Dashnor Kaloçi
The ninth part
Memorie.al/ publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (Fund of the former Central Committee of PPSh), which contain the acronym “Secret” and “Top Secret” and belong to a period from January from 1982 until September 1983, where there is a voluminous file with minutes of meetings of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, meetings which were chaired by its General Secretary, Enver Hoxha, where they assisted: Ramiz Alia, Adil Çarçani, Manush Myftiu, Hekuran Isai, Rita Marko, Pali Miska, Hajredin Çeliku, Haki Toska, Simon Stefani, Lenka Çuko, Muho Asllani, Vangjel Çerrava, etc., as the main topic is analysis about the “hostile activity” of Mehmet Shehu and his close collaborators, from Fadil Paçrami, Todi Lubonja, Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume, Hito Çako, Abdyl Këllezi, Koço Theodhosi, Kiço Ngjela, Vasil Kati, Kadri Hazbiu, Fiqret Shehu, Feçor Shehu, Mihalla q Ziçishti, Llambi Peçini, etc. In the file available to Memorie.al, in addition to the analysis of the “hostile activity of the police agent Mehmet Shehu and his associates Beqir Balluku and Kadri Hazbiu”, in the meetings of the Political Bureau and the daily meetings of the Secretariat of the PPS Central Committee, are analyzed also the activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security, with its agency and collaborators, inside and outside the country, the reports and relations of the Albanian state with different countries of the world, such as: the USA, the Soviet Union, West Germany, England, Spain, Italy, as well as those with neighbors, such as Greece and Yugoslavia and the demonstrations in Kosovo, how the world press presented Socialist Albania, the talks with West Germany about the War reparations payments, meetings and conversations with party leaders Marxist-Leninists from different countries of the world, such as Ernst Aust, Zhoao Amazonas, Fosko Dinuçi, etc., regarding the “suicide of Mehmet Shehu”, the problems of Polish immigration Albanian refugees, in different countries of the world, and the change of the exchange rate of the dollar in the remittances, which they made to their relatives in Albania, up to numerous economic problems, from heavy industry, hydropower plants on the cascade of the river Drin, energy import and export, etc., etc.
Continues from last issue
The “Top Secret” document with the minutes of the daily meeting of the secretaries of the PPSh Central Committee, held on September 12, 1983, where they discussed: “On the conclusion of the trial against the traitors, conspirators, and coup plotters, Kadri Hazbiu, Feçor Shehu , etc. As well as for the announcement that must be made to the Party organizations, about them”.
DAILY MEETING OF THE SECRETARIES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PARTY ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1983
Top Secret
In this meeting, the Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, Ramiz Alia, Lenka Çuko, and Vangjel Çërrava, as well as comrades Muho Asllani, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Party Committee of Durrës district, Pali Miska, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Elbasan district Party Committee, where the problem was raised:
On the conclusion of the trial against traitors, conspirators, coup plotters, Kadri Hazbiu, Feçor Shehu, etc. As well as for the announcement that must be made to Party organizations, on them.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, yes, that’s what he told him. He too, he said in his eyes. “What is this” he said. “Then get out of this job because we won’t go there anymore, go to another job”. After that, he had given him a package and sent him to Maqo Çomoja. (Laugh)
“I went to Maqo Çomoja at the Ministry of Agriculture and he sent me to work at the Agricultural Enterprise of Roskovec,” said the witness. The President of the Court said to Kadri: “Do you have any questions to ask the witness”?! “I said” and he came out. “He said that when he went there once, they had given him a man who was suspicious, etc., etc. How does the witness know that he was suspicious”?!
You see, the enemy, Kadri Hazbiu, did not touch the issue of his meeting with Ranković’s man at all, because he was not interested in it, because it was a weak point. His tactic was to confuse the witnesses. He expected Halit Kaçanolli to say that; I heard that he was a suspicious person and it was easy for Kadriu to intervene: “Look, this one is talking about hearsay”.
Therefore, not without purpose, he said to the witness: “How do you know that it was like this”?! When you told him this, he replied: “I know that he is a Kosovar, just like me, and during the National Liberation War, when I was fighting with a gun in my hand, he was a collaborator with the occupier. After the war, he was declared a kulak, but these the traitors took it.”
