Dashnor Kaloci
Memorie.al publishes the tragic story of seven boys from the capital who decided to flee Albania in September 1989 in the villages of Rrajcë-Skënderbe in Librazhd. From the murder of Kujtim Xhaja with 60 bullets and the one with the border dog that tore Ilir Serjani in the presence of the soldiers and the commander of the post, the whole event narrated by Vjollca Sula, the widow of Ylli Sula, the main protagonist of that group….
Seeing that there was no security for his life and he was frozen all the time that he could be arrested day by day, at the end of August 1989, Ylli decided to flee Albania. Along with him in the group that had decided to escape, were his younger brother, Agim and their nephew, as well as four other people that Ylli had close friends. With the exception of Ylli’s nephew, all other members of the group had been politically convicted and had suffered for decades in communist regime prisons. Their departure in the direction of Librazhd, where they would then take the road to the border in the village of Rrajcë, was made by our house on a morning in September 1989. As Ylli told me, around three o’clock at midnight they reached the clone and the moment they cut the wires with the safety pliers, Petro Pishtari touched his jacket on the power cord and was given an alarm. “Then they were found under the barrage of automatic weapons of the two border posts and the border dogs that were released in their direction.” The man who speaks and testifies for Memorie.al, is Vjollca Sula (Giçi) the widow of Ylli Sulë, the terrible tyrant who after suffering for eleven years in the prisons of the communist regime, in September 1989 together with six other friends , took the road to escape from Albania. But who was Ylli Sula and why was he convicted and re-convicted in the prisons of the communist regime where he had managed to escape once in 1978? Why did he decide to flee in September 1989 and who were the other six members of the group who took the road with him to the border wires in the villages of Librazhd. How were they dictated the moment they cut the clone wires and who was killed by them from the bullets of the border soldiers and dogs?
Escape plan
After taking advantage of two amnesties granted by Enver Hoxha’s communist regime to some political prisoners in 1982 and 1986, Ylli Sula was released from prison after serving more than eleven years as a political prisoner. After his release from prison, he was able to get a job at the foundry of the Tractor Plant “Enver Hoxha” in Tirana, where people who were considered reactionaries and were released from prisons were usually sent for “education”. In this regard, Ylli Sulë’s widow, Vjollca, testifies: “The time of Ylli’s release from prison in 1986, marks the recognition of our marriage. From the first meetings, Ylli told me about his difficult and adventurous life he had gone through in prisons. I told him to forget that time, but he did not find it easy because the State Security continued to pursue and monitor him even after his release from prison. At that time wherever we both went, we had a Security man following us every step of the way. As soon as we sat on a bench in the gardens of Lushnja where I lived, or in Tirana when I came to meet as fiancés that he was, he would tell me to turn my head back and show me the man who was following us. The star was very nervous about that and sometimes spoke loudly for the Security people to hear, swearing back and forth. Having no security for life and being anxious that he would not be arrested by the State Security at any moment, at the end of August 1989, Ylli decided to flee Albania. He had made the escape plan with a close friend of his named Kujtim Xhaja, who often came to our house and talked for a long time with Ylli under the shade of olives in the yard. Along with Ylli and Kujtim, the group that would escape included four other people who were: Agim Sula, (Ylli’s younger brother) Bani, their nephew (Ylli’s brother’s son, Metit) Petro Pishtari, Ilir Serjani (student) and another person from our neighborhood who unfortunately does not remember his name. Of the entire group of seven, except Ylli’s nephew, Bani, everyone else had suffered in the communist regime’s prisons as political prisoners. Agim had served six years in prison and worked at the Meat Factory, Kujtim had served nine years, Petro had spent time in prison and exile and had just been released, while others had served fewer years in prison. Ylli’s plan to escape at that time, was made because we had the boy hospitalized and Ylli thought that the State Security would not have thought that he would escape at the time he had his son sick “, recalls Vjollca Sula (Giçi) regarding the escape plan of her ex-husband Ylli Sula and six other tyrants who were part of his group, who, like Ylli, had suffered in prisons as political prisoners.
