Ndoc Selimi
Memorie.al/ Albanian newspapers of December 17, 1975, gave a very sensational news: “The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tirana District, Ndue Marashi, had killed himself”. The way the media programs of that night continued, giving no importance to that unusual news, it was clear that the politics of Tirana and Albania, wanted to ignore the event, as well as to show the public that he killed them soon would be declared an enemy of the people.
The day before (16.12.1975), when the event took place, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana, Ndue Marashi returned from the office to home around 10 am, to prepare for a few days’ vacation in Vlora with his wife Francesca, after the latter had been hit in the head in a bandit manner in the dark, at the time he had left work by people who were never identified.
At 11 o’clock on December 16, 1975, a single gunshot was heard in the Mayor’s house, which was confirmed by the neighbors. After examining the circumstances of the event, as well as the police report, it turned out that the deceased was the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tirana district, Ndue Marashi, who with an internal communiqué issued by the then Prime Minister, Mehmet Shehu, It was publicly stated the next day, December 17, in a denigrating way that “the mayor of the villages of Tirana, has committed suicide”, continuing with the media, which reported that Ndue Marashi, killed himself with a work pistol, with a bullet only on the forehead ”. The statement was without comment, but simply as far as I know. Let us not forget that it was this Prime Minister who speaks hysterically against the personality of the northern Ndue Marashi, who 6 years later would try this luck on his own head.
At the time of the assassination of Tirana Executive Committee Chairman Ndue Marashi, no one was home; the wife would buy cigarettes for the husband of a hardware store at “Avni Rustemi Square”, for the next day’s trip, while the maid had left to “buy bread”, when the latter was not allowed to leave the house for a moment. Neighbors initially testified that they had seen two people at the door of the house, who left on a motorbike just after hearing the gunshot (who was carrying a motorbike at the time?), But later withdrew, saying they had not seen thing! As soon as Ndues’s wife, Francesca, returned home and heard the terrible news, she said, “You killed Ndues,” addressing investigators and State Security officials dealing with the circumstances of the murder. She never denied this statement, despite the pressure and threats that were made against her, neither before Feçor Shehu, nor in the investigator, nor in torture, nor in exile, and never until she passed away.
Ndue Marashi was born on the outskirts of Shkodra in 1933. His family had moved from Dushmani (Malagji neighborhood) and fell into the city, like many mountain families, to escape poverty and seek a better life. When Ndoja was not even six years old, in 1939, the family made the second move, this time in the direction of Tirana, in the neighborhood of Bami, which at that time was only a field of thorns and thistles, as well as part of the cemetery of city. In this neighborhood with brothers and sisters and in poverty, the number one future of Tirana, Ndue Marashi, rises. People and neighbors, such as: Kokonozt, Sheht, etc., speak the best words for this family, for the spirit of solidarity, for wisdom and integration in society. Little Nduja was intelligent by nature, but he could not continue school directly, as he was the eldest of the children, so he finds a job and from here he begins to be educated without interruption, for several years in a row. Directly from the production, you climbed the knowledge by finishing with excellent results the Agricultural school in the branch of Zootechnics. Skills only his; energy at work, leadership skills and above all his character, make that as soon as he graduated from the faculty, he was appointed director of the dormitories of the Kamza Institute and later became a lecturer at this institute.
Soon Ndue Marashi would be included in the governing nomenclature starting first as chairman of the Kashar joint cooperative. In this task he receives the honor of all the villagers by being side by side with them at work and at home, at weddings, joys and funerals. He knew how to gain respect like no other, where even today a resident of his time does not come out to say something bad about this cadre, on the contrary they remember him with reverence. He increased the results and income for labor and above all equalized the classes disregarding the biographies. Organizational potential and the ability to solve the problems of the people bring Ndue the first secretary of the party for Region No. 4 of Tirana, which subordinated all the villages. His name began to bend in the farthest corners of the circle and in the poorest hearths, bringing him confidence in solving the troubles and problems that people had. During these years, the advice given by the citizens and the villagers to each other was heard: “Go to Ndue Marashi, so that he can solve the problem”. Thus, the first secretary appoints a day in two weeks for a direct meeting with the people. His word was the sword and the sure solution to the problem. The work was yielding results and in 1970 he was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of Tirana. The difficulties come out of the chest, as the department had many shortcomings and bureaucracies that required urgent solutions. Again, people from Halle behind the door to meet with the mayor, and again one day in two weeks meeting with the people. It was during these years that people began to lose faith in the departments because of the excessive bureaucracy and irresponsibility of the cadres, because of their fear and inability to act independently and competently, and therefore the only one who could to help and solve their problems and help them, was the President himself.
In September 1973, I, the author of this article, also went to a meeting with Mayor Ndue Marashi, to resolve an injustice that the Housing Authority had done to our helicopter unit. As a curiosity, at this time the Executive Committee of Tirana was in the middle of the square in front of the Palace of Culture where the National Museum is today. “The friend of the helicopters has arrived,” the secretary told him. He stood up and shook my hand. “Where are you from,” he told me, looking at my northern name on the business card. (I remember that in these years there were very few northerners living in Tirana). “From Komani,” I replied with pride. “Oh yes, that village down on the banks of the Drin…”. So, we continued the conversation, as if we had forgotten why we were there.
