By URIM ELEZI
Part Five
Preface
Memorie.al / Urim Elezi, born on 18.10.1941 in Floq, Korça, are among those convicted twice by the communist regime with many years of suffering. He was imprisoned on 26.10.1963 and was released from there on 10.2.1989. He entered at 22 years old and left at 48, even blinded. At the age of 18, he completed the Instruction school in Gjirokastër, where he was promoted to non-commissioned officer. During his first sentence, he was a soldier in Unit No. 9357 Gjirokastër. The first time he was accused based on Article 64, in combination with Articles 10 and 14 of the Penal Code. He was on military service, together with his friend Hekuran Shyti, in Gjirokastër. According to the court, he had proposed to Hekuran to escape because a good life was lived in capitalist countries and especially in the USA. Hekuran is released earlier from the army and during this time finds the other persons with whom they would carry out the escape. Hekuran sends a telegram to Urim in Gjirokastër, with the request to depart as his mother was ill.
Thus, Urim joins his friends, Hekuran Shyti, Durim Shyti, and Robert Morava. Poorly oriented, betrayed by a local resident, they were caught by border forces at the border post of Nikolica in the district of Korça. The Tirana Military Court, with decision no. 21, dated 27.2.1964, declared him guilty and sentenced him to 18 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of property, the removal of the right to vote for 4 years, and the loss of the rank of sergeant. It was upheld by decision no. 23, dated 31.3.1964, of the Military College of the Supreme Court. For the second time, he was arrested on 19.2.1980. He was accused based on Article 55/1 of the Penal Code with very aggravating articulations. The Fier Internal Affairs Branch, with letter no. 112, dated 15.1.1980, requested the Prosecution Directorate to approve the arrests for three citizens, among them the aforementioned Urim Elezi. He had been taken into active processing on 17.5.1979 because he was conducting propaganda among the convicts.
Reports about him were made by “The Penitent” and “The Technician.” He was said to have expressed: “The Sigurimi has painted its hands with the blood of this people. They have committed the most hideous crimes that can exist in history, the Sigurimi has treated the people and the individuals worse than the fascists and Nazis have treated them..! There is no one viler than the communists. I call communists all those who have a star on their forehead like a tomato, regardless of whether they believe in Marx’s beard or Stalin’s mustache…! The most monstrous crimes in Albania were committed when the communists came to power! Life for us is a prison.”
The Fier District Court, presided over by Sokrat Dautaj, with the participation of prosecutor Kiço Koçi, with decision no. 94, dated 18.4.1980, declared him guilty and sentenced him to 10 years of deprivation of liberty, as well as the removal of the right to vote for 5 years. Convinced of the futility of communist decisions, Urim Elezi did not appeal the decision. After having sent a letter to Enver Hoxha, where he described him as a “colorless monster, sick with persecution mania,” on 6.12.1981, he was beaten by the police of Burrel Prison until he went blind. He was released on 10.2.1989, from Unit no. 305 Përparim, of the Saranda district.
Continued from the previous issue
-“I am not a spy. How do you know that I am a spy?!” – “Well, you are provoking us every day, you evil cur, so that we beat you up and then those masters of yours can beat us to death.” – “No, I have never provoked you!” – “We have seen you meeting with Esat. Every time you meet with him, you come running towards us and look only the two of us in the eyes.”
– “Shut your mouth because we will come in and leave you for dead.” At this time, after having heard the conversation behind the door, the brutal Nikolla-policeman, opens the door and says to Adem: – “Come out, you, Adem, together with Ruzhdi to the dungeon!” – “I’m not coming, why I should come!” – “You say you’re not coming?!” – “No, why should I come?”
Nikolla closes the door. (The time remained in my memory, I even knew the day until recently: 16:00, November, the year 1968.) At 19:00, the roll call was made as always, while at 20:00, two policemen come, Asllan Uka and Ahmet Palamani.
-“Adem Allçi, Ruzhdi Kraja” – out!
-“Why should we come?!” – Adem says to him.
-“We know that, we don’t give an account to you” – Asllan retorts. Angrily, seeing their reaction and that of the 35-40 people who were in the room, the policemen close the door of room no. 8, Burrel. Everyone was in agony, because they knew well what would happen. Before half an hour had passed, the corridor echoed with the conversations the brutes were having with one another. The door opens again and the prison commander Nazar Demiraj enters.
-“Everyone out,” – he tells us. We all went out, Ruzhdi too; only Adem Allçi did not come out. As soon as we stepped out, we hear terrifying screams, great howls coming from Adem. I don’t know what tortures they did to him and what they hit him with, but Adem’s cries were agonizing, I have never heard them from any fellow prisoner before. They hit him with wood, irons, and all sorts of other forms, in short, all the forms of torture that young people see in today’s movies…!
