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Kelmend is
missing its sons
On the mountains is hard to
meet someone on the roads. Their homes have windows and doors that haven’t
been opened for a long time, their smokestack haven’t been used. It’s hard to
see any young men through the three grooves of Kelmend.
Very rarely is seen any vehicle transporting goods from the town, and even
more rare are the passengers on them. There are few children in the schools.
Their number decreased a lot. The reproducing age of this area has now left Kelmend.
We were going toward a village called Lëpushë.
It’s rare for the beauty God has given it. It has a soft ground and marvelous
greenness in that  village of Kelmend in Malësi e Madhe. We stop at the Perdeleci Saddle and walk toward a house. The smoke from
its smokestack shows there is someone living in. We call to the householder
and at the door appears a man over the sixties. As it is custom for the
mountains, he invites us warmly to enter. He was alone with his wife. The
frustration and fear as he didn’t know the visitors, was clear on his face.
When we told him we were journalists, he looks more comfortable and wishes us
welcome again.
You should forgive us, - he says sincerely - for we are used
to have “visitors” who only want to destroy our lives. They’ve mistreated and
harmed for half a century and still today keep on in every way to make us
shut up. They want to deny us every right and adulterate every good result we
have, because of their harsh power.
With whom do you live? - asked we, just to make him and his
wife, who had prepared us a cup of coffee, feel more at ease.
Alone with my wife. The father in law, my wife’s father, who
lived with us, died some times ago - and the man
stopped there, for maybe something was squeezing him.
Do you have children? - asked we the man who was so peaceful
in speaking and deep in his answers. He looked at me and my friend and told
us with a melancholic voice showing a deep pain, for his children he missed,
saying: -I have two sons, but they have left their birth country because of
the increasing danger. They have been good guys. I brought them up with great
efforts. I could hardly convince Arben to leave and
get safe forever. He didn’t harm anyone. He was treated very badly. They’ve
broken the vehicle he worked with, in order to stop him using it. They’ve
followed him everywhere. That’s why I insisted for him to leave. We hope
nobody will harm us now in this age.
I couldn’t ask anymore questions
for his eyes were filled with tears. His heart was filled with pain. We took
the coffee and went toward the center of the village. We had a great desire
to know about that man. We were told he was Prek Drejaj. Very rarely he used to get out of the house. His
two sons had leaved Albania
for their life was in danger. We were told he was a good man, minding at his
own business. He had been in all the protests organized by the Democratic
Party. For a long time he had been the leader of the Democratic Party there.
He had suffered some years in the prisons of the communist dictatorship, but
none ever heard him using a language of hatred and revenge because of the
sufferings of his family. We went to a village shop. It was small and very
few people were in it. They were all old. An old man who had just bought
something, says:
-Oh, my son, this mad politics of the communists is sending
our sons so far that we won’t see them anymore. There will be none even to
put some ground on our tombs. What did Arben Drejaj, the son of Prek, do to
anybody, can you tell me?
We didn’t answer for we didn’t even know the story of the
boy.
-Let me tell you. He was the son of Prek
and helped the DPA and the candidate of the Democratic Party. This is the
reason they went at his house, and even on the road they’ve beaten him.
They’ve broken his vehicle and told him they’d kill him or burn him alive in
his house along with his parents. Yes, they can do this, if this goes through
their mind. Even his older brother was beaten by them in the prison cells of
the police a few years ago. Those on power are the devil, my son. Are you
from the town, - the old man asked us as he stood at the door of the shop.
-Yes, sir - we replied to the old man who seemed to want to
stay with us - we are journalists and we came here to write something about
this area.
Whom do you want to write about, for us old people who can’t
even get out of our houses? The others were sent away by Fatos
Nano and his criminal government. Some were forced, some were deceived, and
some were killed, so he did to everyone who opposed him - the old man’s face
changed.
As I was saying, the grandfather of Arben
was imprisoned, his father and his brother were interned as well as many of
his family. His father and his brother are safe miraculously, my dear
journalist.
May I ask you a question - the old man changed the voice.
Can you write all these on the newspaper?
