Dashnor Kaloçi
Part forty-three
Memorie.al/publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (the fund of the former PPSh Central Committee), which belong to the year 1982, where there is a file with relations, reports, instructions, information, letters, minutes of meetings of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, etc., regarding the “hostile activity” of the member of the Political Bureau and the Minister of People’s Defense, Kadri Hazbiu, as well as some of his closest collaborators, such as : Feçor Shehu, Mihallaq Ziçishti, Llambi Peçini, Zoi Themeli, etc., who were accused by Enver Hoxha, as “the main collaborators of the police agent Mehmet Shehu”. In the file in question, there is also a document with Kadri Hazbi’s self-criticism, dated September 27, 1982, sent to Enver Hoxha and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, regarding “his poor work at the head of the Ministry of of Internal Affairs and the lack of vigilance, for not detecting hostile groups, all of which the party and Comrade Enver had discovered”. In this document, the former head of the Ministry of the Interior writes: “From the beginning of September, when I was getting my hair cut, a driver who works with the transport lines abroad came to me and told me that, returning from abroad, the drivers they had spoken badly about my fate. I didn’t ask him what he had been told, but I told him to go and report it where it should be. He added in more detail that he had spoken to the companion who stays with me, which I ordered him to report. He told me that he had done this. I don’t know whether I told him about this case or not, friend Hekuran. After a few days when I returned from a 3-4 day service, my family told me for the first time that they are taking us on the phone and so on, in meetings they ask about you, where are you and how are you, because we have heard things not good, as if we have escaped as a family abroad, as if I have been dismissed from my position as Minister of Defense, etc. I told you that anyone who asks about us, you say we are fine and don’t engage in further conversation. I emphasize that these things have spread so much that even one of the workers who serves in my family left without expecting that something is happening with me and my family. All these things, I told my friend Ramiz, together with my opinion that there is not enough fight against these harmful slogans and that they are spreading from Tirana in the first place”. Likewise, the document in question also contains the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity of Kadri Hazbi” from the period after the war when he was in the position of Chief of Army Security, which has brought fierce debates, they all discussed, starting from: Adil Çarçani, Hekuran Isai, Simon Stefani, Manush Muftiu, Rita Marko, Prokop Murra, Photo Çami, Lenka Çuko, Pali Miska, Besnik Bekteshi, Muho Asllani and Llambi Gegprifti. Even the debates and strong tones in that meeting were not absent between Enver Hoxha and Kadri Hazbiu, which continued throughout the meeting, for several sessions. But for more about these, we know the document, which is published for the first time by Memorie.al
Continues from last issue
The document with the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity” of Kadri Hazbi was analyzed
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY TOP SECRET
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
RECORDS
OF THE MEETING OF THE POLITICAL BUREAU OF THE PPS CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON OCTOBER 8, 1982
Agenda:
- Discussion on the serious words of friend Kadri Hazbiu
- Approval of the report on transport to the plenum
All members of the Political Bureau are present at the meeting.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEETING
The meeting was opened and led by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the PPS, Comrade Enver Hoxha.
Discussion on the serious crimes of comrade Kadri Hazbiu.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: The activity of Koci Xoxes, led by Aleksandar Rankovic, was a Trotskyist method of work, since he, being in the service of the Yugoslavs, created false, forged cards for the leaders of the Party and the People, to then prepare their moral and physical elimination. “As I judge now, – says Kadriu in his self-criticism, (so as not to accuse him of being a Trotskyist) – among others, I was also influenced by the pressures of the enemies who surrounded me and whom I had as subordinates, such as Feçor Shehu , Llambi Peçini, Zoi Themeli, Mihallaq Ziçishti, as well as those who led me on the state operative path, such as Mehmet Shehu and Beqir Balluku, and together with them the Soviet advisers who had entered every sector of the Ministry of the Interior.
These, – Kadriu emphasizes, – sabotaged my back and on the other hand they put constant pressure on us for supposedly being careful not to fall into the Trotskyism of Yugoslav methods, in following and evaluating data that led to enemy suspicions, well camouflaged and in responsible places. This pressure was not only on me, but on all the people of the State Security”.
