By Nafi Çegrani / former UDB official
Part Three
Memorie.al / Immediately after World War II, by order of Josif Broz Tito, the so-called OZN (Organ Zastite Naroda) was formed on May 13, 1944, and a year later, the VOS (Vojna Obavestajna Sluzba ‘JNA’) Military Intelligence Service of the Yugoslav People’s Army. By the end of 1946, these services were reformed and merged, forming the UDB and KOS, (Uprava Drzavne Bezbednosti) State Security Directorate and (Kontra obavestajna Sluzba) Yugoslav Counterintelligence Service, which was subordinate to the Command of the General Staff of the Army, which were led by Aleksandar Ranković, nicknamed “Leka” and Slobodan Penezić, nicknamed “Kercun”.
Continued from the previous issue
In my opinion, this secret anti-Albanian policy has also been very dangerous for all emigration across the ocean. In the USA, several Albanian emigrant organizations operated, such as “Vatra” in Boston, the “Free Albania” Committee in New York, and other organizations such as; “Legaliteti”, “Balli Kombëtar”, the Agrarian Party, the “Prizren League”, the Rural Party, the “Kosovo League”, the American-Albanian Youth Party, etc…!
Antagonisms in the ranks of Albanian emigration have always been great, especially among the leaders of various organizations, not only in America, but also in other countries of Western Europe. Even in Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, these antagonisms and quarrels of individuals and groups, the UDB has followed with special attention and has known perfectly how to incite quarrels between them….!
In the spring of 1953, Abaz Ermenji’s brother physically attacked Abaz Kupi, later Kupi wounded Ermenji with a revolver. The UDB tried to make good use of this opportunity, slandering and intriguing through its informants, so that these “settlements” would end in murder, but fortunately, their operation, coded in those years and called “Storm”, was not successful. Adem Selim Gllavica, on instructions from the UDB, tried to take advantage of the conflicts of the Kosovar currents in Australia, together with two other Kosovars, but they did not achieve their goal, because the Committee there put up strong resistance.
Meanwhile, Halit Bajrami, former head of the Counterintelligence Service in the Korça division, who in 1951, as a fugitive in Greece, on the instructions of the UDB, was transferred to New Zealand, and after many years, has expressed the desire to come to Yugoslavia. Tajar Zavalani, who translated the novel “Anna Karenina”, was for some time engaged by the KGB, and even worked in London as an agent of the English Intelligence Service ‘M6’, while Hasan Dosti, on the contrary, as an agent of ‘M6’, also worked for the CIA.
Muharrem Bajraktari, through the Yugoslav embassy in Paris, France, requested an armed division to overthrow the regime of Enver Hoxha. Halit Shehu, under the pseudonym “Bukoviku”, collaborated with the head of the SDB in Skopje, Nikola Ilievski, who visited him on a specific mission in America. Olloman Sela tried to sit on two chairs, both with the Enverist State Security and with the UDB….!
Nuhi Vinca from Struga, all the letters he sent to the Albanian immigrant Mentor Çoku in Rome, they were previously photocopied in the UDB offices, for these and other services, the head Jordan Spasovski, helped Nuhi, during the time of differentiation and demonstrations of 1968. For Mentor Çoku and several others in Rome, the UDB had fabricated quite voluminous files over time, as well as for Emest Kolic, Haznedari, Imer Koçi, etc…!
Nikola Ilievski, having experience with some “loyal” people from Struga and Ohrid, Manastir and Prilep, Dibra and Kicevo, Gostivar and Tetovo, up to Skopje and Kumanovo, and further in the internal official exchange of information with special and relevant values, also maintained with the SDB (UDB) for Kosovo.
Thus, these services, acting with specific methods and thanks to deep conspiracy, many Albanians of the category of Bexhet Bexhet, Saqip Kollari, Hajrush Toska, Bedri Sinani, Edip Marku and up to Selim Brosha and Muharrem Dana in Prishtina, managed several times to send their “operational connections” and engaged informants, up to New York and Paterson, even to Chicago, to Aurora, making observations on Hafiz Jusuf Azemi, Luan Gashi, Ajet Rushiti and the “Kosovo League”.
(After my return from America, the SDB tried in every way to send the old man Rexhep Zajazi, whom I had known as a friend, to Chicago with certain tasks. The instructions were given personally by Nikola Ilievski, a broken fossil, but the old man from Kicevo, wise and brave, being also the parent of educated sons, before leaving for America, he consulted with me in my apartment in Skopje, in the summer of 1977, where after long talks, as he knew me as an Albanian, I told him to leave that anti-Albanian network, despite the threats and provocations they made to him, and to remain with dignity as a man he had).
