Dashnor Kaloçi
The third part
Memorie.al/publishes the unknown story of Ndue Marashi, former Chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana, member of the People’s Assembly and member of the Central Committee of the ALP, who on December 16, 1975, was found dead by a pistol bullet in one of the rooms of his villa (at the “Red School”), the circumstances of which have not been clarified even today after 45 years ?!
Rare testimony of his son, 62-year-old Xhovalin Marashi who has lived in Belgium for years, who testifies for the first time publicly, the whole unknown story of his father and the Marashi family, starting from: their origin, arrival in Tirana, work, education, graduation and career of Ndue first in Kamza and then in the Kashar cooperative, the Party Committee of the Region no. 4 and then as Chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana, where he served from 1973 until December 16, 1975, when Xhovalini and his younger brother, Vlash, found their bloodied father in the last minutes of life and the bus that we announced by phone, came after only 45 minutes ?!
Xhovalini’s story about the friendships that their father had with a part of the senior leadership such as: Beqir Balluku, Abdyl Këllezi, Fadil Paçrami and Myslym Peza, or others with lower positions and functions such as: Irakli Bozo, Abedin Çiçi, Mark Dodani, Hazbi Lamçe, Demlush Thaçi, Fadil Lamin, Halim Stërmasi, Ilir Gjylbegu, Panajot Pano, Fatmir Frashëri, Bert Jashari, Miti Dheodhosi etc.
How was the execution scheme of Ndue Marashi carried out, who were the people who attacked him in the Politburo and those whom the State Security committed to his physical elimination and why his son, Xovalini, rules out that it was done with the knowledge of Enver Hoxha, who is said to be one of the people who loved Ndue very much and he together with Nexhmija and their son, Iliri, have done a lot for the Marashi family, starting from… ?!
After the publication of some articles by Memorie.al in the last two issues, regarding the story of the former Chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana, member of the Central Committee of the ALP and member of the People’s Assembly, Ndue Marashi, who for 45 years Earlier, at noon on December 16, 1975, he was found dead in one of the rooms of his villa, which is still located somewhere near the “Red School”, where according to the official version, given by the press release that was published the next day in the press, he had committed suicide, Memorie.al returns to this story.
This serious event, which did not go unnoticed even at the time it took place, as we refer to the official version, was the first time after many years that a suicide took place by a senior state official, (we have in mind, in in 1947 Nako Spiron, former Chairman of the State Planning Commission, who ‘de jure’, was the Prime Minister of the country and then in 1956, Omer Nishani, the President of Albania, or as he was called at the time, the Chairman of the Presidium of People’s Assembly), and according to communist morality, as well as the laws in force, suicide was considered a hostile act and the person who did so, especially when in office, was at best considered a “defeatist and capitulator”, otherwise was labeled as: “traitor and enemy of the people”!
Based on these, Ndue Marashi was not an exception from the communist regime of that time and all the accusations against him as “enemy of the people” etc. fell on him, and his family was expelled from Tirana and persecuted until the collapse of communist regime. Regarding this event and the mysteries, it still carries, it was written only after the ’90s and in 2018, a television documentary was made by the Albanian Public Radio-Television, where family members of Ndue Marashi, gave their related versions with that event.
Given the fact that on December 16, it was 45 years since the day Ndue Marashi lost his life in tragic circumstances and that event still remains shrouded in mystery, Memorie.al was contacted by Mr. Xhovalin Marashi, (Ndue Marashi’s eldest son), has been living with his family in Belgium for years, who after thanking our editorial staff for the articles published about his father, was also willing to give a long interview. and exclusive to Memorie.al, making public for the first time, many of the unknown sides of that story related to the name of Ndue Marashi and their family, an interview which we are publishing starting from this issue.
Followed by the last number
Mr. Xhovalin, before we went there, that is, to the problems and consequences that the communist regime had, your family, your relatives or neighbors, etc., I wanted to ask you, I was a maid, that is, the woman who worked for you, where she was. when did the event happen?