They remove Adem, who had been completely mangled, and they come to take Ruzhdi. They put him in the dungeon and do everything to him (literally: the 99s). I don’t know where to start regarding the tortures: wood all over the body, slamming against the wall, breaking of bones, teeth, and many others, so much so that Ruzhdi was not recognizable at all…! Not even five minutes had passed, when the adjacent door of room no. 9, where I was myself, opens. Adem’s brother, Elez Allçi, was there.
-“Elez Allçi, out”, – Nazar Demiraj tells him.
-“I haven’t done anything! What do you want with me”, – Elezi retorts.
-“Are you coming out or not?!” As soon as Elezi steps into the corridor, a multitude of policemen pounce on his body and drag him away.
After this, the prison commander, Nazar Demiraj, a 63-year-old man – it was rumored that he had retired and was there by his own will – calls my name, Urim Elezi! As soon as I stepped into the corridor, I don’t know how many Branch officers pounced on me, or even what blows they gave me. A matter of minutes, I regain consciousness and see myself in the dungeon. The door of the dungeon was open. There I see a puny one, speaking to a large-bodied one, both these soldiers:
-“And you, why didn’t you hit Adem hard, like you hit this one, or is he from Tropoja to you?!” – “No man, what are you saying, look how I am covered in blood from Adem.” – “Fine, fine, I’ll settle it with you at the youth meeting.” After several days in the dungeon, plus others had been put in dungeons: Kujtim Luzaj, Lek Beja, Enver Shaqiri, etc., for a full thirty days. (They took me because I had separated Elez, a few months ago, when during the airing he hits the provocateur of his brother and Ruzhdi).
We all did thirty-two days in the cell, while Adem and Ruzhdi, even though they were the most exhausted, they tortured again in the most ghastly manner, more than all of us. It reached the point where both of them, tied hand and foot with chains, Adem hits the Branch Chief, Flamur Sinoimeri, from the tortures and the pain. In this moment, Kamber Ligeshari, a wretched nurse, says to him: – “O Comrade Chief, give him an ampoule like Avdyl Kruja, otherwise this sh… will never die.”
-“No, Comrade Kamber, because it will cause us trouble. (Avdyl Kruja, who during King Zog’s time was the Prefect in Shkodra… I learned he was the father of Petrit Kruja, Ruzhdi Kraja’s close friend and my friend).
Torture – WC
In one case, when we go out for airing, I see the criminal-operative Esat sitting on a chair, there at the iron door, before you went down the stairs. – “Urim Elezi, stop a bit! – What have you written in this letter?” (We had the right to send one letter a month, the letter had to be one page and the words had to be clear, not suspicious and with double meanings, such as: making a request for food, but not casting doubt that you were suffering from hunger there). – “Brother, if you can, send me a loaf of bread, cut it into slices, dry them well, and send them to me, 4-5 kg.”! – That is all I said to him. – “What do you mean by this?! That you suffer from hunger?!”
-“But what does hunger have to do here? Have I mentioned in the letter that I have hunger or am dying of hunger?!” He orders the two policemen to put me in the dungeon. Again thirty days of dungeon. During these days, when they took us to the bathroom, they took us only three times in 9 hours. And when we entered the bathroom, as soon as we sat down to perform our needs, they immediately made us stand. I remember here Ramadan Kurti, an Egyptian, who was very cowardly and a provocateur. In one situation, we clash badly with him. He calls on the phone, 5-6 policemen arrive, and who attack me. When I regain consciousness, I see that I was tied hand and foot in the bathroom, with my head inside the WC and my face smeared with sh…!
Terrible torture was also the two jars we had in the room where we performed personal needs, one jar for light water (urine) and one for heavy water (feces), which were no more than 2-3 liters, so they were useless and often, according to the turn, every prisoner “went out” and collected it by hand, threw it in the jar and took it to the three small holes of the WC. How could 150-160 people go out during 50-60 minutes of airing?! The jars were removed in 1971 and they were removed by the former commander Hajri Leskaj from Vlora, with great effort.
Torture of the closet
During the investigation, I remember with much horror the closet on the first floor, near the bin where the prisoners left the trash. They tortured me to get me to reveal that to escape, I had also told my two other brothers, Bilbil and Festim. Hekuran, my brother, my friend, even though he had been tortured in an inhuman way, had not revealed that he had spoken with Bilbil before the escape. They, knowing my relations with the two brothers, sought to drag them into the dance as well. They hit me for a long time, in every part of the body, while “the big one” waited for me to affirm with my own mouth that I had also told my brothers.
All these were done to increase the dose of pleasure of the arrests. After they saw that with torture they got nothing out of me, two people take me and tie my feet and hands with chains. I didn’t understand what was happening. We go out the door and they put me in the closet, which had such dimensions that I stayed folded. My head reached my stomach and my legs occupied the door.