I then explained to him that the Executive Committee had taken one more entrance to the building that the helicopter unit had set up, for its staff with a voluntary contribution, because out of 15 entrances it had to take two, while you took us three. He ordered the Chief of Urban Planning to come and told him directly in front of my eyes to return the apartment to this military institution. Herein lay his ability of the cadre, in the definitive solution of the problem. We parted promising me, that he would come to our ward to do a helicopter flight. And indeed, he came three days after our meeting, where he had a conversation with the staff, pilot and technician about the work in his department. Then we did a helicopter demonstration, but was not allowed to fly, despite his desire. He left, solving another major problem for us; bringing the drinking water network to our Farka helicopter ward.
The law of the “jungle” in our communist Albania, required to have only one capo, one “I” and anyone stronger, more knowledgeable, or braver, had to be eliminated. The fate of knowledge, ability and honesty, constituted a crime and the crime was punished. Fictitious figures in production, in 5-part realizations, in the “happy” life created by the party, in the prosperity of the country, etc. had taken on great proportions. Everyone lied from top to bottom, but no one believed them and everyone believed that they should be believed, otherwise punishment was present again. In the report presented by Manush Myftiu in a plenum led by the leader of the Party Enver Hoxha, he speaks with fictitious figures full of inaccuracies and lies, regarding the provision of bread in the country and obtaining a high yield in cereal products in the cooperative of Shëngjergji of Tirana district.
This fictitious report was opposed on the spot by the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Ndue Marashi, who tells him that these figures are not accurate and that this cooperative did not provide even half of the production mentioned in the report. Manush Myftiu, was not used to oppose one and in tone, he replies that: “The face should be flushed from the lie”, while the President defends his personality, saying: “I am honest and I do not know how to lie”. According to what was said, only the intervention of Enver Hoxha, calmed the situation.
This was the initiation in the form of a small fire, which would later burn down the whole house and immediately after this incident, Enver urgently asked for a meeting, who congratulated him for his honesty and courage and told him that “… keep it up , that you are on the right path. We have found the right man for Tirana… “. But it must be understood that this was the devilish tactic of the dictator, who before striking, gave a “sleeping dose”, a tactic that he had used with others and would use it until the end of his life.
It was difficult to “eat” our honest highlander with a very cunning and treacherous clan. Behind the scenes, a bulletin was prepared for internal use in the party, which was urgently distributed throughout all party organizations in Tirana, where the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tirana district, Ndue Marashi, was described as a “man of lunches and dinners”, that “He was like the idiot of Tirana, and even immoral”, preparing the ground for his end as a leader, as a politician and as a man. The wave of this extremely tense situation was followed by another serious and extraordinary event, which fell directly on the shoulders of the President.
In the Baldushk cooperative in Tirana, about 100 cows died from mercury poisoning and another accusation was immediately formulated against Ndue Marashi, as: “directly responsible for the work of the hostile group”. According to the investigator of the case at that time, Dilaver Bengasi, Manush Myftiu ordered the arrest of up to 100 people, but I, he says, arrested 8 people, two by shooting. But seen in the light of today’s facts, this was simply a primitive revenge against Ndues and this event is directly related to the State Security of the clans in leadership. It went so far as to say that: ‘the milking of the cows, Nadire Shima, and the stable worker, Selman Balla, had bad biographies, and for this the class struggle from the cadres to the high executive nomenclatures had not taken place. ‘.
But where did these miserable villagers get their livelihood and what kind of hostile group was it ?! Who was leading this hostile organization?! On this occasion, some people were convicted and shot, called at that time “with bad biographies”, but without even the slightest guilt and who were planned to get rid of, but the grain was elsewhere, it was in that man, who has said Ndue’s former close friend, Fadil Lame, that: “His watch worked on the side of human love.” After this event of Baldushk, begins the open war of the leading caste against Ndues, where the most potent of the country participated, such as Enver Hoxha, who says that: “The hostile work of this creator should be looked at”, as well as Mehmet Shehu, Kadri Hazbiu, Manush Myftiu etc.
To the very heavy, difficult and very stressful period that the Marashi family was going through, were added some anonymous letters initiated by Manush Myftiu himself, against Ndue Marashi. This did not lack the direct threat made by Mehmet Shehu at a dinner in honor of a foreign delegation, where as chairman, the Chairman of the Executive Committee had his place. Mehmet Shehu knocks on the glasses with those present and when it comes to Ndues, he threatens him: “We have little to do with you”.
From that day until today, 45 years have passed, when the 42-year-old, the man of human principles, the political-leading person, who had penetrated so deeply into the hearts of the people, misses his family, misses history, misses us contemporaries his and above all the truth of the event is missing.
Suicide or murder? This continues to be the dilemma posed for solution by wife Francesca, Ndue Marashi’s sons, family and the entire benevolent public. After the vicissitudes of internment and endless suffering for 16 years, these family members thought that the honor of their family member would be restored after the 90 ′, but that event remained under the ashes of oblivion and discrimination, even though several governments have come and gone. so far, this sad story has not been uncovered yet.
“We are not seeking revenge,” Francesca said, “but we want the truth to come out.” Suicide or murder is slowly disappearing into eternal silence, where he took with him to the grave that winter day of 1975, the highlander, the honest man, the supreme example of a cadre, the son of the Enemy Ndue Marashi. /Memorie.al
