By Pandi Laço
Memorie.al / One week after the extrajudicial shooting of 22 citizens of Tirana, after the explosion of the bomb in the embassy of the Soviet Union in Tirana in February 1951, the news broke that the director general of the People’s Police at the Ministry of the Interior, colonel Sali Ormëni, killed himself. Regardless of the way the high political leadership of that time clarified this event, various people, especially his former colleagues and subordinates, secretly talked about a different version. For the first time, his grandson, retired colonel Xhemal Imeri, speaking on TV Klan’s “Histori me zhurmues” show, sheds light on many mysteries with which this story has been wrapped for years…!
An interesting event that happened in February 1951, is that of the general director of the People’s Police, Colonel Sali Ormeni. Mr. Xhemal Ymeri, you are his grandson, how do you remember Sali Ormeni?
In 1951, in February, there was an incident at the Soviet embassy in Tirana, a quantity of dynamite was thrown. At that time, the general director of the Police was Colonel Sali Ormeni. He had come to this task, having made a brilliant career in the War years. He reached the rank of brigade commander, but he could not take over the brigade, because he was seriously injured in both legs, with four shells, and since it happened nearby, he was hospitalized in Prizren. They returned him to Albania after the liberation and appointed him director of the then 1-year-old Police School. So he is the founder of the People’s Police. In February 1948, he was appointed General Director of the Police and was elected a candidate for the Central Committee of the PPSH. From there, the deputy minister of the interior was appointed.
Let’s come to the event of dropping the bomb in the Soviet embassy…
I want to say that Saliu was isolated at the time of the bombing of the Soviet embassy. They didn’t say isolated, but since he had made some mistakes…!
What mistakes had he made during this time?
In the fall of 1950, Saliu goes to his constituency, he finds the people very poor, he finds them without bread, they had also ground the seed corn, which they had saved and given food to the children. Saliu promised the people and came to report to the big ones in Tirana, but according to some reliable sources, they probably told him; “a capitulating man, a man who has fallen into the lap of the enemy” and they say; “since you have many wounds on your body, stay, continue your work, but be careful, for next time” and “We gave him a warning” – says Enver Hoxha – they recommended him to take some breaks, to calm down”.
Saliu was personally called by Mehmet Shehu, according to Beqir Ndout. Mehmeti advised him to divorce his wife, because according to him, her brothers were harboring saboteurs, and he told her explicitly: “You, with these functions you have, you keep your wife without the Party, you keep the Party without your wife, but you will also have the children with you , you were holding the Party”.
Meanwhile there were five children?
He had 5 children, one of whom was born the year he was killed. Saliu was confused by this, he had no way to do it, he had 10 people at home, to feed with his salary. He goes to Beqir Ndou, Beqiri tells him; “Don’t separate your wife”, then Saliu solved it this way: “Go away,” he says to his wife, “for a while in the village, since you are anemic, because you gave birth to the child and the child recovers, stay with the brothers.” To these brothers who had told Mehmet Shehu that saboteurs are waiting”!
But there was another incident that happened in the spa…?!
Saliu suffered from rheumatism and often went to the spa. Another incident related to the General Director of Police, i.e. Colonel Sali Ormeni, was a relationship with a Yugoslav girl in Tirana.
After breaking up with his wife, they started introducing different women to Saliu, to provoke him. One of them was Zorka Jovanovic of Montenegrin origin.
Is it thought to have been an infiltrator?
For me, not an infiltrator, but an agent.
She was thought to be an agent, whose?
Agent of Yugoslavia. They used it because they had their own connections with the Yugoslavs. The State Security used it to put Sali Ormen behind his back.
This is more or less the family and personal situation of Sali Ormen, until 1951. Because of these mistakes that can be called, as you said, the Party had isolated him, had taken him to the hospital, right? !
