turn into witnesses), had to work at all costs for his activity to be immersed in Article 73 / I of the Criminal Code.
Coincidentally, the same investigator (Shaban Dani), who was dealing with the case of Havzi Nela, a year later, would also deal with the case of the poet Frederik Rreshpja in the Shkodra investigation.
That summer, Havzi Nela was in the Rrëshen investigation cell.
About 500 meters away was Musine Kokalari, an outspoken opponent of the communist regime, in her alcove. He had been deported to that city, more precisely to that town, since 1961. In the long daily and nightly gloom of that city, she touched like a finger a grain of freedom just to browse books when she went to the library. He would say goodbye to life in 1983, five years before the regime’s other outspoken opponent, Havzi Nela, was hanged on August 10, 1988.
I do not believe that M. Kokalari knew Havzi Nela, but the latter had heard about M. Kokalari. I say that years later, in the camp – Burrel prison, Uran Kalakula told his accomplices that “In Rrëshen lies a nobleman, Musine Kokalari. “Such people are always being too much for our country.”
Of course, an epic explanation is needed for the rough life of Havzi Nela.
***
The indictment of the prosecutor against H. Nela, belongs to July 16, 1975.
In the presence of investigator Shaban Dani, H. Nela receives the indictment 12 days later, on July 28. Procedures were being prepared for the accused to go to the Mirdita District Court, where he would be formally sentenced (re-sentenced) to another 8 years, with decision no. 49, on August 8 of the same year.
The prosecutor participates only twice during the interrogation of H. Nela’s investigator. The latter, asked by the investigator, gives his answers, but the prosecutor does not intervene. The prosecutor and the investigator, not at all ambiguous in their thoughts and actions: The accused was nothing but an enemy to them who “Agitated and propagandized for the undermining and weakening of our popular power”.
On the other hand, their opponent did not see them only as dangerous, as tools of dictatorship, but as part of a repressive mechanism, which tried to keep it afloat.
The prosecutor and the investigator were facing an open political opponent of the regime, who did not hesitate to express his views even inside the investigator. Both of them and all the people who kept the regime together thought that the sky could be split in half, that there could be a permanent eclipse of the sun and the moon, but that regime would never be overthrown.
In a way, the accused, calm, quite aware, sober and obedient in what he was saying, with his moral authority as if he were singing to them the song of their funeral power.
The same act – a template accusation of the prosecutor that was commonly used against the political opponents of the regime. Except according to the specific details of the accused (for escape, for agitation and propaganda against the government, etc., etc.)
And, unwittingly, the prosecutor reveals the light of the thoughts of H. Nela, who had agitated and propagated against the government, that the standard of living in the country was much lower than in Western countries, that the European Security Conference was in favor of peoples, etc., etc.
Thus, H. Nela sought to overthrow the program of the para-dictatorial power of the dictatorship, so, with its forms through its free speech, which it administered brilliantly.
In those days, in the cell of Rrëshen, in the dungeon where they had changed, H. Nela sang to the Helsinki Conference, understanding and human peace, while the Albania of that time was going gracefully, full of joy and with applause towards the complete fatal closure :
The feudal castle shakes and shakes
Like a broken boat on the waves swaying;
Cruel tyrant with the sea today can
Deep down, deeper and deeper into the waves.
The spirit of Helsinki poured out like the wind
It caressed our hearts, it blossomed like spring.
Here, in our votes put gas and hope
He awakened us with passion and vigor, he will probably not die.
***
APPROVED
DISTRICT PROSECUTOR
AKT-Count
AGAINST THE DEFENDANT HAVZI SHABAN NELA
ACCUSED: That he agitated and propagandized for the undermining and weakening of our popular power, a crime provided by Article 73 / I of the Criminal Code
Based on the available material, the investigator of the internal affairs bodies, Mirdita, on 30 / V / 1975, started the criminal case against the defendant Havzi Shaban Nela and at the same time made his arrest for the crime of agitation and propaganda that has developed to the detriment of popular power.