I promise I’ll do it as soon as I get to town. I’ll write
everything, all that you told me.
Good, but be careful for you too might be in danger because
of these shadows of darkness that go around like dirty dogs.
I smiled, being careful not to be misunderstood by the old
man.
Tell that Fatos Nano with his
communists, who destroyed the country in 1997 and are still following their
opposition to kill them, did this to our sons. They were afraid of Arben, for one day he would grow and be a strong support
to the Democratic Party, that’s why they menaced him and forced him to leave
his country leaving his parents in this old age. The new communists, who came
on power since the bitter spring of 1997, are making these mountains desert.
Our houses are being covered by moss. Very soon you will see only ruins in
this area and the saying that there was youth somewhere here.
The old man didn’t stop telling us for a life full of pain
and fear.
We wrote too much maybe about that unexpected meeting and
about a happening that makes you upset.
With a feeling of pain
and guilt as unable to help those inhabitants left there, we turned back with
the sense that not for a long time it will be said that there was a village
there.
Alban
Predeleci
Crime
times
Yes, even in the midday,
even in the midnight, in the villages and in the cities, even in the capital,
near the parliament seat, the gun shots, someone is killed and the criminal
or the criminals leave without problems. It is crime time in the
post-communist Albania.
But the center of anticommunism, the  center of the Northern Albania, the center of Culture, Shkodra, is also the center of the organized crime. The
government has intentionally left Shkodra as a
center of crime, where it is even easier for it to eliminate the political
opposition. The murder at the center of the city, near the “Loro Boriçi” stadium, of the
chairman of the national reconciliation association, Emin
Spahija, and the silence of the police, though Spahija had caused over 5000 Albanians in conflict to
reconcile, those who were just waiting for the revenge, according to the Kanu, speaks clearly about the close links of the crime
with the state. Shkodra is menaced in general, but
the intellectuals and businessmen in particular have their life in serious
danger. Even today gangs penalize businessmen and they’re afraid to report,
for it is the police that reveal the report and the businessmen then are
killed. This is the state. A victim of this so called state is even the
intellectual Senada Gjakoviq,
born in Shkodra on February 17, 1980. She had
studied at the University “Luigj Gurakuqi” for history-geography, had worked as a teacher
in the secondary school
of Berdica
and had a business in Shkodra. But her life was on
the target of the anarchy, and in 2002, unknown people kidnapped and kept
torturing and raping her beastly for a week. They act with her like in the
nightmare movies, and after a week they throw her near her house with a broken
leg, without senses. This innocent girl was in coma for two days. Where it
had to begin the story of arrest of a very dangerous criminal group, it
starts another tragedy for this intellectual, for this young who loved life
and Albania
without violence and human rights disregarded. Since 2002, this innocent
girl, as it can be noticed in the picture near, has no address. Many young
Albanians have been shot, many others disappeared and their families know
nothing of were they could be buried, but many others
have left toward western countries in order to save their life. This last way
would be the less for the young Senada Gjakoviq. But what we’re trying to say in this tragic
case is the report of this inhuman politics that the Albanian dictators on
power are using against those whom they consider as people who want the law,
the state of right and the true democracy.
Sokol Pepushaj
Kosovo:
the misfortune of the family Gashi
 The massive
absence of the Serb community in the elections of October 23 in Kosovo shows
that Kosovo has still many problems and anger that doesn’t give chance for
normality there. There is still people missing, there are still war wounds
that are bleeding great pain and anger. It is an oriental madness, so hard to
be normalized by the international forces. The family Gashi
is a big family there. We have written other times about this family and
other families of Kosovo who had a bad destiny, while many are lost leaving
behind murders and violence. A relative of Besnik Gashi, from Deçan, in the Kuçaj district, whom is afraid to give his name, for he
might be killed for this, tells us a concrete tragedy in his village. Besnik Gashi, born on July 12,
1981, whose picture is shown here, his brother, Endrit
Gashi, his mother, Sadije
Gashi and his father, Muhamet
Gashi, do not give any news either they’re alive or
dead. They have open conflicts even with terrorist groups who are thought to
have been joining the KLA during the crisis. The father of Besnik, Muhamet Gashi, was a commander for the area at the beginning of
the war. He is known in Kosovo, especially in the western area of it. He
fought against Serbs and did crimes, killing not only Serbs but also Kosovars
who were spies for the Serbs. There comes a time, however, when even his own
friends in the army, the KLA, had doubts about Muhamet
Gashi, either he was playing in both sides,
collaborating with the Serbs on the other side. The consequences were fatal.
