ALBANIAN EMIGRANTS DESCRIBE POLITICAL SITUATION IN ALBANIA; CONTRASTING VIEWS ON ALBANIAN MINORITY IN YUGOSLAVIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090035-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2011
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: October 10, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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Sociological - Minorities
Political
Daily, thrice-monthly newspapers
PUBLISHED Zagreb; Belgrade; Bucharest;
DATE
PUBLISHED 31 May - 27 Jun 1952
LANGUAGE Croatian; 8erbi4n; Rumanian
PUBLISHED
WHERE
SUBJECT
HOW
COUNTRY Yugoslavia; Albania
THIS OOIYIINT CONTAq/ IITIIAnOI AfIIIINO TII NATIONAL Chill
of TNN YNITNY ITAIII VITNIC TNY Num. OP IIn.NA.l ACT II
Y. N. C.. JI 1Ne It. AN egtel0. Ill TIANININNION Ol TON NITIIATION
OP IT fONTINTI IN ANT NANN AN YNAYTYOIISIO PNAAON IN Ip?
NINITI I NY LAW. IIPIOIYRIONYNOTOP THIS Poll II PIONIIITNA.
REPORT
CO NO.
DATE OF
DATE DIST. (p Oct 1952
Prague NO. OF PAGES 5
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNFVALU!ATCD IiNFORMATION
ALBANIAN EMIGRANTS DESCRIBE POLITICAL SITUATION IN ALBANIA;
CONTRASTING VIEWS ON ALBANIAN MINORITY IN YUGOSLAVIA
A report -a conditions and dissatisfaction in Albania, resulting
from Soviet exploitation, made at the second annual conference of the
Association of Albanian Political Emigrants in Yugoslavia, may serve
to illuminate current predictions of imminent trouble and the possi-
ble overthrow of the Hoxha regime. Furthermore, the position of the
Albanian minority in Yugoslavia was described at the conference as
being very favorable; however, in contrast with this viewpoint are
two items from satellite papers describing the Albanian minority in
Yugoslavia as being persecuted.
Numbers in parentheses refer to appended sources.
CONFERENCE OF ALBANIAN POLITICAL EMIGRANTS IN YUGOSLAVIA
About 250 delegates and guests Lthe 1 Jun 1952 issue of Politika gave the
number as about 300 selected delegate attended the second annual conference
of the Association of Albanian Political Emigrants in Yugoslavia (Savez polit-
ickih emigranata Albanije u Jugoslaviji), which opened in Prizren on 30 May
1952 to discuss the political activities of the association and the work and
life of Albanian emigrants in general.(1) Representatives of Bulgarian, Hun_
garlan, Rumanian, and Czechoslovak political emigrants also participated in the
conference, as well as representatives of the Yugoslav people's authorities and
a large number of cultural and civil workers from Prizren.
Apostol Tanefi, president of the Albanian association, opened the confer-
ence and expressed his thanks to the Yugoslav government and people for their
care and concern for Albanian emigrants.(2)
n--
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Speech by Apostol Tanefi
t
d
o
on one work and tasks of Al-
Al-
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banian political emigrants. -' , "p
He spoke about the general international situation,
pointing out that the
L organizing against the friendly Yugoslav ip oplewho helped theAlbanians pd' ingtand after
the war.
Tanefi said that Yugoslavia has been the only nation to defend Albania's
interests at various international conferences. Wheii the ruling clique of En-
ver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu cut off friendly relations with Yugoslavia, the USSR
applied the old imperialist strategy of promising Kosovo-Metohija to the uoxna
clir,,;e, just as Mussolini had promised it to Mustafa Kr-,j li years ago.(3)
Tanefi went c: t. say that Soviet hegemony in Albania has taken on special
aspects. Besides NKVD instructor-agents, Bulgarian "instructors" have been
sent to Albania recently to further exploit the country for the benefit of t`e
USSR. Under the guise of brotherly help, these Soviet and Bulgarian instructors
are assuming high positions in the party right up to the Central Committee, as
well as in the government, economic enterprises, and social and cultural organ-
izations. While an Albanian workman, no matter how large his family, receives
1,500 leks monthly, and a clerk receives 2,000 to 3,500 leks, engineers from the
USSR and Bulgaria receive 15,000 to 20,000 leks. A high officer in the Albanian
Army receives 5,000 leks, while a Soviet or Bulgarian military instructor re-
ceives 25,000 to 35,000 leks. This is paid for by the Albanian people through
high taxes and compulsory crop deliveries. A special store is open to these
instructors and not to Albanians. Prices here are much lower than In stores
where Albanians purchase their guaranteed supplies. With their pockets full of
money, these instructors a;?e in a position to buy gold, rings, jewels, and valu-
able antiques and send thjm to the USSR or Bulgaria.
Albanian petroleum fills the warehouses of the countries trading with the
USSR, while the Albanian people have to pay 2 kilograms of wheat for a kilogram
of petroleum (one kilogram of wheat costs 140 leks). The same is true for other
corpuliorily delivered products, including ores, wool, eggs, and cabbage.
