“In the Orosh cooperative, 92 kids (young goats) died and were sent to the Spaç camp, after…!” / A secret document from December 2, ’76, is revealed, when political prisoners were given meat infected with diseases!

From Dashnor Kaloçi

Memorie.al / Throughout the period of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha and his successor Ramiz Alia, hundreds and thousands of political prisoners serving sentences in camps and prisons located in several different districts of the country, from south to north, in addition to the lack of the most basic fundamental human rights and freedoms, were also subjected to inhumane working and living conditions. One of the main issues was the lack of food, or its poor quality, which led to political prisoners (and also those for ordinary crimes) reaching the limits of starvation!

This, among other things, is now known from the testimonies and memoirs of dozens of former political prisoners, who, immediately after the fall of communism in the early ’90s, in their writings or books, as well as in various television programs, have told harrowing testimonies regarding the aspect of starvation in camps and prisons, mainly those of forced labor and internment.

Such as: Vloçisht and Orman-Pojan that were opened immediately after the war for the drainage of the Maliq Marsh in the Devoll plain, where the prisoners were forced to eat weeds to quell their hunger a little. This, the permanent hunger, continued later in the internment camp of Tepelena, in Ura Vajgurore, Kamza, Porto-Palermo, Ura e Bonës (Peqin-Elbasan), Kuçi, Bedeni, Thumana, and up to the camp of Rubik, Reps, Spaç, Qafa e Barit, etc.

While the stories of these forced labor camps and not only, are already known from the testimonies of former political prisoners who served long years of sentences there, in this article we are publishing a rare archival document with the “Secret” logo (now declassified), which belongs to the year 1976, where the communist regime itself (the Ministry of Internal Affairs), makes it known how political prisoners were treated in those years, regarding the problem of food, by giving them for food, the meat of sick and dead livestock from various causes. For more about this, the document in question tells us, which is published for the first time and with the corresponding facsimile, by Memorie.al.

THE SECRET ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE OPERATIONAL REPORT OF DECEMBER 3, 1976, SIGNED BY THE DIRECTORATE OFFICER PILO SHANTO

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA                                                    SECRET

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS                                               Copy No. 3

GENERAL BRANCH                                                                Tirana, on 2.12.1976

                                                   OPERATIONAL REPORT NO. 283

RRËSHENI

On November 29 and 30, 1976, in the Orosh agricultural cooperative, Mashterkorit sector, 13 kids died and 92 others were sent to unit 303 in Spaç, for forced slaughter, as there was no possibility of saving them. The operational group found that, from their poor treatment, over 70% of the flock has weakened and the average weight of each kid is 3.5 kg. This treatment has started since the separation of the flock from milk, leading to bronchopneumonia. The matter is being followed./ Memorie.al

CHIEF OF THE GENERAL BRANCH

PILO SHANTO