Show you Sali Berisha's assassinations in Tropoja

By Muhamed Veliu. Elton Qyno

Zylfije Haklaj stepsister Halil, Star and Fatmir Haklajt killed in Tropoj broke the silence by giving an exclusive interview for “Albanian. com”. A first-hand story by an important witness to the post-90s events in Tropoja where the complexity of politics and power interests produced 200 victims. Since 2002, when Zylfije Haklaj along with her family emigrated to Sweden she has never agreed to confess what she knows, not only to the killing of four brothers, but also to the political corners of those years which match not only the Haklaj family, but also hundreds of other people. In this first and unprecedented confession after 16 years of silence, Zilfije Haklaj is guilty of killing her brothers and of the blood spilled on Tropoj only one person.

Former President and Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who he says all murders had one and only one motive. Copying and retaining power at all costs. Berisha's actions are traditionally medieval.

The former physics teacher of 2002 received the nickname” Haklajve Association”, as she is accused of committing a murder in the middle of Bajram Curri to avenge the killing of the brothers. For this crime it continues to be on the list of the 10 Albanians most wanted by Interpol, but the Swedish state never approved Albania's request to extradite it, even guaranteed protection through asylum giving. Zylfije Haklaj in this interview for “Albanian.com” received through e-mail communication does not want to stop at the event she is accused of. But he promises to speak very quickly too.

It has taken the first step, defeating fears shown by its variation of those dire events that plagued Albania's north. A multidimensional interview from which the policy of time is once again blamed for the shed blood in Tropoja where they do not bother details about Azem Hajdari's murder.

Total interview:

Zylfie, you've been leaving your homeland for 16 years and over this long period you've been silent, Indiferent about what has been said about your family, even though you've had many lives lost. What is the reason you decided to express yourself in the media today?

I really didn't mean to talk about Sali, but a live Salin TV debate with journalist Artan Hoxha, where Saliu publicly accuses our family and journalist in question that we have rewarded it became a cause for publicly expressing myself by telling Sali, that we don't need to pay journalists to talk about us, because we can speak for ourselves without having to pay anyone. Saliu left early on from Tropoja, because he has been favoured by Enver Hoxha, who sent her to specialisation abroad and had senior party positions on the Central Committee, and he doesn't know that our family has dared to say its word even in monism, despite conspiracy.

What has been the indifference that Sali Berisha erupted in that television debate, accusing you as a family of rewarding journalists? Do you doubt that he has proof of this thing that he says or is it just the usual political articulation he makes from time to time?

During the TV debate, Artan Hoxha tells Sali, that he killed Azem Hajdari's witness, which is about Fatmir, this is the Indian that Sali explodes by attacking, like his best defense. We feel insulted and accused without any kind of basis or evidence. So I think this is a criminal offense, where we abuse our dignity and are seriously accused of continuing as always. Perhaps Sally believes in his principles, which reward criminals with positions and richly rewarded for their criminal acts. One of the killers of our brothers denounced by us at the Tropoja prosecutor, who is called Haki Hoxha, after Salih's coming to power in 2005, was appointed as chief of Tirana's firefighters. It is not surprising, therefore, that Salih alludes to others for rewarding people for their actions. But the state budget is not calculated to reward criminals with high positions and salaries. The state budget should be used for reducing crime and reducing poverty, not to reward criminals for their mafia killings. But it is not only this case that he rewards criminals, but we also know other cases where their criminal actions have been rewarded by Salihu in positions and large sums of money.

What were the circumstances that you as a family were forced to move through Albania's borders?

With Sali's coming to power in 2005, which came as always with manipulation and fraud, our father, seeing the danger facing our family, was forced to remove the last survivors of our family from Albania. His plan was already clear, to wipe out the surviving survivors and wipe out all the kind of signs and evidence we had ever existed, where he destroyed the graves of the dead and the walls of our home, which our grandfather's father had built. But Sali's massacres against us are not over, he used monism spies for information against us, but on the other hand he speaks against monism all day long. After these macabre and antihuman actions, he immediately begins the rewards of money from his servants, for crimes committed against us, and at the same time rewards with jobs, and high-ranking appointments of criminals for service and devotion to Saliu.