They leave me there for a full six hours…! Apparently, they had thought of this torture before! I found out that I had stayed there for six hours when I heard the brutes Petro Tasellari and Ago Sina speak with one another: – “how come, the ‘bear of Bozdovec’ resisted six hours without fainting…”?!
The next torture
After the break-out from prison in August of ’67 by Adem Allçi, Dhori Gërnjoti, and Sazan Hadëri, I along with some friends, like Elez Allçi, Enver Shaqiri, Lek Beja, and Kujtim Luzaj, are put in the dungeon and they take us out on January 2nd of ‘68. We did in total in the dungeon a full 1 month and 7 days. It was the day when Qemal Laze had the shift.
He opened the small window and sees me in a shirt and in undergarments and insults my family. – “It’s a pity for you to be part of a veteran and communist family”! – he tells me. – “What are you talking about? Are you drunk? My father was not a communist, but a Bektashi”, – I retort. – “I am the son of my father, not the son of the brother” – I tell him. – “Why, how are the communists?” – “Why do you ask me for a thing that you know?!” – I retorted with an inner anger.
We debate badly with one another and in this moment the other policeman comes, Shaban Selami from Burrel. They wanted to tie me with chains, hands and feet. And if they tie you with chains hands and feet, it was certain that you would stay like that for a week, so I refused to be tied. One of them reports by phone to the Pharaoh’s office. From there they bring into the dungeon a multitude of policemen like those of the Branch and of Burrel. They snatched me like “wolves the goat.” When I regain consciousness, I see myself tied hand and foot to the hook that was on the wall.
Qemal Laze and Shaban Selami, sometimes would come to offend me and sometimes would hit me with kicks in the stomach and in the head. Shaban Selami was an extremely vulgar policeman. After insulting me several times, he puts a piece of wood in my mouth and ties it with his shoelaces. The wood broke my dentures, which I held broken along with the wood in my mouth.
In Unit No. 303 Spaç, in the years 1969-1970
In Spaç I stayed in the period; October 26, 1969 – April 1970. I wanted to throw myself into the abyss, taking a policeman with me…! (This is what Kadri Thaçi from Kukës, Xhemal Spata from Dibra, and Çaush Çoku from Lushnja would also do).
If I knew that the first 17 years of prison, I would spend only with hope and suffering, I would tell you with sobbing to my fellow sufferers and their heirs, that the euphoria for freedom of a 19-year-old, at the end of 16 years of prison, would turn into the greatest desire, for which the blood had been spent, for “Democracy.”
It is so difficult for me, dear readers, to remember at this age that I am and with my health, what they have done to me and what my soul and that of my fellow sufferers have endured. Even if I tell you every torture, believe me that I have the wounds so deep that it seems to me like my body still hurts and my mind calls out to me.
You, my fellow sufferers, and all you heirs and honored readers, know very well the tortures of a dictatorial system, because you have your loved ones full of spiritual and physical wounds. And these wounds of ours have caused wounds to you as well. As much as I have been able to tell, forgive me (hallall). This much I remember and this much I am able to do.
“Seventeen years of communist prison resemble the hell you see in those sci-fi movies that you believe are unreal,” – we have truly endured them. Believe me!
-KICKING AND PUNCHING
-SLAMMING OF THE HEAD AND THE WHOLE BODY AGAINST WALLS
-BREAKING OF TEETH, FINGERS, RIBS, AND THE SPINE
-TEARING OF EARS
-HANDS AND FEET TIED WITH CHAINS
-STANDING FOR DAYS IN DUNGEONS FILLED WITH WATER
-PROVOCATIONS
-DEPRIVATION OF FOOD AND AIRING AND MANY OTHER TORTURES RELATED TO FILTH…!
The most horrific torture was when “those of the Party, while the men / fathers or brothers were serving their sentence in prison, would go to the houses of the prisoners and perform immoral scenes with the females of the house. Nevzat Haznedari was one of those who had gone to the house of one of the prisoners, had carried out an immoral act there with the prisoner’s wife and had told this later to the prisoner, who from the very first meeting he had with the wife, divorced…!
The day of freedom, that led me to prison
Even though I had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the communist dictatorial system was so lying, that even in its own decisions, it did something else! Just as I emphasized before, from the lists they put out for release, the big day comes when I see my name, Urim Elezi, and the day of release. The closer those days came, the more I felt the smell of freedom, but on the other hand, I was more than sure that I would not get away so easily. I say this because, just as they had done with others before me on the eve of release, they did the same with me.
In those last days, which were thought to be the last for me in prison and which in fact were not, the “sons of Mother Party,” there was no day that passed that they didn’t bring up my name to stain the name of my prison friends, whether to have me as a witness in court, or to do some of those things of theirs. I knew that I would pay for it and my fate was to choose the highest price, because I could not breathe in freedom if my friends were to suffer inside the prison because of my freedom. / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