The advice was from Enver Hoxha. Mehmet Shehu, the Minister of the Interior, says to Enver: “I took him to the hospital, I saw that he was not in order in the conversations and I told him that you are sick.” They put him in the hospital, they put a guard, not an escort, but not to let anyone in and out of Saliu…!
It was at hospital 5, wasn’t it?
There it was. “The doctors’ diagnosis, – said Mehmet Shehu, – was anxiety”. For the doctors, there was no neurological diagnosis, he was fine physically.
So at the moment when the bomb was thrown at the Soviet embassy, the Director General of Police was in the hospital…?!
Yes, in the hospital. Mehmet Shehu, who at that time was the Minister of the Interior, after leaving the meeting held in the Political Bureau, held a meeting with the Police officers. Saliu, hearing that a bomb was thrown at the Soviet embassy, or a bomb (it is not known exactly what it was), leaves the hospital in his pajamas and enters through the back door of the hall of the Department of Internal Affairs and sits in the chair.
Mehmet Shehu and Halim Xhelua appear in front of the policemen and shout; “You found out, there was a commotion, it broke in your eyes, the friendship with the Soviet Union, now take notes according to neighborhoods, regions, you will arrest 75 more people, we have arrested 22 and we will shoot them today.” Then Saliu suddenly stood up and pointed his finger at him: – “Mehmet Shehu, Mehmet Shehu…”, he is said to have said. This is what those who were arrested the day after declared.
What did Saliu say?
Saliu turned to Mehmeti and told him: “Mehmet Shehu, Mehmet Shehu, don’t take those people you want to kill and arrest, because they are not the perpetrators of that bomb, it is someone else’s hand.”
How did Mehmet respond to Saliu’s words?
“Sali Ormeni, what are you doing here?! The party put you in the hospital to recover, you come here, you don’t trust us”?! Then Saliu went and went out. Going out, someone called to them; “Stop, where are you going, Sali Ormeni, because under your noses, friendship with the Soviet Union is breaking up”?! “I will go where the party told me, so you don’t need me,” Saliu tells him. It seems that Saliu has been laid up, isolated so as not to be present, because it was Kadri Hazbiu, the main organizer of all these things.
What then happened to Sali Ormeni?
Massacres occurred with the extrajudicial killing of 22 innocent people, who were accused of being guilty of throwing the bomb, while the General Director of the People’s Police, Colonel Sali Ormeni, according to the official version, killed himself on March 2, 1951. version which Mehmet Shehu announced in the extraordinary meeting, in the extraordinary plenum, which took place on March 3, 1951.
This had happened when Saliu had been advised to go to the spa. Meanwhile in the hospital, Mehmet Shehu told him; “Sali don’t kill yourself”, he mentioned this word more than 30 times, in that document that I found from the archive of the Central Committee of the Albanian Labor Party, where he says: – “You Sali, you should be hospitalized, get cured good”! Mehmeti went to the hospital and told him: “I will take you to Vlora, we will arrange a room for you with all the comforts and with an escort, with a guard, like that”?
“Do you want to go to work”? Mehmeti continued – “Neither in Vlora, nor at work”, Saliu replies! – “Are you going to the spa, yes,. Or not”? “No” Saliu replies. “What do you want”? Mehmet says. “Hey, do you know what you have” – says Saliu – remove me from that job because I can’t do that job”? – Mehmet Shehu says to him: “Hey, what are you saying, are you in your right mind, aren’t you?” He says: “Then take me home.”
With this, Saliu wanted to know well, to define his position. He was arrested, he was isolated or, he was laid up for the embarrassment that these people suffered, for Saliu. He suddenly leaves the hospital, asks to go to the office and is surprised that the key has been changed. He asked to meet Mehmet Shehu, but he could not. He went home that night. Everyone expected him to kill himself. But that didn’t happen.
Then the “spa plan” was put into action. Why? I have a statement from Mark Dodani, my signature, who says; “Asim Alikoja, who was the commander of the special unit, received a radiogram that they issued then, ‘where are you?’ – says Mehmet Shehu – we are in Librazhd, take the unit, cross Elbasan llixha, excuse me Elbasan-Belsh, because a big one is escaping. This was the night before.”