Since the summer of 1998 this family disappeared, leaving behind conflicts
with the Serb community, but also great conflicts, or blood-feud, as it is
called here, with Kosovars. The existence of this family, now missing, is
totally impossible in Kosovo. There are many cases like this.
Albert
Vataj
Why
Avdyl Jasiqi was
considered traitor of the KLA?
Avdyl Jasiqi, born in the village Jasiq
of Deçan, on March 8, 1974, likewise many of his
friends, joined the KLA during the crisis, for a free Kosovo, in March 1998.
He took part in the battles against the Serb forces in Voksh,
Gllogjan, Junik and Jasiq. He was wounded during a fight in July 1998 in Junik, and was cured until September of the same year.
Even though not totally healed, he turned back to fight. After the death of
his commander, Agim Ramadani,
Avdyl deserted the fight on May 1999, for the war
was hard and his health was getting worse, so he considered staying alive,
for the war was every day taking away human lives. This, yet, was enough for
him to be considered as a traitor of the KLA! They might have been the laws
of war. Avdyl, since April 1998, when the Serbs
burned up his house, had lost contact with his family, which started the
exodus toward Albania.
After the crisis ended, that family went back to the burned house, and built
up a shelter upon the ruins. His father, Brahim Jasiqi, was many times menaced to be killed, by people
dressed with the authority of the fighters of Kosovo, for, according to them,
Avdyl was a traitor who had escaped from the war.
Likewise many other Albanians killed after the crisis, like Tahir Zemaj with his son and
nephew, the commander Drini, etc., even Brahim Jasiqi, whose picture is
shown near this column, was shot and almost dead, by masked people, as he was
at the court of his shelter, on September 20, 2004. But, where is Avdyl? We will he is still alive somewhere in the western
countries.
Zog Hysenaj
Albania, like the Sicily
50 years ago
 The political
situation near the parliamentary elections of the next year is getting rough,
causing an increase of the number of crimes, kidnaps and pressure. Albania in these last seven years looks like Sicily 50 year ago.
This problem was mentioned by the Italian Chief Prosecutor of antimafia. The crime has its roots in the State, what
gives few chances to Albania
to show at least a little return to normality. Many democrats have been
victims of this so called State. Shkëlzen Haxhe Çelaj was an activist of
the Democratic Party since the beginning of the democratic processes in Albania. He
suffered nightmares, and his life was many times in danger. He is a member of
the Anticommunist Political Association “13 Dhjetori
1990”, while on that same day (December 13, 1990), as a young man with the
dream of freedom, without dictatorship, he was active when the bust of the
dictator Enver Hoxha was
pulled down, and was beastly beaten. Also in April 2, 1991, in the protests
of the citizens of Shkodra against the stolen votes
by the party of the former communist president Ramiz
Alia, where four people were killed, Arben Broci, Bujar Bishanaku, Nazmi Kryeziu and Besnik Ceka, and other 163 were wounded, Shkëlzen
was tortured, likewise on September 14, 1998, during the funeral of the man
of human freedom, the democrat deputy Azem Hajdari, murdered by the communists in Tirana, near the
seat of the DP. This democrat on July 16, 2003, after a great meeting
organized by the Democratic Party, while going back home with the car of his
brother in law, along with him and a friend of them, was suddenly stopped by
a police car, near his residence, and three people came of the car beating
him hardly. This was seen even by other people of the district. This was e
public violation, surely with a political background, for there is no other
name to be given to this act. Yet, the democrat Shkëlzen
Çelaj had to leave Albania, in order to save his
life from the crime that is making its seat from the simplest police man to
the minister or the prime minister.