Detection of clone group by border guards
But what was the escape plan of the group led by Ylli Sula and how was it realized? Regarding this, Vjollca Sula testifies: “At the time when Ylli and the other six members of the group finally decided to flee and set the date when they would leave towards the border, they swore that for their plan they would not showed even the closest people of the families. But Ylli was the only one who told me, giving me the instructions on what to do in case their escape plan failed. The last meeting and departure in the direction of Librazhd, was made from our house on a September morning of 1989. The announcement of the day of departure was made only the night before, in order to eliminate any suspicion for each of the members of the group. They left by train and as Ylli told me, when they landed in Librazhd, they split into two groups and left the meeting place in the village of Rrajcë which is only a few km away. East of the town of Prrenjas. The star and his friends had decided to flee on Sunday, because the border soldiers were more careless. After meeting in the village of Rrajcë, they headed towards the state border located above that village, in the sector called Skënderbe. In that sector, which is very close to the border, they arrived at about three-thirty in the morning. When they got there, Ylli pulled out the pliers he had taken with him to cut the clone wires and the moment they had cut them, Petro Pishtari got the sleeve of his jacket on the power cord which was also the clone signal wire that gave the signal to the post office. Closest to border violation. Immediately after the signal was given, an alarm was sounded and from the two border posts of Rrajcë-Sutaj and Rrajcë-Skëndërbe, about sixty soldiers were divided into two groups. “They carried out their full siege and for about two hours without a break fired automatic weapons without stopping the fire for a moment”, recalls Vjollca Sula regarding the discovery of the group led by her husband, there in the clone wires in the Skanderbeg sector of the village of Rrajcë of Librazhd.
The murder of Kujtim, Ilirjani was torn by a dog
What happened next to the group of seven tyrants there on the clone barbed wire at the state border, where they were only a few steps away from the free world they had dreamed of for years? Regarding this, Vjollca Sula tells the whole story that her ex-husband Ylli told her. “For about two hours they were under the fire of the border guards’ machine guns, none of them moved from the place, but all of them were huddled as hard as possible behind the stones and rocks. At one point around five-thirty where the day was dawning, Ilirjan Serjani was taken on foot to cross the clone, but he was caught alive by the border guards. One of the soldiers tied him with a wire and another put the hot muzzle of the machine gun in his mouth and said: “Will you die from this, or from the border dog?” Ilirjani, completely terrified, replied: “From the dog”. After that, the border guards exchanged the big border dog which was thrown over them and after lying on the ground, it started tearing it. At that time, Ylli, who was a few steps away, covered his eyes with his hands because he could not see his friend who was screaming from the growls of the dog that was biting him over and over. As Ylli looked at Ilirjani with pieces of meat and mixed clothes, he bit his lip hard as blood burst. At that time, from the alarm that was given, almost the whole village of Rrajcë was gathered there, oriented by the howls of the dog. Seeing Ilirjani under the dog’s teeth, Ylli’s brother, Agimi, together with Kujtim Xhaja, got up and decided to surrender. But in those moments two automatic cartoons were fired in their direction and Kujtim was killed on the spot with about sixty bullets in his body and his blood was flowing. In a few minutes, Kujtim’s dead body turned yellow, white, and then blue. At the moment that Kujtim was killed, Ylli stood up and with a small knife in his hand approached to hit the dog that did not let go of Ilirjani, but at that moment some soldiers jumped on him and tied him with barbed wire, hitting him. Hit with wood where they could. After Ylli, the others were captured, and thus tied with barbed wire to their legs and arms, they boarded a military vehicle that had come with other soldiers to reinforce the border. After placing everyone in the body of the car, together with Ilirjani, who was not understood to be alive or dead, the body of Kujtim Xhaja was tied to the back of the car with a wire and dragged on a large part of the road under the watch of peasants. His body was then put in the car and placed at the feet of his comrades, who were tied up and kept lying in the carriage. They then took them to the post of the Librazhd Internal Branch, where for more than a month they were brutally tortured. “After a month, they brought them to trial and sentenced them to ‘High treason’, with sentences of five years and less,” concludes her creepy testimony, Vjollca Sula, regarding the tragic event that took place in September 1989, when seven Tirana boys who had previously suffered in communist regime prisons made their way to the clone where they bled to death from soldiers’ bullets and border dogs guarding Enver Hoxha’s socialist paradise intact./Memorie.al
