Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the rare document with the letter of Mehmet Shehu dated 9 August 1949, where he through Lieutenant Colonel Beqir Ndout, the Political Director of the Army, informs Enver Hoxha on the launch of the operation in Mirdita, after the murder of MP Bardhok Biba. As well as the memoirs of Nikoll Mëlyshi, one of the main exponents of the anti-communist resistance in the first years after the war (the real character of the movie “Operation Fire”) for the Mirdita massacre, published in 1976 in Detroit, USA, where he was as a political emigrant
Full 70 years ago, on August 7, 1949, in a place called Qafa e Valmirit in the district of Mirdita, the deputy of the area, Bardhok Biba, who also held the position of the first secretary of the Committee, was killed in an ambush. of the Party of that district, as well as the rank of captain of the State Security in the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Based on the duties, positions and high party and state functions held by Bardhok Biba at that time, his past as a partisan and communist, among the pact he had in that province where the influence of the Gjonmarkajs, the Captains of Orosh, was still strong, she The event caused a great commotion and revolted immensely the high communist leadership of Tirana. Which led them to undertake a large-scale military cleansing operation in the province of Mirdita and the surrounding areas, headed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Major General Mehmet Shehu. This, in addition to the official historiography of the communist regime before the ’90s as well as the means of propaganda of that time, is also made known by an archival document published for the first time in this article of Gazeta Shqiptare, where Mehmet Shehu, through the Political Director of the Army, Lieutenant Colonel Beqir Ndout, informs Enver Hoxha about the actions of the punitive operation he had planned to undertake in Mirdita. And as he wrote with his hand on a piece of paper sent to the “Commander”, Mehmet Shehu made everything a reality, executing 14 men from the province of Mirdita, exactly at the place where Bardhok Biba was killed, as well as imprisoning and interning with tens of hundreds of Mirdita people and families. Thus, marking one of the largest post-war massacres in terms of the number of people executed for a particular event, which dozens of Mirdita families would suffer for long. Given the fact that this event from that time and then until the end of the ’80s has been spoken and written a lot about the historiography and propaganda of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, in this article we are publishing “the other side of the coin” , seeing it from the point of view of Nikoll Mëlyshi, one of the leaders of the Anti-Communist Movement and Resistance in Mirdita, from whose family and tribe there were several executed, imprisoned and interned for the murder of Bardhok Biba. Captain Nikoll Mëlyshi, the father of Pal Mëlyshi, (People’s Hero) who is the real character in the movie “Operation Fire” (Gjin Martini, the father of Kreshnik Martini played by the late actor Sheri Mita), wrote this event in one of the chapters of his book “Helping, Seeing and Living Events”, published in 1976 in Detroit, USA where he lived as a political asylum seeker. We are publishing the event in question in the original version (as it is written in his Gegërisht dialect and the dialect of Mirdita at that time) and with some abbreviations, as the book of Nikoll Mëlyshi was republished in Albania in 2005, by his son, Lekë Mëlyshi.
Memoirs of Nikoll Mëlyshi published in 1976 USA
BARDHOK BIBA NE MIRDITE
Bardhok Biba, who comes from a tribe of Kapidanave of Mirdita, had attended high school in the gymnasium of Shkodra, but after two years he was expelled for bad behavior. Later, with the mediation of Captain Gjon Marka Gjoni, he was admitted to the Technical School of Tirana, where he was a little filtered in the communist doctrine.
He left this school half-dead, and I started walking from door to door through the people, against the will of his father and his older brother, to speak through the people of Mirdita beautiful communist words on improving the life of the people. The people of Mirdita, although uneducated, had understood that Bardhoku was a communist propagandist, but since he was from the Kapedana tribe and only he was in all the Bajraks of Mirdita, there was nothing else at that time and that this young boy did not could become dangerous in the future, he even did it with cedars.
When Bardhoku turned 28, he met the communists of Tirana and became a sworn communist. At the time of the occupation of Albania by Italy, he was circulating again in the villages of Mirdit and Kthellë, he tried to inject the communist poison into the people, but still no one paid attention to him and he could not do anything with himself, even his people. I start to despise the provinces and drink a bit of bread like a dog. The local authorities often took him by the hand to capture him and wipe him out of life, but they still left him because he belongs to the Kapedan tribe. Thus, Bardhoku took advantage of the cases and when communism came from southern Albania, Bardhoku appeared before Mehmet Shehu in Lura and Mehmet Shehu, in the form of propaganda, to fill the minds of the people, calm in front of a partisan platoon and waited for him. among the weapons, they told the people that this is the cousin of the Captain of Mirdita, and when communism entered Mirdita, Bardhoku appeared as the greatest of that province.