I would tell you myself without asking you about the maid (L.H.) who was assigned to our house, as she is one of the key persons of that event.
… Why?!
L.H. who has in fact been our maid and cook, was an employee who had come to work in our family, only those last three months, of course assigned by the relevant structures from which she depended, as the Directorate of Government Services , Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc., for which I am not sure exactly who it depended on. But it is already known (but even then, before the ’90s) that some of these people were doubly dependent, or rather were under the control of the State Security. Understand, not all, as it is known and the other fact, that many of them were and remained loyal to the end of the families where they worked, and were even convicted along with the families that were hit at that time as “enemies of the people” etc. To this person who worked in our home, we as a family, but also with other people, competent or with a lot of information about the mechanisms of how that system worked then, we talked long, mainly after the 90s and we have many doubts about the main role she has played in our home.
Specifically, where do the first doubts fall…?!
The first suspicions about him fall for the fact that it did not happen in our house, exactly on the day that the event happened with our father, that is, when he was found dead with a pistol bullet!
Where was she that day and why was she not at home?
The first thing I want to tell you and that is the most important, according to the rules of work that had the employees of the service of senior officials of that time, (as was our father, Nduja), they should never go out from home during working hours, without permission or without notice (orally or by phone), to one of the family members, to whom he had to explain the reason why he was leaving and the place, or destination, where and for what he was leaving . This was one of the first rules that those of service personnel should not violate in any way, which was done for reasons of security of senior staff where they served, as it was presumed that foreign agencies, (as it was said at the time) ), could be compromised to extract secrets from the families where they served, or even to eliminate them physically, with slow-acting poisons, etc., etc.
Returning to the question, I was asked above, so where was the maid at those moments when the event took place in your house?
According to her, when we asked her when the event happened, she said that she was somewhere in the New Bazaar, at “Avni Rustemi” Square, buying cigarettes for our father, Nduen. But this fact surprised us, as the father not only did not smoke, but never sent the maid to buy anything he might need! Even the rest of the family was forbidden to do this, and there was no question of anyone coming to us to charge the maid with such things. But let’s get to the answer, or rather to her justification that: ‘he had gone out to buy cigarettes’, which he immediately changed, when he saw the surprise we expressed, saying: ‘He had gone out to buy bread’! So, gave two versions!
Without wanting to doubt all these facts or conclusions that you draw, her non-occurrence at home in those moments when the event occurred, may have been simply a fatal coincidence and the possibility that it may have arisen for any her personal work, without thinking that what actually happened would happen ?!
I agree with what you say, but the possibility cannot be ruled out, as what I am telling you is a well-known fact that: before she came to us as a maid, she was on duty, so she worked at the house of the Minister of Internal Affairs of that time, Kadri Hazbiu, and before Kadri Hazbiu, was the service of the house of Beqir Balluku, whom our father, Nduja, as I told you, had one of the close friends and the fate of Balluku is already known that how did it end ?! But what is most important, that is, about the doubts we have about her leading role in our house, where as I said, (I repeat, that she came to us only the last three months), has been the fact that she was also known as a loyal man of Kadri Hazbi, which was known to many at the time.
Did your family know?
Yes, of course, as our mother told us, they were aware of this. But it was not very difficult to understand, because at that time it was known that: almost most of the service personnel of the high leadership nomenclature of that time, (such as drivers, cleaners, cooks, washers, drivers, gardeners, etc.), was used by the State Security, for the persons to be hit.
What about after the ’90s, did you attempt to meet this person who was on duty at your home?
We sent a man to meet her, but she understood and refused at all to communicate with the man we sent her. Also, a few years ago, a journalist colleague of yours (I am not saying her name, as anyone can find out, that this is published in the press), tried and met her, but when she told him why he had gone, she threaten, telling her: ‘if she did not leave that second, she would call the police’. After that he left and this job was closed there to never be reopened, at least by us as a family, despite the journalist going and meeting him on his own initiative. But the suspicions of our family do not fall only on this person I spoke to you above, as there were others.
