Dashnor Kaloçi
Part One
Memorie.al /publishes the unknown story of Kaso Hoxha, a former prisoner of the Spaç prison who, after his release in 1985, managed to escape from Albania and, after a stay in the Lavrios camp in Greece, obtained political asylum in the USA, where he currently lives. What is mentioned in his correspondence at the end of 1985 with the London branch of Amnesty International regarding the diary he had kept during his time serving his sentence in the infamous Spaç camp, who were some of the prisoners he had met there and the names of the police officers who tortured them? Who was Dilaver Hasa and why, after his escape from Albania and a stay of several years in Sweden, did he return to Albania where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison? What is written in Kaso Hoxha’s diary about Dilaver and the conversations he had with him while they worked together in the mines of Spaç prison, why did some Albanian political escapees such as Kipe Avdiu from the USA, Zenel Spahiu from France, Sabri Kodra from Germany, etc., return to Albania, how did Kaso Hoxha find the Albanian political diaspora in the USA divided by agents of the State Security from Tirana, and his friendship with the well-known writer Bilal Xhaferi, whom he found dead in the hospital, and the speech he gave at his funeral?!
Honourable Mrs. Andersen. I received your letter and from the start I assure you, regarding what you wrote to me, that I am ready to provide you with the factual materials and my diary from the darkest prison on our globe, 303 Spaç. This is the moral duty of every honest person to denounce before world public opinion what is truly happening in Albania and what is the true face of Enver Hoxha’s Socialism, of this murderer of the Albanian people. I will send you my diary immediately, which I managed to take out of Albania with great difficulty. I would like this diary to see the light of publication; this is not only my wish, but that of all my comrades who live in hope in the eternal darkness of the cells of Spaç and Burrel Prison; this is also the dying wish of the comrades killed by Enver Hoxha’s bullets. This is stated, among other things, in the letter of the Albanian Kaso Hoxha sent from Chicago at the end of December 1985 to Mrs. Melanie Andersen, secretary of the Organization for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (Amnesty International) with a branch in London. So who was Kaso Hoxha, what was his origin, under what circumstances was he sentenced, how many years did he suffer in the camps and prisons of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime, and how did he manage to escape from Albania to Greece in 1985, where after a stay for some time in the Lavrios camp, he obtained political asylum in the USA, where he currently lives with his family? Regarding these and many, many other events from the painful history of his life, from childhood, the hard work and life in the village where he was born and raised in the southernmost tip of the country, the first poems written with hatred for the regime, how they were discovered and his arrest, the suffering of his sentence in Spaç prison, who were some of the prisoners he met and worked with, his release and escape from Albania, the correspondence with the London branch of Amnesty International, life and work in the USA where he found Albanian political emigrants divided by “Tirana’s agents”, his friendship with the well-known writer Bilal Xhaferi and how he found him dead in the hospital…?! Regarding all these, etc., Kaso Hoxha has written a book in four volumes (manuscript), which he entrusted for publication to his friend and fellow-sufferer, Qani Beqo Sadiku, considered one of the heroes of anti-communist resistance in the prisons of Enver Hoxha’s Albania, who first donated them to Memorie.al, which will publish them piece by piece starting from this article.
Letter from Amnesty International’s London branch to Kaso Hoxha
Amnesty International 17 December 1985
INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT
1 Essex Street London WC1X 8 DJ
United Kingdom Our reference MA LS 85
Direct line
Dear Mr. Hoxha,
Thank you very much for the details you sent us on political prisoners. I also thank you for the interview regarding the time you spent as a political prisoner in Spaç.
The information you have given us is very valuable.
As you know, Amnesty International works to ensure and protect human rights around the world. One of the main tasks of the organisation is the dissemination of information on injustices and violations of human rights, for example, reporting on people who are imprisoned because they hold political ideas that differ from the political ideas of the regime, reports on torture and on executions.
The Amnesty International report on Albania (which you have received) was based on information provided by people like you who themselves have suffered imprisonment for political reasons. A report like this cannot be prepared without the help of such people. The truth is that the report is not complete, because we have found it very difficult to collect accurate and detailed information on the fate of political prisoners in Albania. We hope that in time we will be able to produce a longer report through which the outside world will be able to learn more about the fate of political prisoners in Albania. Therefore, please send us the diary (or a copy) that you kept in Spaç, as well as the list of more than one hundred prisoners about whom you have information.