In terms of political issues, you have lost four brothers. Have you ever searched state institutions for these murders to dawn and why these cases are not dared to reopen even today by justice?

After the murders of our brothers we've filed our charges at the Tropoja prosecution, but our cases have been closed without opening, because Sali's authorized prosecutors were not interested and couldn't whiteen our killings, because the state was involved in these murders itself, so the state couldn't investigate its crimes. Saliu organized our murders by making a good combination of state, prosecutor, police, and assassins, all of whom were rewarded with high positions and large sums of money. Criminals felt very confident of their criminal actions, with which they fulfilled their private desires. That means he put all state machinery at his private disposal to wipe out everything he had to do with us.

You've been living two very important periods of Albanian history, the Communists where you studied in the high school of the Party, and that of pluralism, where you've served as a physics teacher, but once again you've experienced great political changes and criminal events. Do you feel homesick about the time of “Enver Hoxha” or are you critical of that regime?

I think the people were eager for change, because the heads of state should not be eternal, but the change began calmly by Ramiz Alia, but very soon the situation deteriorated and the disaster began and the anarchies replaced the law. This shows that Sali Berisha was interested in exploiting the situation in the service of his interests and power. Coming to the top of the country of people eager for power and money, but perhaps even being sold, was a national and tragic disaster for the Albanian people, who are too much and have been divided over the centuries. The class struggle in Albania has been tough, but you think it still is today. The difference is that in the days of monism people were killed under an organized state court, where vengeance and brother-in-law did not exist, whereas today the death penalty does not exist” but people eager for power and money under the slogan “divide and sundo” have created their own Mafia networks, which in exchange for payment kill political opponents. And this medieval act is promoted by the very ones who speak of democracy. With the coming of democracy into our family there were pluralism, where there have been cases that we've had applications for different political views, which were no problem. I think the people have never been more divided than they have now, given the 1990s and so far. It's true we were poor, but we didn't kill each other and we didn't know what prostitution is. We didn't know drugs and they didn't happen to lose girls and children in broad daylight. Opening the world was a must, but do not think that beyond Albania's borders is paradise because more work and sacrifice are needed in foreign land to achieve something.

What happened in Tropoj after 1992, when the Communist system broke down, why so many people were killed, and why so many intrigues and shed blood, which is thought to have a balance of 200 people killed?

What has happened in Tropoje is just as painful and tragic. Granted, many tropones have been killed in the fact that their number is about 200 people. But why do so many tropones where the number of inhabitants there is small? Who's the cause of these murders in such a small town? Who threw the stone and hid his hand? Who took advantage of these murders? Who divided and ruled? Clear all the murders in Tropoja and find the reason for the murder of our sons. Sali has killed Tropoja and has used the killings for his career and power. But Albanian justice should not be governed by politics, but implement the law and people be equal before the law. There is no accused or suspect or convict for our dead loved ones. And we survivors of our family are accused and convicted in absentia and wanted by Interpol.

Miss Zylfie, though many years have passed, but can you remind us how the conflict between the two Haklaj and Berisha families began?

Sali is a man who insulted us, killed us, and brought us out of the graves. The man expelled us from our centuries-old lands and continues to covet the name of our family, at a time that after the assassination of Azzam he did not covet our name, despite the knowledge that Fatmir had committed the act, and now he accuses us publicly without any basis or evidence of such a thing, that we reward people for opposing Saliu. In 1997, when martyr Kosovo was preparing to counter the Serbian machine on its mother land, pyramid firms were organized and weapons depots opened. Under those circumstances, Saliu sees power being endangered requires human support from Albania's north and just from Tropoja. Sali's goal was to use the north against the south to carry out his evil intentions. At this time, the chairman of the Rescue Committee in Tropoja was our brother Fatmir Haklaj, who did not respond to Sali's call, which was still president of the country at that time. Fatmir expressed that: ”... if national security is threatened by foreign invaders we will be ready at any time...”. And here we think it is where Saliu has concluded that we must disappear from the face of the earth, where his war continues against our family even today.