From the first investigations it has resulted that: The defendant Havzi Nela, convicted for a crime against the popular power with 15 years of imprisonment, was serving his sentence in the Rehabilitation Department 303, Spaç. Although convicted of a very serious crime and to learn lessons and give evidence of rehabilitation, the defendant Havzi Nela as an enemy element, further deepens his hostile activity in the form of agitation and propaganda against the popular power by agitating and propagating to some convicts in the re-education ward in Spaç, such as: Petro D., Sotir D., Agustin P., Zenel B., etc.
In this way, the defendant Havzi Nela, in various forms and methods, since his arrival in the Spac camp in 1970, and onwards when he was arrested has agitated and propagated among the convicts by opposing the popular power to poison the conscience of others. In this way, he has propagated by saying that the standard of living in our country is much lower than the standard of living of the peoples of other Western and Eastern countries, such as America, Germany, France and other countries. That in the countries of the West, according to him, “freedom” and “democracy” flourish, that people there are free to speak and write and say what they think even against the system, to make political, economic strikes and other demands and no one condemns them, while here, in our country, according to the defendant, there is no freedom and democracy for the people, that in order to have freedom, people should be left free to speak and write whatever they think, even against the system in power, to go and travel to other countries whenever they want and wherever they want without any restrictions. That the punishments given for escape, according to this, are unjust, but they are made only to keep the people oppressed, etc.
Speaking about the European Security Conference, he told them that this is for the benefit of all peoples, that it will secure the peoples from wars, there will be great cultural, scientific, economic development, etc., and that despite the fact that Albania does not participates in this conference, this will eventually be forced by the great powers to submit to its decisions and as a result the dictatorship of the ruling proletariat will end, etc.
Defendant Havzi Nela, talking to you about the betrayal of Beqir Balluku, etc., the convicts Sotir D., etc., among other things, told you that Beqir Balluku with some other generals spoke in the political bureau some opposite opinions with others, saying that Albania should not remain “isolated”, but should make a turn and make relations with other countries of the West and East, etc. That now, with his betrayal, we convicts and all the people will have benefits, that the other leaders of the party and the state have come to an end, that the rope has gone down your throat, and that is exactly why they have made cleansings of large in the army removing all those cadres who have studied in B. S, because they are incompatible with the policy of these and will replace them with new cadres, & c. In this way, the defendant has kept hope for the overthrow of our popular power, ignoring the victories achieved by the people under the leadership of the popular power party, its strength and vitality in the fight against internal and external imperialist-revisionist enemies. The defendant Havzi Nela, even at the time of the revolt that was made by the convicts in 1973 in Spaç against the government, joined elements against the revolutionaries and participated in the inter-provincial meeting, etc.
The crime of agitation and propaganda to the detriment of the popular power by the defendant Havzi Nela, has been fully confirmed with his statements made to the investigator, with the explanations of witnesses, with the confrontations made as well as with other written documents that are in the investigative file. in charge of him.
…………………………………………………
File 9912/3 – p. 1, 2, 3 (Years 1975)
***
Investigative file 9912/3-A (Year 1975), of 39 pages for the defendant Havzi Shaban Nela.
Investigative proceedings begin on May 30, 1975 and end on July 15 of the same year.
Before starting the case in charge of H. Nela was the ground preparations.
In that macabre game, the operative worker Fejzi Liçi, under the eavesdropping and persecution of H. Nela, finds and moves in motion with H. Nela, a reporter willingly or not, perhaps motivated by the promise of a reduced sentence, a something else we can now somehow guess. But also people who waver, of course. Before the investigation proceeded, we did not know anything more about the game that was used, the circumstances, etc., etc. We only learn at the beginning of the criminal case “That the so-called Havzi Shaban Nela, being re-convicted in the re-education camp 303, Spaç, has agitated and propagandized among the convicts for undermining and weakening our popular power, a crime that is foreseen based on Article 73 / I of the CC
From the beginning and during the investigative procedures we learn many, many things, from the interrogation of H. Nela, the stories of the witnesses.