One more thing: a Swedish newspaper wrote about an Albanian named Dilaver (Alfonso) Hasa. Did you know this man in Spaç? If so, can you write to us about him?
My colleague, Dina Couroucilis, and I wish you good luck in the new life you have begun.
Regards,
Melanie Andersen
Research Department
P.S. Ilia Leka gave us your address in America.
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Kaso Hoxha’s letter from Chicago to Amnesty International in London
Amnesty
International Chicago, 30.12.1985
International secretariat
Mrs. Melanie Andersen
Honourable Mrs. Andersen,
I received your letter and from the start I assure you, regarding what you wrote to me, that I am ready to provide you with the factual materials and my diary from the darkest prison on our globe, 303 Spaç. This is the moral duty of every honest person to denounce before world public opinion what is truly happening in Albania and what is the true face of Enver Hoxha’s Socialism, of this murderer of the Albanian people.
It is not foolishness or excessive courage to denounce and speak the truth about what is happening in Albania and how the common people (the miners) act. But it is more foolish to be a coward and remain silent, as many pseudo-patriots do, thinking that they will have trouble with Tirana’s agents. Enver Hoxha has achieved his goal very well, dividing the people, pitting brother against brother, both inside the country and among the diaspora abroad, spreading more hatred, killing one another, betraying one another.
My political convictions are diametrically opposed to all those patriots who have not shed the shell of the ordinary nationalist who seeks to revive animosities and quarrels among nations in the Balkans and Europe. I have been and will remain a fighter for peace and democracy, always siding with the new, with progress.
Our epoch must be the epoch of great historical events. We are the generation that must remove from the map of the Balkans the lines with which it has been carved up, lines that have been the cause of quarrels and bloodshed. Only thus, by forging a united Balkans, where the Greek lives with the Greek, the Slav with the Slav, and the Albanian with the Albanian. Only thus can there be security and peace, only thus can democracy and peace be protected, only thus can there be progress in this backward country of our continent with its ancient civilisation.
I will send you my diary immediately, which I managed to take out of Albania with great difficulty. I would like this diary to see the light of publication; this is not only my wish, but that of all my comrades who live in hope in the eternal darkness of the cells of Spaç and Burrel Prison; this is also the dying wish of the comrades killed by Enver Hoxha’s bullets.
This diary is not my biography, but the biography of bloodied Spaç; it is the biography of 2,000 prisoners tortured with hard labour in the black depths of the grave-mine of Spaç. I also have a collection of poems written in Spaç, poems about murdered comrades; if you want them, write to me so I can send them; at the same time, I have written down parts of the lives of my comrades.
As for Dilaver Hasa, I was fortunate to know him very well, and from him I learned many valuable things about the World. I am sending you a copy of the diary that deals only with Dilaver Hasa.
I will also send you the list of prisoners I have known personally, without details.
Write to me which parts of the diary interest you so I can send them to you.
I wish you and your family health
and to your work colleagues
Regards with respect, Hoxha Kaso
I don’t know if you can help me find the address of my children in Albania. Because I know that they have been interned in concentration camps. But the Albanian Government does not allow me to have correspondence or to help them financially.
(In the next issue we will publish the long letter of Kaso Hoxha sent to Amnesty International with branch in London, regarding the unknown story of Dilaver Hasa, originally from the villages of Peshkopi, who after escaping from Albania at the age of 22 in the early 1970s and settling as a political emigrant in Sweden, after some time returned again to Albania, where he was sentenced to 20 years of political imprisonment, a part of which he served in Spaç prison. In his long letter, Kaso Hoxha recounts how he met Dilaver Hasa in Spaç prison, how he worked, who he associated with, who the police officers who tortured him were, what conversations he had with him, and what were the reasons that forced Dilaver to return to Albania, after promises given to him by the Albanian embassy in Stockholm that he would be released and would not be sentenced?! Likewise, in his long letter sent to Amnesty International with branch in London, Kaso Hoxha also recounts the mystery of several other escapees from Albania who, after having gained political asylum status in various European countries, just like Dilaver Hasa, returned to Albania, such as: Zenel Spahiu along with his brother who came from France, Kipe (Rakip) Avdia from the USA, Sabri Kodra from Germany, etc.) /Memorie.al