And so Rexhep Zajazi did, after going to Chicago and returning to Yugoslavia, without giving any “valuable information” to the SDB in Skopje, until his death he remained a man with all the features of a true Albanian patriot. He was brave and I remember him with special respect. Having confidence, he told me everything he had reported to the UDB and the orders as directives that they had given him, that in no case should he tell me about these “official matters” and definitely leave and not contact me, because I, after having left that Service without their permission, and my departure, escaping and emigrating to America, was a “dangerous target” and that from the USA, I had returned with “instructions” from the American CIA and the leaders of the Albanian emigration…!
I also remember another interesting thing, regarding Nikolla Ilievski, who when he went to America to “find my traces and connections” there, was received by Halit Shehu – Zajazi. His goal was to find out if I was connected to the leaders of the Albanian emigration and the CIA, because I also had my two brothers there; Irfan and Sulejman, and my going to America, had certainly disrupted the plans and operations of the Yugoslav secret services of the SDB and the KOS, like a heavy blow.
(Halit Shehu, putting him in a treacherous position in its network, the SDB in Skopje had fabricated a voluminous file for him, coded with the code “Bukovik”. Because, during those years, while he was in Germany on business, and at the same time, he often maintained “contacts” with Nexhat Golija in Essen, since then, a trap was prepared for Halit and he came into an armed clash with the German police in Düsseldorf…!)
This case, as a trigger, was perfidiously used by the SDB of Macedonia, putting Halit in the network of operations. And so, keeping Nazif Bajrami in “contact”, and even the “Albanian James Bond”, – became victims of Nikola Ilievski and the SDB. Nikola Ilievski visited (after my return from America) Halit in New York, staying for a few days as his guest. When Ilievski entered the living room of Halit’s apartment on the first day, he asked: “What are we sitting here for?” (Where will I sit?) “Tuka…na čelo! (Here at the top of the place), indicating the place to Halit with his hand.
“Tuka, ispod slikata na Skanderbeg”! (Here, under the portrait of Skanderbeg), – said Halit and both parties laughed with satisfaction. Udbashi Nikola Ilievski, is deeply interested in the activities of the leaders of the Albanian emigration in America, being interested at the same time in my (Nafi Çegranit) “movements”, in my “contacts” with prominent personalities of the emigration, during my stay in America, etc. When Halit Shehu came to visit me in Çegranit, after my release from prison) I took out an “izveshtaj” (report) of the SDB, written in Macedonian Cyrillic, and I asked him if he knew how to read Cyrillic.
Halit paled in the face and, after reading his own name and Nikola Ilievski’s, as if in confidence said: “Please, you and God! I admit that I waited for Ilievski in New York, but I didn’t know anything about you. He asked me a lot about you, but I didn’t know you in America, only the name that I had heard. It is possible that UDB and ‘Ko1ja’ deceived me”! I was reminded of the hypocrisy and wickedness of UDB members, like Nikola Ilievski.
I was reminded of the so-called; “Method of compromise”, which was widely used by the UDB (SDB) with Albanians and to the detriment of Albanians. This is just one example with Halit Shehu-(Zajazi) as the son of Mefail Zajazi, whom history knows, thus developing a devilish activity.
– GAFUR BILALI from Çegran, who enjoyed an authority as the son of Uncle Kaloshi, a ballistic family, in 1962-’66, the UDB of Gostivar “recruited” him as a registered collaborator in Germany, where Gafuri was working. The two operatives, Urosh Miloshevski and Gafur Mehmeti, gave him certain tasks to inform on Xhafer Deva, Hysen Terpeze, etc., with who he appeared in photographs in Munich and brought all of them to the UDB.
When I met Gafur in Çegran once, since I had him as a fellow villager and, aiming to get him away from that secret “engagement”, I said to him; “Gafur, I have read all your reports from Germany, I even have the photos you took there with Xhafer Deva, Hysen Terpeze, you and a few others, but what do you need that job for? You are a bastard, don’t mess with the UDB”! Gafur blushed a little, even turned pale.
Perhaps he was surprised that I knew such secret things, and he said: “They deceived me, they told me that no one, no one in life could know these things, or find out about them! Now I understand how much Uroshi and Memedi from Negotino lied to me” – and he left, sighing.
– MYRVET MUÇA, in the summer of 1972, wrote a letter from America to the Republican Deputy Secretary for the PB, at the UDB Ministry in Skopje, Fehmi Muçës, stating that they are “relatives” with “tribal ties” from Dibra, so he requested that they exchange letters on the New York-Skopje line and vice versa.
“They exchange opinions and get along because they also have the same surname – MUÇA –! But, Fehmiu, as a man with experience and a seasoned communist in the Central Committee of Angel Çemerik, handed over the letters of Myrvet Muça, sent from America, to the SDB sector, where I read them with curiosity, as an analyst of the operations for Albanian emigration issues, since they were identified with special numbers.