Bardhoku had some special qualities; in the people he always appeared cold-blooded, he was very wise, sweet in conversation, very gentle, a man as flattering as qi to drink his blood with cotton; he covered his affairs, threw the stone and shook his hand, in order to blame the southern communists of Mirdita.
Bardhoku headed the sub-prefecture of St. Paul of Mirdita and had numerous military forces at his disposal, which he had given to Mehmet Shehu with a white paper for the execution of his orders. The fox and the cop robbed some young people and took advantage of them for intelligence purposes, on the movements of the country’s opponents. It was predicted that he would capture the youth of Mirdita and Kthella. A part of the people still did not understand the blacks of Bardhok Biba, they thought that it was as it was shown in front of them and that allegedly he was pulling some people from the rope from the danger of death, because that was the communist method that this guy developed in the people . The masses of the people, especially the youth, had not yet come to understand that he was the executioner who drank the blood of hundreds of his comrades in the region of Mirdita and Kthella, to shoot people without trials and without trials, imprisonment, beatings animal welfare, internment, robbery and the extinction of highland morality, mobilize young girls and women across brigade jobs. And the communists, in order to eradicate the customs and habits of the country, sent the young peasant women with songs and dances every hour of rest, and worse and worse, the commissar of the workshop, appointed a man and a woman both at work and in flat …?! And how many other such black jobs. In such cases, Bardhok Biba also sent his wife, Mrika, to appear before the honest people. All these ways of moral destruction were carried out by order and signature of Bardhok Biba. Bardhoku continued with his methods; always massacres of the people by order of the red butchers of Tirana, because the people of our provinces were considered by Hoxha and Shehu, a guilty people?! And as such the disobedient, had condemned all the whole people. On the other hand, Bardhok Biba, when the case was presented to him, also took his personal revenge and no one could correct him. So, he spread his arms and immersed them in the pure blood of his innocent brothers, in order to gain the trust of the Party and to be a member of the Central Committee of the Chief Butchers of Tirana, and to secure his position as chairman of the Party Committee. Communist in Mirdita and Kthella, deputy of the province and with the rank of Security Captain in Mirdita.
Although in a difficult situation, Ndue Pjetër Gjonmarkaj and Ndue Mëlyshi, together with their friends, with much suffering and sacrifice, managed to make a meeting for all the fighters of Mirdita, Kthella and Lezha mountains on July 1, 1949 in Shqopën e Munella-Mirditë. He participated in this meeting as a group leader; Ndue Bajraktari, Mark Dod Lleshaj, (Gender), Marka Jak Bajraktari, Ded Kolziu, Llesh Marka Tuci, and Gjok Dod Përbrunga. Muer participated and 60 fighters and passed together without being separated for two days. They were well aware of the critical situation and the loss of fighters in the daily war. Whatever it was here, they decided; the renewal of the Mirdita Provincial Subcommittee, which was formed by Dr. Mark Gjon Markaj in March 1945 and after the loss of Mark on June 14, 1946, to be continued by Llesh Gjomark on August 10, 1946, after the loss of Llesh on August 9, 1947, by the leaders of the squads in October 1948, in Kodra e Rrëshenit i Kthella, you replace them with; Ndue Bajraktari, Frrok Mëlyshin, Marka Jak Bajraktarin, Marka Dod Lleshin, Preng Dod Gjinin. At another meeting on July 1, 1949, the reform was done as follows: Ndue Pjetër Gjomarkaj as chairman, Ndue Bajraktari as vice-chairman, Ndue Mëlyshi, Marka Dod Lleshaj, and Marka Jak Bajraktari, dear (close) member. Other warriors, wide members. After the completion of this reform, the meeting decided once again the sentence and execution of Bardhok Biba, to get rid of this dangerous man of Mirdita.
A second meeting was scheduled for August 7, 1949, and the troops were dispersed in different directions. Ndue Pjetër Gjonmarkaj participated in the group of Ndue Bajraktari and Ndue Mëlyshi in the group of Preng Dod Gjini.
NATIONAL MOUNTAIN RELATIONSHIP AND THE KILLING OF BARDHOK BIBE
On the night of August 6, 1949, 53 fighters gathered together, at a certain point, Shqopa e Munegjës Mirditë. On August 7, 1949, in the morning, the Provincial Subcommittee of Mirdita received a news: that Bardhok Biba that day would pass from the village of Simon to St. Paul of Mirdita! The information of the messenger is exact: Bardhoku had to hold a conference in Kaçinar, from there he traveled with 30 police officers to Simon, Peshqesh, Shën Palë.