Vasel Gilaj
Corruption
fighting anticorruption
 Fighting
corruption and setting at the head of this fight those who are corrupted,
cannot be found anywhere in the world. Yet this happens in Albania. The
international forces in Albania,
all the foreign diplomats keep on asking this from the people on power today:
If this country wants to enter in the EU, the first request is the fight of
corruption, which is spread in every field of life.
We journalists understand this better, likewise the whole
people, that the paradox is very clear. How can the criminal and the
corrupted, who commit the crime and corruption, fight himself?!
It is clear then that there is an organized strategy, where
the State of today bears and develops crime and corruption, will not fight
corruption and crime but those innocent people who dare going against them.
The motive of this short column was the appearing of an electronic engineer,
a relative of the well known officer, Mr.Genti Mullai, who came in
our Editorial Office with 4-5 letters in his hand, filled with threats
against the family of Mr. Genti Mullai.
One of them that of September 28, 2004, sounded very fearing and dangerous.
It was an ultimatum. For me as a journalist this was one of the few cases I
met. I know this kind of pressure is being used. We have often brought
chronicles considering the corruption. There is people in Albania, who
don’t want crime and corruption and have found a way out through the American
Lottery, leaving so the country. But there are very few those who decide to
fight it. One of them was the officer, Mr. Genti Mullai, who was convinced to stop corruption but faced
wild human beings dressed with power, who wanted to use the unfortunate
events of March 1997 for their own profit in the corruptive game of various
weapons. Genti Mullai
didn’t give up. He tried boldly to stop his colleagues in this terrible
profit with the price paid by those who lost their lives. “An uncontrolled
gun, a sold gun is equal to many innocent lives that might be lost”, - said Genti. “Be careful. Stop! This is the way of crime, the
wrong way”. This was reported by an officer of the same place where Mr. Genti Mullai was in service,
who doesn’t want his name to be known. This was obvious for the corrupted
people of the today’s criminal State. They follow, find and fight true people
who don’t want crime and corruption, forcing them to depart; otherwise their
destiny is their elimination, physically.
Vasel Gilaj
Victim
of the neo-communist violence in Albania
 The return through the red armed revolution in 1997
of the neo-communists of Fatos Nano, was followed with the victimization of
the anticommunist families and their descendants. The story and life of Artan
Tahsim Halili is one of the most painful and distinguished. During 1987-1990,
his family was interned in Tepelena and Artan has no good memories about his
childhood. The return of the Albanian neo-communists back on power, led by
Fatos Nano, marked the beginning of the hardest time for him. His only
shelter, alike for many other anticommunists, was the Democratic Party, where
Artan became a member in 1997. This action made him part of the list of the
people considered unwanted by the clique on power, which had reached with its
tentacles all the sectors of the State. On September 14, 1998, while Artan,
just like thousands of Albanians, was giving his last farewell to the tribune
of democracy, Azem Hajdari, killed by the seat of the DP two day before, was
ill-treated and arrested by the police, as he was protesting in the name of
freedom and democracy. Yet, this was not the end of the neo-communist Calvary
of Artan, for in January 2000, he was again arrested by the police forces and
accused for violence over a police officer during the protests of sometimes
ago. After three months, Artan faces the court which condemns him with 4
years of prison in the ill-famed prison of “Perparimi” in Saranda, where it
was denied him even the right to see his parents, relatives and friends, a
typical attitude toward the most resistant anticommunists. To avoid
continuous ill-treating, Artan tries to escape from prison, what causes him
other three months of prison added. During the years in the dark
neo-communist prison-cells, Artan was ill-treated and tortured as an
anticommunist, becoming one of the most prominent victims of violence. He was
freed in August 2004, after tasting the wild communist prison. Artan was a
worth follower of the ideals of his family, while his father, Tahsim Halili
was a prominent democrat, also victim of the communist violence. Artan Halili
is a living testimony of what is experienced after 1997 by the Albanian
democrats and anticommunists, who are firm at any moment defending with their
sufferings, blood and life, the most precious thing: the freedom and
democracy, at any cost.
Albert Vataj
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