The situation that unfolds is serious, completely unintentional, which adds even more gloom to the cell where the scene was played.
Co-sufferers with H. Nela must come and confess what H. Nela had said, even though they had previously confessed to the camp-prison operative. The regime tried to muddy everyone, to throw the suffering in the camps against each other. And of course, among the sufferers there were also people who were shaky, unstable enough to report their suffering partner.
The scene where H. Nela’s drama would be played is now ready. The director has prepared the actors (actors) and only the drama is expected to be shown. All the actors of the drama (except H. Nela, for whom the drama was played), will be satisfied with the realization of its parts to the smallest detail.
But during the staging of the drama, the flow of the drama is often disrupted. H. Nela agrees to be questioned by the investigator, reiterates his open disagreements and objections with the regime, as he also admits what he had told the reporters who had reported him, but also opposes the additions to their testimonies, as he has agreed to read them.
However, he leaves his reporters in their false sanctity and refuses to deal with 4 of them:
“I do not accept in any way to deal with them and in case they force me to face the investigator with these people, I will make a scandal and I do not respond at all to their claims, that they are people without dignity for me.” .
While in 1975 relatives of 6 accomplices of H. Nela were found near him, to report what he was saying, when he openly expressed his thoughts against the regime, hundreds and hundreds of other accomplices tried to save him, to support him. his thoughts, as he supported their thoughts in that rude time. Thus, in the stories of many former accomplices, such as P. Arbnori, U. Kalakula, V. Zhiti, I. Dida, F. Kupi, B. Çoku, A. Musta, P. Doçi, etc., it is revealed and decomposed best H. Nela communication code.
Investigator opposite H. Nela on the first day of interrogation.
I say “Investigator in front of Havzi Nela”, because it is Havzi Nela who dictates his ideas, so much so that it can be said that the entire investigation room is filled with the steam of his words.
There is no duel, because the investigator only asks H. Nela and is not able to oppose her in any case.
A pale, anemic, and close-knit investigator who may have had frequent shortness of breath. A frightening confrontation, almost unimaginable for him, as the calm confrontation comes back to haunt him: he was defending the same views he had shown to the witnesses. Now, in that confrontation, it seems that H. Nela is being asked questions as in a TV studio by a journalist who goes with ready-made questions and with extreme fear that he is confusing the queue of questions, while he, calm and very comfortable who was being given the opportunity to convey his thoughts, and just about that, as if taking on a bit of softness, the light of his eyes seemed to open more.
Nela raises the same issues she raised in the village of Shishtavec (April 20, 1967), at a meeting of local teachers, when she reacted to the entry into the agricultural cooperative, the demolition of churches and mosques, the change of clothes: ““ The people are sick, three needles do not immediately cure it, but destroy it. There is also a lack of free speech and a free press on fundamental human rights and freedoms… ”).
But now, the circle of their ideas is more complete, I say that the people in these countries have complete freedom, that even if they make demonstrations and demands of a political, economic nature, no one punishes them, while here it is different.
***
Process – verbal
In the city of Rrëshen, on July 3, 1975
I, Shaban Dani, investigator in the branch of P. internal, Mirdita, interrogated the defendant Havzi Nela.
QUESTION: Defendant Havzi, tell us what views did you have regarding the socialist system in our country?
***
As for the collectivization of agriculture, I think it has accelerated in the highland area, that force has been used there to bring people into collectivization when they have objected. I say this because the peasant was not ideologically prepared to understand what collectivization is and there were no economic conditions to collectivize, that the country is broken, modern techniques cannot be introduced, the villages are very scattered and people waste time running travel.
As for the youth, I say it should be freer in terms of clothing, the taste of living and not be dictated how to dress and shave, but I am also in favor of not slipping off its national sole. I remember on one occasion I saw in a newspaper that in a factory, the youth organization was criticizing a young man for leaving long hair, it seems to me that you should not intervene so far on this issue.