At this moment, the enemy Kadri Hazbiu spoke: “Don’t swear, keep your mouth shut.” And Halit, mother, said to him: “What a mouth to keep, you are a traitor, you are a spy.” And at that moment he opened his chest, and showed the places of the wounds, saying in his eyes: “I have these wounds from your betrayal, since I have paid for this betrayal with blood.”
Kadriu was no longer able to say a word or protest to Halit, but said only this: “What do I do to the judge here, if it weren’t for me, I would catch and tear off his head like a bird’s”. (Laugh).
With that said, I meant that he had nothing to do but try to get caught up in some unimportant things. But even they don’t work. In a word, it became clear what conspirators, coup plotters, and terrorists we had nearby.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: They hid for a long time, 40 or so years.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: All these enemies, as it turned out from the trial, since the time of Koci Xoxes, were people of Yugoslavia and the Soviets, connected to each other that Mehmet Shehu had gathered around him, and who worked in a way systematic against the Party and Comrade Enver. They tried to find the opportunity and attack. In the trial, the assassination of Comrade Enver also came out clearly.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Leave, that point was the height of their meanness.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Your flesh shuddered when you heard the cynicism with which they spoke, when they told how they would do it, the time when they would do it, etc. All the members of this counter-revolutionary organization were aware of the assassination. During the trial, Halit Bajrami, the bandit who was caught with Xhevdet Mustafa’s gang, was brought out as a witness.
Kadri Hazbiu appeared in court, and among other things he said: “Our gang left in a hurry, because, as the secretary of the Yugoslav embassy in Rome told us, our friends in Albania, led by Kadri Hazbiu, are in danger. Before to leave, they asked me if I knew Kadri Hazbiu?!
Yes, I told you, I know him. You will go there to meet him, and you will tell him that in the composition of Xhevdet Mustafa’s gang, the latter will be the assassin of Enver Hoxha. Kadri Hazbiu will coordinate the gang’s actions with the military coup. You, the Yugoslavs instructed me, will listen to Kadri, and when he says it will be done, it will be done.
Kadriu will determine the place and time when Xhevdet Mustafa will kill Enver Hoxha. You will maintain the ties between the gang and Kadri Hazbiu, they said. The gang should not take any action without coordinating with Kadri Hazbi’s military coup. They ordered us to leave urgently, because the situation there has become difficult”.
This, Kadri Hazbi told Hal Bajrami in court. You have in mind that really, at that time before the gang came, in the Political Bureau we held Kadri to account.
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: The letter that you are fully aware of and all the other actions, he had done since that time.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: He had written the letter since then, but it was in those waters that he started moving earlier, in September when the words started coming out. In other words, Kadriu himself warned the Yugoslavs to speed up the dispatch of the gang, because the noose was winding up. The chairman of the jury said to Kadri: “Do you have any questions to ask the witness”?! “Yes, I have – he said, and asked him, – when they caught you, did someone beat you”?!
FRIENDS: What question?!
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Again, he wanted to grab onto something, to bring out the lying witness. Why did the enemy Kadri Hazbiu ask this question?! He asked this question, because he knew that when Hal Bajram was caught, someone punched him hard, and asking the question, he remembered that he would deny it. And in this case, he would take advantage of the opportunity and say: “Look, this one, as he lied about this, will lie to you about the others as well.”
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Yes, yes, that’s why he asked these questions.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: But the bandit Halit Bajrami was, as the people say, “of the rope and the rope”. “At the moment when they caught me, he emphasized, 6 people had been killed because there had been a battle there. In this situation, it was understandable that they would not only knock me down, but tear my flesh to pieces, I deserved that.”
Kadriu himself kept his mouth shut because the evidence he heard took away all the arguments he wanted to present, and the tactics he wanted to follow did not succeed. The trial, as you know, ended successfully and the four of them prayed to the Presidium of the People’s Assembly.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: The four Edepszes prayed to the Presidium of the People’s Assembly.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, yes, all four asked that your life be spared. Kadriu, in his prayer, said: “I ask for forgiveness from the high Presidium”. The Presidium, of course, refused the pardon while the relevant bodies implemented the court’s decision. The trial showed what fierce enemies they had been. But in the end, they harmed the Party and Comrade Enver. Late, late, but they went where they belonged.