What happened next, after your brother Fatmir Haklaj refused to obey former President Sali Berisha. Were there more incidents between members of your family and Berisha's immediate circle?

On June 22, 1997, after the mid-night break of Milot was killed by Sali's bands Sokol Haklaj Juris, who worked in Skrapar, and Ibrahim Rrustemaj, who traveled with Fatmir in the direction of Tropoja. Fatmir takes the two dead boys and heads towards Tropoja to Tragheti, where Sali Berisha and his security forces traveled for a rally in Tropoj tomorrow's date. Fatmir along with the dead in the car is not allowed to travel by ferry. The news in Tropoja had arrived for the murdered boys, and family members go to the ferry to pick up the dead, and there they receive news that they are not allowed to travel by ferry. This attitude has irritated our family members, where the main burden has fallen on Sali Berisha.

Has Sali Berisha conducted the same day at Tropoje?

Yes, it has developed, and the opening of Sali's myth begins with insulting and divisive words instead of comforting the family members of the dead, of the calamity that took place, the night on the way home. From Saliu to this rally we are called villains and connected to the Serb. But I would tell Sali who we are, but who are you? Sali knows everyone and their family, but I think he should know better himself and his relatives.

After the mortore ceremony was held, were there any incidents later recorded in Berisha's rally in Tropoja?

Milot's event, where Sokol Haklaj and Ibrahim Rrustemi are killed on the night of Sali's escort trip, left much to yearn for these murders. So family members frustrated about the murders and the postponement of the burial of the dead, where people had been notified, travel to the rally to hear and not even speak their words. When Saliu calls the villains and associates with the Serb those who supported the Socialist candidate, our brother, the Glorious, reacted to everything that was happening in their eyes. At this point Salih orders his uniforms to take with them the Glorious. The question is, are all people equal before the law? Why is Saul allowed to swear and slander and deceive, while others cannot be buried at the appointed time, nor can they respond to insulting, humiliating words in front of the public, spoken by the president of the Republic? Salihu has long since left his homeland, but he knows very well that dignity and honor are important to patriotic people who can even think differently in democracy.

How did conflict arise, and what were the motives of the history that arose between your family and the Hoxha family in Tropoja, and who was the person who benefited from it?

In September 1997 it was wounded Azem Hajdari in Parliament, where Saliu staged protests in Tropoja and then followed throughout Albania, where his aim was to exploit the power - taking situation. Fatmir Haklaj does not allow protesters to break up and destroy in the city, he asks you to appoint a square for organising the protest in support of Azem Hajdari. Protest leaders do not comply with Fatmir's request, but Fatmir at the moment promises he would connect with the Interior Ministry and respond. Mitting leaders, including Hakki Hoxha, do not expect the Interior Ministry's response, but continue the protest. Fatmir asks you once again peacefully to stop the protest, which was taking place in the middle of the city and in opposition to the law where public calm was being broken. Fatmir comes out to the crowd and asks you to implement the law, but they still refuse. This is where Fatmir loses control and hits one of the rally leaders named Hakki Hoxha. So protests are spread, and revenge will continue among us, despite the <x0... fruit” being eaten by Sali Berisha. Saliu, convinced that Tropoja was going out of his command and the main obstacle was Haklajt, he is not wasting time, but plans to kill the Magi to hit Fatmir as well.

What happened next, did any of your family members have a representative meeting of the Hoxha family, or did the argument follow?

In fact, there has been no meeting between representatives of the two families, and as a result, this case was used by Saliu to continue serial killings in Tropoja by killing the Magnification as his open opponent in the rally of June 22, 1997. If it were private revenge, Fatmir would have to be killed, but accepting crime and the cause of crime. On January 5th, at 4:05 p.m., they are killed at the neck of Luz, Arthur Demiri and Shkeling Haklaj, who were returning from the Qafe-Prushi customs. Honor has known Hakki Hoxha despite his disguise. So the murders were planned up there for who would be killed and how it would continue.