I am asking Comrade Kadri, why did he accept the pressure of these enemies, and why did he not follow the Party’s line, so that he would come to the Central Committee and explain these things to us?!
According to Kadriu’s point of view, it turns out that if we were to suspect any personality, who was engaged in hostile work, he did not want to be accused for the reason, as he says that we could fall into the Trotskyist methods of Koci Xoxes.
This thought is not a party thought, but on the contrary it extinguishes the class struggle and allows certain personalities to carry out work hostile to the Party, as it were. This is again a Trotskyist working method, even hostile to the Party and Socialism.
Therefore, it is an excuse and a wrong concept of Kadri and his associates, who had this opinion. But we ask Comrade Kadri, whether there were alerts about personalities who were engaged in hostile work and he didn’t tell them?!
COMRADE KADRI HAZBIU: Shall I answer you, Comrade Enver?!
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Yes.
COMRADE KADRI HAZBIU: No, I don’t know.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Then it is clear, leave it, you applied this Trotskyist method beautifully. You can come and tell me, who is a representative of the Party, that Beqir Balluku has wrong attitudes; you can go to Adili and tell him that Mehmeti is not right, you can also go to Ramiz, etc.
But you didn’t do that. We should be told this better late than never. I said a little above that we have put our finger in the documents of the Ministry of the Interior and by chance we see, for example, that Hulusi Spahiu testified to the investigator, in 1956, that he was one of the organizers of the Tirana Conference. He had previously spoken with Beqir Balluku, Kiço Njëla, Rrahman Përllaku, etc.
Now, let’s ask Comrade Kadri, were these statements for high Party and State personalities seen or hidden?! Why were they not seen, or rather why were they hidden?! It is possible that for such an important framework, in the moments that the Party and our country were going through after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and after the events in Poland and Hungary, you have not read these depositions in this situation?!
I do not believe this. So such a concept, not to dictate and not point out to the Party, the suspicious and hostile acts of a personality, is completely foreign to us.
This means, you let them act, as Beqir Balluku did, to create for them the cult of the individual in fact with this traitor, who was a member of the Bureau and Minister for so many years until the Party discovered and unmasked him and not State Security, not you as the Minister of the Interior, nor Mehmet Shehu, who was removed from us as a soldier and who maintained “close ties” with the army, not to serve the high interests of the Party and the People, but criminal plans of betrayal and chief agent of the imperialists and revisionists.
So letting they act at the head of the Party and the State, contrary to the laws and norms of this leadership, is not a Marxist but an anti-Marxist thought. In a letter you wrote to me 3-4 days ago, you told me that you remember that Teme Sejko testified for Panajot the Elder, that the latter once entered Albania illegally from Konispoli, accompanied by Temja himself. He came to Pashaliman and after leaving Teme Sejko, entered a house where there was a Soviet officer from the Vlora Base, and with him Arif Hasko.
We have been informed that Panajot Plaku has come to Albania, but what he did, if he met with major officers like Arif Haskoja, has not been reported to us even in the form of suspicion, as Comrade Kadri is now presenting to us in the letter. But even in 1973-1974, when the coup group was discovered, this matter was not raised against Arif Hasko and no criminal measures were taken against him, except that he was retired.
Here is another example of the application of the anti-Marxist concept, so as not to point out to the Party, the suspicious hostile acts of a personality, which you had made your norm, Kadri Hazbiu.
But we must say that as the facts are showing, it is not only a matter of concept, but a secret hostile activity behind the Party’s back. The very issue of Teme Sejko’s process is shrouded in mystery. In the “Synoptic Table of the Agent Activity of the Enemy Mehmet Shehu”, I explained that I am not clear about Teme Sejko’s plot, and what role Mehmet Shehu played in it.
We were told that this was a conspiracy, organized by US, Yugoslav, and Greek Intelligence, who were to coordinate with the US 6th Mediterranean Fleet. At the 4th Party Congress, we talked about this conspiracy. The Soviets pretended to be alarmed, even Gomulka proposed that we bring a commission from the ‘Warsaw Treaty’, which we rejected. What a masquerade!
