By GJon Mark Ndoj
The first part
Memorie.al / Gjon Mark Ndoj were born in Orosh of Mirdita, in 1928. He continued his secondary schooling at the gymnasium of Shkodra. He was arrested on June 14, 1946, accused of being an “opponent of popular power”, when he was serving as a teacher in Rrëshen. After a few months, where the investigator was tortured inhumanely, he was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment, which he mostly served in Burrell prison. During this period, John Mark Ndoi wrote stories and poems as well as a poetic poem. Unfortunately, this author did not see the light of publication because his manuscripts were seized during frequent checks in Burrel prison, but they could be read by the fellow sufferers of that time, such as: Gjergj Kokoshi, Arshi Pipa, Father Pjetër Meshkalla, etc. He has published books of stories and novels, such as “Cardinal Ahuni” and “Punishment of Innocence”
FRAGMENT FROM THE BOOK “THE PUNISHMENT OF INNOCENCE”
…The sun had set across Tarabosh. From the south, next to it, the Cement Factory emitted plumes of smoke and the lake with its bright surface gently rippled, causing a rustling sound like a slightly tiring, but satisfying, sound.
It seemed that the spirit was guiding and directing them that, without speaking or expressing an opinion, they had arrived there in one mind and desire. Strangely, they looked into each other’s eyes. And that look stopped them, seduced them and then sucked them in, to make them feel familiar.
Weaker at this moment because he was tired, Pjerini hung his head and leaned on the girl’s chest. There was an uncontrollable twitching or reaction, but the head rested on the chest without giving any other signs of life after breathing, not frequent but soft and few. Bina, due me confessed to you.
Listen, don’t interrupt me… don’t talk to me…! This voice seemed to her to be Pjerini’s, but it seemed distant to her, as if it were an image of him. I did a bad job…not that I did it…but I was used…as a tool and tool they thought, and they were right that I was fit to fulfill it. And I did it.
Zani and the expressions now did not stop like a duf that does not hold back…! I and two friends, we were ordered, put our weapons under the lter. He rested for a moment… Fretnit has no day, they have no fault or finger in this matter. Not that they hurt me, but what I felt was too much. Albina was become wood. Could a ghost do this to a man?! Slope, her Slope!
He jerked his head away with a voice that trembled with anger, but don’t tell anyone, it eats my head. Chief, the repetition of this word was accompanied by an evil laugh. Without a word, they left and came back.
Without speaking, they walk almost mechanically. Dusk was falling. The lights were on in the bazaar. The contours of the castle looked like an unclear drawing. The few people were returning to the city from the bazaar.
When they got to the causeway, an empty truck was approaching. Pjerini stopped him and they got on. Horseshoes sounded on the asphalt with an even rhythm, evocative, dreamy, and peaceful. Deep in his soul with a childhood longing, he leaned on Albina’s side. Heavy weight seemed to her.
But the carriage swayed slightly, the horseshoes that in the stillness of the night that was stretching everywhere softening krak-kruk-krakkruk, hundreds of lights that twinkled in the city and the stars in the sky, only the bright ones stood out.
It must have been close to 4 in the afternoon when there was a knock on the door. Pina, you thought it was Pjerini, did not interrupt the work he had in hand. The door slammed again. These were not Pjerini’s or Vik’s knocks.
Now he hurriedly got out and opened the door. An unknown man took a step back as they told me he didn’t want to go inside and looked at the things and asked: is this Pjerin Kini’s house? Pina nodded.
Looking towards the alley, he said: – I come from the Defense Section, they told him not to wait for Pjerin. – Why, what happened to him? – she interrupted. – Nothing, nothing, but he went with the service and may not return for three or four days. Three – four days… nana barely uttered.
But without prolonging it, the stranger barely heard her, he said goodbye. It wasn’t that Pjerini was on duty, but I was afraid that the family worried about his absence would raise the alarm; and they needed a week, at least, not to know anything.
A very secret order had arrived addressed only to the president and the vice president to arrest Pjerini and the two assistants who had carried out the operation. The reason should not be mentioned, not even suspected. Simply first for disciplinary measure, a mistake defamed, then, gradually, stronger measures and careful actions.
Above all, the order: none of them should know about their husband and isolate themselves in different places, unable to communicate. They separated them like that, because Shkodra had enough prisons then, they isolated them, they gave you some reason to justify the arrest.
The main care was given to Pjerini. After five days in this ambiguous state, where although not flawed and without imagination, no one was understanding the situation and the real reason why they had been isolated. But if they expected now that they would open the door and let them go free, the measures were getting tougher and the behavior towards them was getting worse.
Everyone looked at the situation in their own way, they had a hard time getting closer to the truth. Besides that, Pjerini extended the ray of doubt to me openly, to me, and anger not only of his nature, but also of reason, was clouding his thoughts.
What was wrong? Or as an intelligent and newly familiar with the actions of the Security, because he was still a novice (about 5-6 months in the Security), he called it more appropriate to ask his mind what they wanted with me. There was nothing that could interfere with the task, but this “nothing” was more annoying than it could turn into “many” or “everything”.
In his insistence, of the request as to why this measure was taken, he was told: you are violating the state secret. By not telling him that you leaked the secret, that this constituted guilt, this without definition clouded meaning or conjecture. Digging patiently and persistently, they took out any object or object that could cause a remark or rebuke, but the assessee was guilty and punished.
They connected them as they knew, between the three it ended in work and action, which had to be answered for. Pjerini seems to have smelled something, so he waited, that this game would come out somewhere.