Anyway, these were the hypotheses that you made?
They are hypotheses and extracted from the archives, which I have studied.
Yes, Saliu waited for the driver in the morning and took the direction to the spa?
When he came and got into the car, the driver told him that his friend Beqir Ndou passed by – “Me se ish”? – says. “By car” – he answers. – “But why didn’t you tell me earlier”? Saliu returns! – “And now it came”! – “Well, follow him – he says, ‘let’s catch him.’ “We can’t catch him, because his car has a higher speed”, says the driver. In it were Beqir Ndou e, the Soviet adviser Ivanov, and a lieutenant, Myfit Mushi.
In the accusation against Beqir Ndout, which I have in the documents obtained from the archive, I have found that; there are two accusations: a) Because Beqir Ndou allowed third people, dressed in civilian clothes, to enter the military units of Elbasan, in violation of the regulation. Beqiri answers them; “I allowed, because he told me that I am a colonel of the army and no one can stop me, I am a colonel with ranks”.
The second charge; “a third person was allowed, Sali Ormeni” by name, yes, not an enemy or even a traitor, but a third person was allowed to enter Elbasan’s wards and listen to the military secrets that were being discussed and the morale- politics of soldiers’. What, says Beqir Ndou, now? – “We sat for 20-30 minutes. The advisor says the seat is 5 hours, the driver says 5.30. Could a Soviet adviser wait 5 hours for two Albanian colonels to talk? For me, it’s completely absurd, “however, about 20 minutes”, – says Beqir Ndou, – we left for Elbasan, in my car, Saliu, me and Ivanov, behind was the car with the translator, Saliu’s car.
When we came to Elbasan. told me; “O Beqo, hold on, stop the car because I’m going to talk to these people in power, let them arrange a room for me to go to the spa, because I’m going to the spa for a few days.” I stopped, took out his cigarette, gave him a cigarette, because he was smoking, I lit an extinguisher. He says: “Beqo doesn’t smoke anymore, I’ve given up because it’s very bad for my health”. Beqir Ndou tells these investigators; “All my life, my mind has gone to the fact that Saliu did not smoke. A man who decides to kill himself, after two hours, who has committed it according to you, how is it possible that he does not smoke, he should drink, one light, one extinguish. Did he kill him or not – says Beqir Ndou – they killed him”.
He got off the car of the deputy minister, Beqir Ndou and took his car?
There are two versions, the version of the driver and the version of Mehmet Shehu, who says in the plenum. The driver’s version is the most accurate, more spare, while Mehmet’s version does not stand at all.
What is the driver version?
The driver version is, that; “We left for the spa, the car ran out of gas.” There are many indications that Saliu’s car was seen in the direction of the spas.
You contacted the driver, what did the driver tell you who had Sali Ormeni in the car?
The driver told me; – “We started in the direction of Paprri, from Paprri, we left the car down and, we climbed a hill, there Saliu started rolling a cigarette, (the one he didn’t smoke), he started rolling the cigarette, the box with him, all and tells me; Oh, who made you follow me? (they want to take him out halfway) ‘I am your companion’, I am your driver, he tells him. “Go tell them – he says to the driver – that Sali Ormeni escaped”.
“When he said that, I ran away, went to the operative of Peqin and informed him so and so. The operative calls the head of the Internal Department, Petrit Hakanin in Elbasan, and Petrit tells him; ‘do it here’. When I asked the driver where I was, he said: “I was isolated in a room.” How many days have you lived, I continued; “Three days” – Who came to your room first? – “Vesel Ahmeti, the deputy of Saliu, of Sigurimi, came to me”! What did he say? – “Sali’s wife wants to meet, don’t even wait for her, because they will even cut off your head”! – “Where did you go then, after three days”? – “They took me as a driver to the State Security Directorate”.