In your letter, Kadri, you were quick to explain the whole problem of Teme Sejko to me, not forgetting to make some provocations. Indeed, this letter clarified my problem, but not in the direction you wanted. Now I have no more doubts and I am clear about what you are hiding, that this conspiracy of Teme Sejko was organized by the Soviet advisers, by Mehmet Shehu, by Beqir Balluku, and these two main ones, you don’t say in writing. Now I’m clarifying, I don’t question the existence of Teme Sejko as an agent of the Americans, the Yugoslavs, and the Greeks, nor their intentions.
But in those historical moments, there was no question of any Greek or Yugoslav intervention, and even more so of the 6th American Fleet, when the Soviet Fleet was in Pashaliman. Let’s not forget that they were in 1960, when with the Soviets, we were with bare swords.
They were feeling their end in Albania, and they feared the expulsion of their Navy from Vlora. We were preparing the attack at the meeting in Bucharest, as well as at the meeting of 81 Parties in Moscow. They threatened us in many ways and even, in a letter, told us to put out the spark in Bucharest.
But seeing our determination, they organized with their agency, Mehmet Shehu, Beqir Balluku, and company, the so-called Teme Sejko Plot, that supposedly our country would be attacked by the 6th American Fleet, supported by the Greeks and Yugoslavians. In short, the Soviets were telling us: “Don’t panic, because the attack is ready to destroy Albania, and you need us.”
This was the true version of Teme Sejko’s conspiracy that you, Kadri, did not reveal when you were the Minister of the Interior, and you did not reveal it now that the hostile activity of Mehmet Shehu was struck, but you filled the letter with dozens and dozens of words of the type: “as far as I remember” and, with various assumptions, even the fiction that I supposedly approved you and the gang that you listed in the paper, the strange and very dubious legend of Teme Sejko with the Soviet advisers, at one time that I was preparing the grave for the Soviet revisionists, when in Dajt, I was writing the report that I would hold at the meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in Moscow.
You wrote me in a letter that I called you to Dajt. This is not true. The truth is written in my diary, where it says: “Dajt, July 27, 1960. Beqiri and Kadrina came and reported to me about the case of Teme Sejko and his company.” So you did not come to me alone, nor did I call you. On July 28, you arrested Teme Sejko.
So your arrival in Dajt was aimed at obtaining the approval of Teme Sejko’s arrest, and not for the reason of some legend. In no page of my diary, throughout the year, there is no mention of any legend, that’s why I consider this variant, which you conspired with Mehmet Shehu, and Beqir Balluk, as a provocation of yours, and not with me or with the knowledge and my approval.
The legend about Teme Sejko’s plot is very similar to the legend concocted by the Titistas with Koci Xoxen and Beqir Balluku, that they were allegedly threatened by a Greek attack, and that therefore the Yugoslav divisions should come “to protect and save us”.
From all that we are analyzing, I draw the conclusion that Kadri Hazbiu has reservations. He who for many years has been in the Ministry of the Interior surrounded by these fierce enemies, how is it possible that he did not smell anything of their hostile and agent activity?!
In two or three letters, especially in a recent letter that you wrote to me, Kadri, you tell me that the Party and I have faith in you, because you have been and are loyal to the Party and to me. It seems to me that such statements may or may not be made.
It is better for the Party to judge, based on everyone’s work, than the loyalty of one and the other to the Party. Loyalty to the Party is loyalty to its norms; it is their meticulous application in a continuous and vigilant manner, as this is the only way to prove loyalty to the Party.
We have to tell Kadri that this trust from me and my friends has weakened a lot towards you. Therefore, you must give evidence, and work with great will, and walk all your life in the interest of the Party, since these serious mistakes you have made and the measures we will have to take, are an alarm signal for the enemies of who will try to harm the Party, if you are not convinced and clear about the mistakes you have made, and about the decisions that will be taken against you.
You have to take this issue very seriously and coolly, in no way do stupid things, but face life from scratch, and fight all those old family and tribal rubbish, or sick friends, out of sympathy that can circle around you, and encourage you to tell you that you have been wronged.
If you will act as I advise you, then you will deserve the hand that the Party will give you, and you will serve it as long as you live. But if you do the opposite, the Party will take severe measures, fearing no one. We will fanatically protect the interests of the Party and the country. Memorie.al
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