It took about ten days to knit and weave guilt, collected and tied in one axis: sometimes soft activities, giving in to the enemy and sometimes exceeding the order in severity, without need. It was a hodge-podge of mundane connections and entanglements that were magnified as great guilt. Lini and Gjovalini, two non-commissioned officers, had been more involved in actions, arrest campaigns and surveillance.
They had never been investigators and finding themselves under their constant pressure, for more than a week, they were confused and did not know the difference in the processes that formed that they were guilty, but to what extent and consciously, how , why and other considerations, these were neither taken into account, nor were they worth the intention of the goal.
Three or four officers from Tirana, headed by a civilian, had arrived from midnight. Little by little he, with his shadow-like presence, in the main offices forced a rule and measured movements, above all, if not silence, conversations, orders and careful fairies.
This civilian got to work and put the finishing touches on closing the game that had been a concern for over 10 days. – Have you asked the effective section, colleagues, people who have served and worked with them, from time to time? – The Commander of the Section, who was asked this question, answered with; nooo long.
– We left him now; he got up and started walking to the office with short turns, because the office was narrow. The other one went out and after a while came back with a civilian. I’m an operative, he introduced himself. The civilian looked him straight in the eye, where he met a measured courage. He did not remember any guilty gesture, word or action.
– You can go – ordered the civilian, tell the other. And so it continued with all the officials, the officers who were there in command. While they were scrambling to find some fact or proof that even if they were obtained or slandered, they had a reliable probability, but far from the goal they wanted to accomplish, they were interrupted by a knock on the door.
After the chairman said a usual “come in”, enter an aspirant who then closed your door without the civilian, his mouth was speechless about what had happened and they told the Chairman. The civilian in the fever of work intervene: friend, do you have any information, compromise for the three arrested, effective of your section? The aspirant was momentarily surprised by this intervention that he did not even expect, it was not preparation.
– Yes, I said something about Pjerini…!
They gave you a civil heart: – And Pjerini showed kindness to a friend in one case. He spoke and looked at one another and his unattractive face expressed uncertainty and shyness. And… repeated the civilian. This time the mayor intervened: I think it was not worth it, it was said that in one case he intervened more gently…!
You rested a little, he added: you even freed a cleric from coercive measures (he didn’t say torture), but not from the main ones, on the pretext that he enjoys respect, as virtuous. The aspirant came to you and asked: – What is your name? – Fra Anton, he answered, and as he began to give details, the civilian interrupted him:
– We don’t need details. Let it be noted where required. And, under sound, the chairman: In court, nothing about them. It was about Claire.
* * *
The hall, which was chosen to hold the trial, was on the first floor of the old school of the old boys, where the Section of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was located. It had served as a canteen and a theater or meeting hall. The only three windows, which were on one side, were not illuminating the place enough, because the light was lacking and the sky was cloudy.
There were people who were invited to participate, the wives of the officers of the effective section and at the end three-four wives of the families of the prisoners. Curiosity was strong, and this made the conversation difficult. However, a whisper, like the flight of a wasp, broke the silence.
There was a movement, when the three prisoners arrived, he saw them, but only a moment before he sat down on the first bench, surrounded by soldiers, his gaze was difficult to distinguish in detail. Pjerini, between the two young and strong soldiers, was in charge, separated from his two companions.
A few seconds, as they had time to put the prisoners in their seats, three or four officers, the jury, entered. The people were taken to the stands, and as soon as the judges took their place at the head of the hall, they sat down without a sound.
The usual procedure began. A lot of words, most of them he either didn’t understand or he couldn’t connect them, because they were short questions and he answered them as well, many in a low voice. Those who were towards the end, even though they heard some words or expressions, could not relate it to drawing out an opinion not their own, but what was said.
It seemed that they were in a hurry to rule out the development they wanted, as a formality. The prosecutor got up from time to time, you intervened to cut him off or attack Pjerini. Mostly his name was cursed and attacked. But this worried the Head of the Section that, as he thought, they were “stifling the bees with cranes” and this was a farce.
However now had neither to restrain them nor to tame them. The process followed its own course. The witnesses – called the chairman. Again, the head of the Section was bluffing with himself, this in its own way was only damning and irritating.
The aspirant was speaking who accused Pjerini of being soft and compromising with the enemy, how was that cleric, i.e. Fra Antoni, who not only took away the suffering of the punishment, because he was willing to help his fellow enemies, but also released him.
The president was eating himself by interrupting this situation and, what he told him, was in danger of happening. Pjerini was answering: – No one could stop and punish that man. Not only has he never done anything wrong in his life, but he is known by Shkodran people as good and goodness itself.
The President felt a little heartbroken. The prosecutor intervened with harsh words and attacks, and it was too late when the mayor signaled to stop it. Pjerini was taken. He was pale and his nostrils quivered. He raised his hand to wipe the beads of sweat on his forehead slowly, but with a clear and beautiful high voice:
– That tenderness, which you say I have shown, is a drop in the sea of negativity that I have towards the clergy, I am talking about Fretni of the Assembly of Gjujadoli. The jury, the hall was silent during the hearing.
The weapons that were discovered in the church were not taken by the friars, as was stated and they are being punished for this reason, but I put them in and he beat his chest with his right hand, with the help of these friends, stealthily also by the Section officer. , after the president and the vice president of the three people who had come from the Ministry of the Interior./Memorie.al
The next issue follows