I think that; a third party entered from the back, from the back, in the back seat, or the driver himself killed Sali. Saliu was killed, because all the supervisor’s data are; “When we mourned the night that Saliu was killed, on the 2nd – he says – we went to dinner. On the 2nd, says Mehmet Shehu’s companion, Sulejman Axhemi, Mehmet Shehu, Kadri Hazbiu, I – he says – he, Saliu’s companion, the driver, etc., etc., and when we left, says the surveyor; “He has tormented me all my life.”
What had impressed him?
He had made an impression on this man, because Mehmet Shehu, when he came, got off Saliu’s feet, the only one who got off his feet and looked him in the face, shot him with the toe of his shoe on the shoe, on the sole of the murdered man’s shoe and, he said; “Sali Ormeni, why did you kill yourself”? He told others to listen; “Why did you kill yourself”?! – he said. “Take it” – he told him and…!
The next day, an extraordinary plenum was convened…?!
No one knew about this plenum. It was opened by Enver Hoxha himself, who said; “We have gathered for a case that happened to us the day before yesterday and the case is Sali Ormeni, who killed himself. We will give the floor to Mehmet Shehu, but I want to make a self-criticism in front of you, that we arrested Beqir Ndoun on the 2nd, because he met with Sali Ormen last time”. In the series of works, in the reprint of Enver Hoxha’s ninth work, not that this plenum has been completely extinguished, but this saying is not mentioned anymore.
Why was it not mentioned, why was that plenum removed?! Because they lied, they wanted to close the case of Sali Ormeni, Sali Ormeni has been killed, Sali Ormeni is looking for someone. He had asked for his brother, they had told him; “You have no faith in your party, which is looking for the grave”?! “Killing yourself – says Enver Hoxha in the second announced congress, which was held a year later, that it was not known about this plenum that was held, Enver Hoxha writes half a page; “We expelled Sali Ormeni and Beqir Ndoun from the ninth plenum, for the reason that so-so…! In an attempt to escape, he killed himself, without a doubt he was an enemy of the people and the Party”.
They, that is, the senior leadership, had the option of committing suicide, so that this matter was closed and closed as it was closed. But they had the second option, the murder in the spa, and the third option for Sali Ormeni, was the prison option.
The question that comes after the plenum, which dealt with the figure of Sali Ormeni and Beqir Ndout, was another event, the arrest and dismissal of a number of police officers?
On the 4th, 26 police officers and non-commissioned officers were arrested.
Who were these people and what decisions were made for them.
Mustafa Mujo, Nikolla Kule, Ferit Pilkati, sentenced to be shot, but they all returned death.
These were non-operational functionaries, not simple police workers?
Chief of police, the Police had to be shaken well, for Kadriu to take the supremacy, these show, these who have been arrested. “On the 4th, we were arrested and at the top of the list, there is a name erased in black ink, but an erasure that does not stand out.” “I – he says – think that he was our director, that if he would not be annihilated by another variant, he would be included here in this list”, but it was difficult to include Sali Ormen in that category. The charge against them is for violating the morale of the military.
To close this, what was the reason that the government at that time removed Sali Ormeni?
The main reason was because Saliu accused the State Security, that the bomb in the Soviet embassy was staged by them. In the same way, Kadri Hazbiu was definitely required to be in charge of the State Security. Saliu had noticed that Sigurimi had signs, not of the line he imagined, and that our new state and party should have, and he did not agree with them.
Likewise, the incident of the Soviet embassy was also done to clear Tirana, mainly from some civilian cadres and employees, against whom, in case of any revolt, they did not have much security, that the situation was bad. The second reason for the incident, the police had to be cleared. Why did the police have to be purged, to tell the Soviets: “This is what we did to those who attacked your embassy, who tried to break our friendship with you”, so they told Stalin that we are loyal to you, until death. Memorie.al