The sub-committee of Mirdita, which took place in Shqopa e Munegjës, immediately took a decision and without wasting time sent the revenge body to ambush the Valmir stream. The revenge body carried out the order: he killed Bardhok Biba and left the decision-letter with his signature next to his corpse, signed by the Chairman of the Mirdita Provincial Subcommittee. Bardhoku was killed at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on August 7, 1949, and this group of 53 people, after carrying out this action, left for Yugoslavia. On August 7, 1949, they crossed the border and entered Yugoslavia without a dam. Along with Bardhok, two local police officers were injured who were mobilizing the people as workers to send them to forced labor.
OPERATION IN MIRDITE FOR VENGEANCE OF BARDHOK BIBE
The communist government of Tirana took Bardhok Biba’s revenge as a reason (but not because it hurt so much or needed Bardhok Biba, because later it would probably kill itself, like many other previous hierarchs), so it sent wards military forces from Tirana, to carry out a large-scale operation in Mirdita. Just to make fun of that brave people of Gjergj Kastriot (HERO). In this operation took part the First Division that was based (camping) in Qafë Shtambë and was commanded by Colonel, Hito Çakos from Vlora, as well as the Special Brigade, which was in Mirdita to pursue the Freedom Fighters, commanded by the Major, Luftar Bolena from Vlora.
The operation was led mainly by the red butcher himself, Mehmet Shehu, together with the Deputy Minister of Interior, Colonel Kadri Hazbiu, acting deputy commander of the operation. Two Russian colonels took part in the operation as observers; Sovoloski and Voleskini (with Albanian blood you do not like them).
The black events that took place in that operation are the following: more than 500 men were arrested by the people of Mirdita and Kthella, more women and children were interned in the internment camps in Tepelena and Lushnje, more than 300 houses family. 400 men have been sent to terror prisons in Shkodra, another 100 have been sentenced to long prison terms.
On August 18, 1949, the following innocent people were executed in the place where Bardhok Biba was killed, without being tried at all: there are 14 fatos from the best of this province: Llesh Mëlyshi, Nikoll Bardhok Bajraktari, Bardhok Dod Lleshaj, Gjergj Keq Belshi , Dodë Marka Biba, from Kthella: Ded Preng Gjomarkaj, Nikoll Llesh Nikolli, Preng Shkurti, Gjin Kaçi, Ndoc Gjet Palaj, Frrok Mata, Marka Ndrec Marku, Ded Paloka, Zef Vila from Mirdita.
Of these 14 people, 4 were killed in hemp in the place where the white-haired Biba was killed and in the same place 10 others were shot tied with hemp, by the bloody hand of … who took permission from Mehmet Shehu to were given to the brothers of his province, by a bullet to the forehead…?!
Fatosat was killed and shot, but Mehmet Shehu was separated from their family, the whole group was thrown into a pit, they were still more than half alive, their souls did not come out and … then they were covered with earth.
In the execution of these 14 fates, men and women gathered the people, Mirditas and Kthella more than 2000 people, and Mehmet Shehu gave a speech and swore in “Vardh of Bardhok Biba” that without filling 101 shot in Mirdita for (allegedly) Bardhok’s revenge, I will not release Mirdita and Kthella, nor will I release him from the operation. Perhaps the fate of that innocent heroic people, played an extraordinary role, to defeat all those people without being shot, because exactly on August 18, 1949, the Greek army provoked on the Greek-Albanian border, on the occasion that it pulled from the positions of Mount Gramoz, its own Greek communists who fled from the Greek army and entered to save their heads in Albania, in the area of Bilisht. So, the Greek army wanted to pursue its communists for several kilometers. through Albanian soil, but the organizers of the American mission did not allow it. However, the alarm was sounded and Tirana got scared and I urgently asked Mehmet Shehi with the First Division that was in Mirdita, to appear in Tirana and from there he left to go to the Greek border. Thus, in Mirdita, only the Special Brigades that were ahead to pursue the mountain fighters remained.
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Mehmet Shehu’s letter to Enver
Telegram figure, N-Colonel Beqir Ndout for the commander
Tonight, begins the operation in 24 villages of Mirdita which has a total of 33 villages. The arrests end at 11 a.m. and are 31 of the first category, 84 of the second category and 17 of the third category. Those of the first category are for the death penalty according to our predictions, although 15 or 17. Those of the second category are for imprisonment and those of the third are for exile. 9 families of Gjon Marku and 15 arrests in Lesh district will also be interned.
The military court may come to Rrëshen on 12 August. Please intervene in the Presidium to approve Burrell’s three death row inmates and notify us by telegram that we will execute them.
I am going to Shkodra today for the issue of Pero and I will be back here again.
Rrshen, 9.8.1949
Mehmet
Memorie.al
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