As for the standard of living, I say that the people of Western countries like America, Germany, Sweden, France and others have a good standard of living, I say that people there are able to buy things of great value such as television , cars and other items make a truly luxurious life and travel around the world. Likewise, I say that the people in these countries have complete freedom, that even if they make demonstrations and demands of a political, economic nature, no one punishes them, while here it is different. Also there people are free to go from one place to another without any restrictions. He also connects this with the fact that in America, a president is elected for a term of only 4 years, that he can be criticized by anyone and not a word is said. He was even brought before the court. This is called very high democracy in my opinion.
All these conclusions and thoughts I draw from the studies I have done in the literature that comes out in our country and in the daily press.
QUESTION: Tell us, defendant Havzi Nela, with whom did you talk about your views in the Spaç camp?
ANSWER: I may have expressed these thoughts with a person in the camp when the opportunity arose because I was not saved for this job, because I do not consider myself agitation and propaganda against the government, but the persons specifically with whom I can I talked to him, I do not remember. I was a person in the camp who enjoyed the sympathy of the vast majority and had good conversations with them. From these conversations, as I said before, I did with Petro D. I remember. I may have had other conversations with convicts that I do not remember now, I even remember that we discussed a lot about the release of the new Constitution of the People’s Republic of Albania that was said in the 6th Congress and I was very pessimistic about it. I said that I do not mind going out and especially after the betrayal of Beqir Balluku, because the internal situation of our country became complicated and other talk, but I do not even remember with whom I had these conversations that I did not keep diary for this.
QUESTION: What did you talk about the existence of our popular power?
ANSWER: I have not talked to any person about the existence or non-existence of popular power. I do not consider these rumors that I may have talked about my thoughts, as I said, agitation and propaganda.
I consider agitation and propaganda against power when one rises up and calls on others to overthrow power. I have longed and may have expressed that the laws of our country are too harsh to take life just because man crosses the border, and I had hoped that there would be changes in the laws in favor of the convicts; on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the liberation we expected that there would be no forgiveness…
QUESTION: What did you talk about the events in Cyprus and with whom did you talk, defendant Havzi Nela?
ANSWER: When the events took place in Cyprus, I talked to others about this issue, but I do not remember exactly who I talked to. I have said that the Russians definitely have a hand in this coup. When the Greek-Russian talks started, I looked at them with suspicion and I was afraid that these would not make any compromise to establish Russian military bases and posed a threat to Albania, but I did not want Albania to ever be occupied.
QUESTION: Tell us, defendant, about your participation in the revolt of the Spaç convicts that they took against the government in 1973?
ANSWER: I did not take part in the Spaç revolt against the power exercised by the convicts in 1973, but after the revolt started and the people of the government called on them to give it up, I attended the inter-provincial meeting that took place. made in the food canteen. It was discussed here that we, as representatives of the provinces, in which I was also appointed as a representative of Kukes to agree with the representatives of the government to quell the revolt, and we waited for the commissioner of the ward or any of the ministry to come in, but they did not enter the camp and we dispersed. Then later they came out to reach an agreement with the government representatives, Paulin Vata, Koço Papa, Gëzim Çela, who were also convicted.
………………………………………………………
File 9912/3-pp.19-20 -21 (Year 1975)
Data on Havzi Nela’s reporters are common.
Only three of them state the reason for the sentence (Petro D., for agitation and propaganda against the state; Agustin P. and Nazmi B., for crimes against the state), while the other three do not state the reason for the sentence. Witnesses confess on July 9, while on July 12 the testimonies of witnesses are read to H. Nela. On 15 July H. Nela was interrogated in the presence of prosecutor H. Topollaj and stated: “With witnesses Zenel B., Nazmi B., Naim U. and Agustin P., I do not accept in any way to deal with them and in case that they will force me to face the investigator with these people, I will make a scandal and I do not respond at all to their claims, that they are people without dignity for me “. The only confrontation is on July 15 between H. Nela and Sotir D./Memorie.al