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: They couldn’t throw “ashes in the eyes” of the Party.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: This was one of the most brilliant victories of the Party.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The important thing is that, even though these enemies have developed such a long and fierce activity, they could not change the Party’s line for a single moment. They made efforts and attempts, for sure they even sabotaged, but they could not change the Party’s line.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Where they could, and they did damage.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Where they could, they did damage, but they could not change the Party’s line. They could not go against the Party. And this is undoubtedly dedicated to its strength and unity, and the role of Comrade Enver in the leadership of the Party. If they went against the Party line, they would have been unmasked in time.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Our people have always hated the enemies, but they hate them the most.
COMRADE VANGJEL CERRAVA: These are enemies of the highest degree.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Spies and traitors, where to go.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Classic spies.
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: Spies of the Party and of our People.
COMRADE MUHO ASLLANI: Mihallaq Ziçishti, to tell you the truth, if we take him to Durrës, they beat him and tear him apart.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: In the trial, Mihallaq Ziçishti said: “I will tell you openly how I became a spy”!
COMRADE PALI MISKA: And the Party had elected him a member of the Central Committee.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Now let’s make the judgment against this dirty gang known to the people, and let us all learn from this. We, too, learn lessons.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Increase vigilance.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, yes, this will especially serve to increase vigilance, because the enemies act in very wild ways.
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: They have worked as enemies all their lives. Kadri Hazbiu wondered how this program ended up in Mehmet Shehu’s vault. He was certainly in time, aware of it.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: He was aware of what you had to do with him.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Yes, how vile.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, now it turns out that the famous social-democratic program was worked on by Mehmet Shehu, together with Kadri Hazbiu. (Laughs)
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: They had discussed it together since 1943, said the enemy Kadri Hazbiu.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: At the time of the events in Kosovo in 1981, when they were preparing this very dangerous conspiracy against the Party, and Comrade Enver, Kadri Hazbiu had called the officer of the police agent Mehmet Shehu, the enemy Ali Çeno and told him: “Do you hear the events that are happening in Kosovo”?!
“Yes,” Ali had told him, “I found out.” “What is happening there can also happen here with us, therefore, since you are close to Mehmet Shehu, you must take care that no hair falls on his neck. You are responsible, before the Party.”
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: Mehmet Shehu was so mean, that he also spoke badly of Ali Çeno. Once he even called him, and told him that; would fire him. Now it is clear that he has done this in vain.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: When Mehmet Shehu killed himself, Kadri Hazbiu thought that he “crossed the river”.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Kadri Hazbiu probably influenced the enemy Mehmet Shehu to kill himself. That night after the Politburo meeting, Kadri Hazbiu went to Mehmet Shehu’s house and told him: “They discovered your lakrori noodles. I have an order to arrest you tomorrow. So what are you going to do, you will come to the meeting tomorrow and “Let me handcuff you, because this is what I am forced to do. Or will you find another way”?!
And Mehmet Shehu had the idea to do what Nako Spiru did years ago.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Yes, yes, he has done this work.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: He certainly did. Fiqretja confirmed this in court.
COMRADE LENKA CUKO: She said that when Kadri Hazbiu came home, Mehmet Shehu turned yellow and worried.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, Mehmet Shehu was definitely worried. In fact, since Comrade Enver told him at the Politburo meeting about the alibi, Kadri Hazbiu knew that Comrade Enver had documents about Mehmet.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Yes, yes, he knew.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: And when Comrade Enver mentioned the alibi, Kadri immediately remembered you and thought that Comrade Enver would immediately raise them the next day, at the Politburo meeting.
COMRADE PALI MISKA: That’s why he used this mechanism. Didn’t Mehmet have doubts about Kadriu?!
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Yes, yes. Fiqretja said that, when their son Skenderi got engaged, Kadriu started to keep his distance from Mehmet and Mehmet often said to me: “Ah, this Jew, he betrayed me, and he is asking to take my place.”
COMRADE PALI MISKA: Yes, this is logical. Memorie.al
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