Print ARCHIVE / Pjetër Arbnori: My visit to Nexhmije Hoxha qel's cell… was cold and he wanted newspapers

This article is part of the new section "PRINT Archive" that haP Politiko.al with materials extracted from the funds of the Periodical and the Book of the National Library. Published in the newspaper "RD", dt. January 11, 1992, part I, p. 10.

The large original windows made on a human scale by the "anti-people regimes" that the communist dictatorship walled up, made real holes in the mole, closed with bricks and mortar, have not yet been opened. Sunlight is a rare guest in dungeons. They should definitely be opened. We want the detainees, both those who have tortured us and those who have given orders for murder, imprisonment, and internment, to be treated humanely by the investigator, but also to be held accountable for their crimes under the law.

They took me to the isolated corridor of women. I entered one or two dungeons. I spoke to the detainees about their complaints. When I got to dungeon 47 or 57, I do not remember well, I asked to be opened.

-It's her, - they told me.

-Let it be anyone!

Nexhmije Hoxha was arrested inside. It was found tucked away on a new mattress, covered with some new blankets, with a gray jacket over it, with a wool hood on its head.

-How are you, lady?

- I came to ask you about the conditions of isolation. Are you given all that belongs to you?

-How can I say, - he answered me.

The director intervened:

-Know? It is Pjetër Arbnori, deputy chairman of the People's Assembly Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms.

-I have nothing to say about the regulation, but I had something else. I do not understand why I was arrested, or why I am being held. I have done nothing, I do not accept the accusation. The investigator is not coming, the lawyer, the judge ...

"I know they came to you," the director intervened.

-You are late.

-Madam, I did not come for this. It is an entire parliament that has discussed the accusation or rather the accusations, an entire press, an entire people. I ask, do you have any complaints about treatment? Do they give you food or underwear? Do you do ventilation and baths? Does anyone insult you, threaten you, does anyone beat you as they beat us?

-No no no. But it is very cold.

-Give one more blanket to the lady, give two ... You have to fix the boiler as soon as possible, director. We have had a difficult winter.

We also have no wood at home. What about the food, do they give it to you okay, ma'am?

-The boys come to bring me, but I do not see them.

-Have you not had a meeting?

-I have not seen them for 8 days.

-I stayed close to the investigator for two years and they never let me meet my mother and sisters. However, you have to meet the boys ... Do you have any other complaints?

- He complained to us that we did not give him the hairdryer after the bath, - the director intervened.

- They do not even give me a toothbrush, - added Mrs. Hoxha.

-For the dryer do how to do without it, while giving the brush to the director. The brush is it, it's not a knife.

-Until the regulation says ...

I saw some food rolled on the floor.

-What about the food, what does the new regulation say, that we know the old one like me, like you: water, salt, pumpkin wheels, or eggplants in the fridge.

-In the soup, the oil is doubled, and a little meat is added. Only sugar and biscuits are allowed from the family. Yes, Mrs. Hoxha was given a report by the doctor to be allowed food from home.

I noticed that all the blockers had been seriously ill, that all of them had been given food reports by the doctor, while the other detainees very rarely benefited from this privilege that doctors have to differentiate. The director told me that based on these reports, the families of the blockmen had come with cans of wine, but according to him, he had not accepted such things: When I noticed different foods in the dungeons, the director looked at me out of the corner of his eye to see if accuse of differentiation. But I knew the regulation was fabricated with tails and left it free to investigators and doctors. I am for another way: for the regulation to be violated for everyone, that the doctor and the investigator go beyond that article of the regulation which restricts meetings with family and food and give this opportunity even to ordinary arrestees who have stolen far less than the blockmen are accused of. Perhaps many, if they looked so fallen and so old at once, without that former greatness and arrogance of the landlords, would sign for a more frequent meeting or for a hot dish or tea. That I know what hunger is: I know people in Burrel who stole meat and ate it alive, how much for pasta and uncooked rice I saw some people chewing them like horses. would sign for a more frequent meeting or for a hot dish or tea. That I know what hunger is: I know people in Burrel who stole meat and ate it alive, how much for pasta and uncooked rice I saw some people chewing them like horses. would sign for a more frequent meeting or for a hot dish or tea. That I know what hunger is: I know people in Burrel who stole meat and ate it alive, how much for pasta and uncooked rice I saw some people chewing them like horses.

Mrs. Hoxha also complained to me about the press that did not suit her. I asked the director for explanations. He told me that depoliticization had put him in trouble: to subscribe only to "Voice of the People" as before, did not violate the law, to subscribe to "Syndicalist", "Democratic Renaissance", "Republic", "Alternativa" and as far as I know, there could be trouble.

- I gave you a book to read - said the director.

- Yes, I may not like the book, - said Mrs. Hoxha.

"Finish it and we'll give you another one," the director closed.

I noticed the color of the book cover without being able to distinguish the title. I remember reading only one work by Mrs. Nexhmije Hoxha: "On the class struggle". I wonder how no one in the press remembered him. I only remember one phrase: For the same crime, someone is sentenced to 10 years, someone to 20, someone is shot, somewhere they are not arrested, they are keeping him under surveillance ...

And the constitution said that all citizens are equal before the law !!!

I also visited Hekuran Isa's dungeon.

-I do not complain about these conditions because, as I who has been Minister of Interior like you who have suffered 30 years in prison, we know that they have been very severe.

Rita Marko had just arrived from the hospital where Manush Myftiu was, whom I could not meet. Rita had a complaint about the room. I ordered them to look at the possibility of taking him from the rooms supposedly sunny because the sun could not be seen anywhere. He asked to be given his watch because he wanted to take his medicine on time. Then I saw Qirjako Mihali who had the same cold complaint.

No one complained about violence or pressure. In our time we showed the investigators the wounds of the bars on the legs and hands and they laughed, we complained to the general prosecutor, Aranit Çela, that we were tortured and he replied: "This is the dictatorship of the proletariat to gnash its teeth."

I also visited the accused of the Shkodra massacre. Xhemal Dymylen that I had a classmate I was meeting for the first time only after only 39 years. When I got out of prison I had asked for a five-minute meeting, but he did not find it reasonable to wait for the enemy in the office. I applied for a job as a translator, and he took me to the age of 55 as an unpaid carpenter.

I asked him about the family, about the conditions, about any needs and he told me that he was satisfied with the implementation of the regulation. When we parted he thanked me for the kind words and care.

Capajev Taçi complained to me that the process was being delayed too much. They looked very nine months old. I told him that we should complain to him, that he was delaying our process. I remember today his arrogance and arrogance, on April 1, on the eve of the Shkodra massacre. "I will crush the Democrats," he said.

After more than two hours of visiting I heard again the symphony of latches and iron doors and came out instructing the director to fix the boiler so that this natural refrigerator becomes a place where the detainees normally stay, whether these criminals big or small.