On whom…?!
One of them was the father’s driver, (Ç.K. originally from Korça), about whom we have many doubts!
Specifically, about what, can you tell us?
Before I tell you about this, I want to explain the most important thing, the fact that our house, the villa where we lived (former villa of Vangjel Manushi, a big trader from Durrës), had long been monitored by the Security of State, night and day.
How did you know this, did you have information at that time, or did you learn it after the ’90s, from different people?
No no, we have known this since then and this was learned quite by chance from our father, as one of the State Security spoke to one of our men, in the form of boasting, without knowing that that man had a connection blood with our family. In general, those of the State Security, as it is known, did not speak, but there were some delirious of them, who boasted that there were many of them who wanted to brag and to appear to be of the State Security, spoke or they moved the jacket so that it looked like a pistol, etc.
Can you tell us more specifically how this happened, so who spoke and who was the man who told your family, or your father, as you explained?
I’m definitely telling you, because I do not have to keep any secrets. It was Xheladin Çoku, (the son of our mother’s aunt, Francesca), who at that time was working as the driver of the Romanian ambassador, who had told our father, Ndues, that one day when he was coming to meet his father, (after they were also childhood friends with Nduen), accidentally met a friend of his from the State Security and asked him what he was doing there, that is, on a street somewhere near our house. And the one of the Security, with the greatest calmness, said to him: “Here we are guarding this” Turkey “, waving his head towards our house. Xhela was surprised and without answering him, he came directly to our house where he had left, I tell my father in detail that thing.
Nduja reacted after that, so he said something, Xhela?
According to what my mother Francesca told us, years later, (I mean when my brother Luli and I were in Tapiza, already grown up and my mother trusted us not to talk outside the house), evenings in our solitude, we often remembered and analyzed that event. So, when my mother told us about this event with Xhela, she told us that her father had answered her in a low voice: “Yes, there is no problem, we are all under observation…”! So, as the mother said, not that the father was not shocked, but he had tried to restrain himself, that is, not to give himself in front of his cousin, and those words, he had said more to calm him, that is, Xhela, than himself. I told you this, to tell you that the event of December 16, 1975, was not a coincidence, because based on the analysis and facts that we have and have discussed years later, “soup”, for our father, had time that was being prepared…!
Going back to the question I asked a little above, the other man who worked with your father, the driver as you said?
Even with the driver (Ç.K.) we have many doubts. I do not want to accuse him, but I cannot remove the doubts, because after that event, he never came to meet us again!? It is understood that we were away from Tirana and as a family of “enemy of the people”, he initially did not find it easy to do so. But later, he could also meet us secretly, (since we were coming to Tirana, because in Tapiza we were not interned, but expelled from Tirana), or he could send us words with a safe person, not to tell us anything, but comfort us! Didn’t he do that even after the ’90s? Do I take the opportunity through this interview, that if he is still alive, to contact us, or to find any opportunity to speak publicly, about what he knows but does not know about our father’s event? Let this call of mine serve only the truth, nothing else. So that he feels clean, after that!
Apart from the ones you just expressed, were there any other events that you suspect are a continuation or part of these?
Yes, there was. Just two weeks before this event, our mother, Francesca, while she was finishing work (at Kindergarten No. 49, where she was the director), and was walking home, was suddenly and ironically hit by two people with an iron and fell to the ground unconscious. This blow was not accidental, but neither was it for robbery, as the two people ran away and did not try to take the bag that fell from their mother dora! After that, my mother was taken to the hospital in a very serious condition. But fortunately, she escaped with that wound on her head and after a few days, when she came out of the hospital (according to what she told us), father Nduja, said: “They have nothing to do with you, it is a warning to me…”! /Memorie.al
Continues tomorrow
