CIA report in 1954: Sixteen thousand Albanians missing, ministers and deputies

The other day, US Embassy staff submitted a special report since 1954 The US drafted the situation in Albania.

The report holds the number 13 and December 30th 1954. It seems to have been long, though, for the three pages available, the Authority says that “Embassy sent us this report prepared by the U.S. government in 1954, including forced labor and the situation in the camps. Their search continues”.

In document published by “GSh.al” captures the situation in the camps, in class warfare, the punishment of Albanians, life as slaves, poverty, prisons, the sentences of opponents, and a tip on Albania's foreign policy.

Part of the report

Part of the report begins with information on faith and clergy. Vatican relations with churches go only through government. The Catholic Church in Albania submits to canonical law only if its provisions do not conflict with the laws of the Albanian People's Republic, public order and good habits”, the American report says. It is noted that priests are being trained at seminars “created and administered” with government approval.

The anti - church aggression would not have been legalised if the Communists had not eliminated the most prominent members of the clergy. All three beliefs have had their own victims, but more have been Catholic. In order to keep churches under control, Albania's communist government has led clergymen who are willing to be its tools. Some of them are communist”, the US government's special report says.

Forced Work

Forced labor has been widespread since the communist regime took control in 1944, the report writes. There are a number of laws and regulations that have been implemented, legalising forced labour, while the new Albanian Penal Code, based on the Soviet Criminal Code, contains elaborate provisions for “corrective work” (a euphemism for forced labour) and sending citizens to concentration and labor camps. Even children who have reached 12 years of age are eligible to be punished in labor camps “corrective” for crimes against the state”

The report says the purpose of the concentration camps was to expel families of political prisoners and deportation families of the former classes so that members of the new regime and other communists could be placed in their homes. <x0 people from the north, as a rule, are exiled to the south, especially to the camps of Tepelena, Fier, Berat; people from the south are deported to Burrel, Kamza, Valias, Cyril and other countries in the north. There is no difference in Albania between persons sentenced to hard work by the tribunal and those who have simply been circulated and given handcuffs. Among them are first-time ministers and deputies, during and post-war, as well as senior government officials or even people who have opposed or allegedly opposed the communist regime”, the US report on Albania said in 1954.

An authentic description of a labor camp in Albania has been given by Reshad Agaj, who, according to the document, has been a prisoner and sent to these camps until he fled to Greece in 1952.

The report quoted Again as saying that the Vlach camp in Korca had four 300 convicts, a barracks where the convicts slept on the floor and each had no more than 50cm of space.

The convicts were given 600 grams of unbaked white bread... and sugar milk, while at dinner and soup, all there was boiling water, pasta, potatoes, or beans. Because of malnutrition, prisoners were always hungry”.

The confessions follow: convicts began work at 5: 00 a.m., divided at 6 brigades, at 4 companies. He works seven hundred miles from camp. The elderly who fell on their way to work were beaten by police. Those who did not get to the norm were beaten, without bread, and without cigarettes, working on time. Others had the most severe torture.

The U.S. government report says Communists found it appropriate to condemn their opponents, forcing them to work as slaves. “Num of camps and prisoners in the variation. This depends on where prisoners are most needed as a labor force. So the Valias camp was almost empty in 1952 when the work began in the Cerrik camp for the construction of the oil refinery. A new camp was built with the Valianas prisoners from other areas. Some of the 40 prisons and concentration camps have been active in Albania at one time or another since 1944, where more than 16 thousand people have reportedly disappeared. It is believed that since the end of the war, about 80 thousand people have been spent in these prisons and concentration camps”.

Epaphroditus

A summary mirror is made by the U.S. government in 1954, even for propaganda. It is noted that the press and any other media are propaganda under government control. No independent or opposition media or any other source of information have under the current government.

All newspapers, periodicals, and books are published either directly or indirectly by the Communist Party or its organizations, either by government, military, or other institutions.

A large number of so - called newspapers are printed in villages, offices, schools, and wherever people work and live together. By the end of 1953, 41 newspapers and periodicals have been published and distributed in 2 million copies a month.

In contrast, in 1950 there were 21 newspapers and periodicals published in Albania with a monthly circulation of 225 thousand. All machines used to print publications are owned by the government. Four years after the arrival of the communists in power, all publishing houses joined a known name “The Namim Frasher 48x1> publishing house, which has been granted the right to any publication in the country.

The U.S. government report says that propaganda themes vary from time to time, but as rules are the same as in any communist country: class struggle, people's authority, non-class society, proletariat dictatorship, economic plan, revolutionary vigilance, etc.

“Vygience”, says the US government's report, “against the enemies of class”, is now more frequent. The enemies are political refugees abroad and their supporters in the country. But, the “armic of class”; there are most Albanians -- citizens, villagers and mountainmen -- for whom the communist regime has brought nothing but misery of slavery. The West is named an enemy, especially the United States.

The country has been named the largest capitalist and imperialist country, the most dangerous for the communist movement. American policy towards Albania is presented as a goal to destroy Albania's independence, after problems with neighbours”, quoted by the document. According to the American report, the communist effort to break the traditional friendship of Albanians to the United States -- based on Wilson's intervention in Albania's favour, in the prosperity and gratitude of Albanians, or in services made by American schools in Albania -- is taking place - trying to convince locals that the government supports Greek territorial claims in southern Albania. On the other hand, the Soviet Union is represented as a great friend of Albanians who are defending their rights”, the document quoted concludes. /Albanian Journal/