I made photocopies of some and acquired them in my archive as important documents, which I still keep today. (With particular curiosity I also read the personal file of Marvet Muça, which the UDB had fabricated in the years 1956-1960, when he had escaped from Albania to Skopje. During those years he had been imprisoned and had gone through the hell of “Idrizovo”. Majde, went to Austria and since 1962, emigrated in America. The UDB also followed him there and kept him under surveillance.
I am still surprised today why it is so much longing and nostalgia, or disappointment, that this humble man would write letters to Fehmi Muça?! And the latter, justifying he before the UDB, in his official report, says: “I do not know this Myrvet Muça at all, nor do I have any relatives in America! The SDB, let him be aware of this”, says the Republican Deputy Secretary of this ministry, Femi Muça, in the official report to the SDB.
But, when we are talking about Albanians in America and the actions of the UDB among them, we must say that their agents have committed sins by inciting strife and defaming several groups of Albanian economic immigrants, especially in Paterson, New Jersey. Olloman Sela and some others have been involved in the work of “fakirs” who have sold out, creating a bone of contention also about the construction of the mosque and the activity of the organization or the devout patriotic commitment of intellectuals in the ranks of the Albanian Joint Fund, such as Nazmi Demishau and his friends.
The UDB had its own cronies among them, and as a resident of the combinations and network of agents in Skopje and Belgrade, to collect operational information, was Dragan Terziovski, several other Albanians also had connections with him, especially those who lived and worked in Paterson, New Jersey, Kenerick, New York, etc.
NEXHAT GOLIJA, an emigrant from Albania to Essen, Germany, was engaged by the Yugoslav SDB for years as a spy, in the agent network for the “operative” processing of Albanians from Tetovo, Gostivar, Dibra, Struga, Kicevo and Kumanovo, and especially for the interests of the SDB of Macedonia.
He spied on Imer Imer and some others from Çegran, who in the years 1969-’78, were in Essen, Germany. On the other hand, Imer Imeri also collaborated with Nexhat Golija, for personal interests. Nexhat Golija lied to the Albanians of Gostivar and Tetovo, telling them that he was supposedly Nexhat AGOLLI and that he helped the needy Kurbetçi, for various jobs and services, such as “fixing” a document in the German police, he would receive a “reward” for this, from 200-1000, or from 1500 to 3000 marks, depending on the importance of the document.
He also had his own network of collaborators from Çegran, Gostivar, Dibra and Tetovo, who sold guarantees for work, forms that Golija received for free from the German authorities. Thus, he sold a guarantee in the villages of Polog, from 2000-3000 German marks. Nexhat Golija shared part of the money earned from the tricks with the chief of police in Gostivar, Trife Matevski and his deputy Živko Mitevski.
Nexhat Golija also had a sister in Tetovo, named Ajshe, while his niece, Suzana Kaba, worked as an announcer on TV in Skopje, in the Albanian language program, who chose a Macedonian as her husband. Nexhat Golija was an informant for the SDB in Skopje and Dibër, with the nickname “Çupi”, probably because he limped on one leg.
Many letters and other documents, which he received from “Doctor” (with whom he had a close friendship in Esen), he delivered to the Yugoslav SDB, through the “operational connection”, in Dibër and Gostivar, but on the other hand, even the letters he sent home, his wife, Emrie Koçi, delivered to the head of the SDB in Gostivar, Urosh Mlloshevski. Golija’s direct connection with Trife Matevski was maintained by several people from Çegran and some villages in Gostivar and Tetovo.
But, all these were people who looked around and went wherever the wind blew, they were completely uneducated and had neither a shadow nor roots, as the people say, and therefore they served the clan and the mafia brigade of the militia of that time, not only in Gostivar, but also beyond. Such corrupt contacts and with the mafia phalanx, some of my cousins, with commander Zdravko, with whom they had even “brotherly” ties, since the time when they were together in military service with him!
Or, another, like the investigative judge for Macedonia Slobodan Davidovski from Volkovo, they kept as a housemate in the middle of Čegran and fed him with roasted lambs…! The same thing happened with Zhivko Mitevski, later with Themelko Boshkovski, an Albanian “intellectual” (physical education teacher) who often invited this ominous man to lunch, serving him roasted meat and grape wine in the garden, in the courtyard of the house.
There are many other examples, which were the result of the Albanians’ disappointment with the slogan “Unity and Brotherhood”…! But, even in holding such gatherings, the SJB officials and the Macedonian militia had scope in time and space to provide some valuable information for the Service…! And, the saga of the Albanian tragedy, alas, is still continuing, in the devil’s footsteps! Memorie.al