Since Albania has neither economic nor political freedom, dissatisfaction
is increasing daily among the people. To stop it, special punitive expeditions
are visiting villages and killing patriots, interning entire families, plunder-
ing their property, and denouncing enemies of Hoxha and his clique as traitors.
Albania is becoming a concentration camp for those who desire freedom or an in-
dependent Albania.(2) Arrests, deportations, and the murder of Albanian citi-
zens have become a daily occurrence, while hunger threatens the Albanians.(3)
The Second Congress of the Albanian Workers' Party beat illustrates how the dis-
satisfaction of the Albanian people is increasing. Since the first congress
was held, several thousand members have been expelled from the party, two mem-
bers of the Central Committee have been killed, and ten have been expelled and
arrested.
Because of this, Tanefi stated, a large number of patriots have left Al-
bania to seek freedom in Yugoslavia, which has accepted them as only a friendly
nation can. Albanian children are being educated from grammar scnool right
through the faculties. Albanians have their own reading rooms. libraries, and
places to develop their political and cultural life.(2) In this connection,
PolitikaSreportreported that the Assoei_tiou or Albanian Political Emigrants publishes
(Flag vi Freedom), a monthly newspaper published in Pristina.(4)
Te.^.cfI also stated that some Albanian farmers have been given land; in Monten-
egro, and Albanians have founded their own farm work cooperative.(2) Politika
reported that more than 1,000 Albanians are today working in mines and enter-
prises in Kosovo-Metohija, Montenegro, and Macedoria.(4)
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4,500 Albanians Flee to Yugoslavia
It was brought out at the conference that since the Cominform Resolution,
4,500 peasants, workers, and intellectuals have crossed the Yugoslav-Albanian
border from Albania. Entire families have fled. Twenty-four peasants fled
from the village of Braje in Shkoder Srez at one time, and dnri . winter of
1951 several families fled over Peshtanit Mouutain from Kukes Srez.(4) While
crossing the bore..-, =ocapees frequently had gun fights with Albanian border
?_.:.ie. (1)
Because of mass escapes, the Cominformists have been forced to double mili-
tary units along the Yugoslav border, but this has not prevented escapes, just
as soldiers have not been prevented from talking with the people because they
have been forbidden to do so.(4)
Other Albanian Speakers at Conference
A large number of Albanian speakers participated in the conference, all of
whom thanked the _ugoslav people and government for their hospitality and aid.
In discussing the friendship between Yugoslavs and Albanians, Ajdini Zeleli
Bitici referred to the blood they had both shed for freedom against the Fascists.
Reis Shehu, who had been interned, described the terrible life in the Albanian
concentration camps, where men, women, and even young children are all subjected
to the same torture, to poor food and heavy work.
The Albanian speakers emphasized that the Albanian people are protesting
against the Cominform; some are taking to the hills with weapons in their hands.
In the meantime, Hoxha's regime is adopting every repressive measure possible to
eliminate such protesting forces. Prenk Nue Dusi listed the names of 27 pa-
triots who had been killed by Hoxha's police in his area, because they had dared
to protest. Caf Smaili said that the Albanians will never surrender to terror,
bloodletting, or the gallows.(5)
Czechoslovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Rumanian Representatives Speak
The president of the Association of Czechoslovak Emigrants spoke of the
Russification of Czechoslovakia. Since the war, over 21 million translations of
Soviet books have been printed in Czechoslovakia, while only 1,500,000 books by
Czechoslovak authors have been printed.(3)
Olina Krejcova declared that although the Soviets are plundering the Czech-
oslovak eccaomy and imposing their political and cultural ideas, the working
class and patriots in Czechoslovakia are finding many methods of paralyzing such
actions. As proof, she referred to the 'act that one fifth of the Czechoslovak
Central Committee has been arrested, that the number of political unreliables is
increasing daily, and that the Czechoslovak government does not dare adopt more
drastic action against arrested party leaders.
The Bulgarian delegate stated that the Bulgarian people love freedom and
will not submit to Moscow's despotism, and that resistance to it is growing
daily.
The Hungarian delegate discussed Hungary's economic submission to the USSR.
Soviet advisers are in charge of all factories, mines, and ships, and everything
produced by Hungarian workers is sent to the USSR. Since farmers and workers
are protesting against Rakosi's policies 1,070 families were deported from Buda-
pest in one night, and concentration camps a.id prisons are full of patriots.(2)
Stanoi Eremia, president of the Association of Rumanian Political Emigrants,
extended his best wishes to the conference.(3)
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Member of Serbian Central Committee Speaks
Dusan Mugosa, member of the Central Committee of the Serbian Communist
Party, who, together with Miladin Popovic, aided in the developmnt of the Al-
banian Communist Party and organized the People's Liberation War in Albanir.,
warned that Italian Fascism is again reaching toward Albania and stressed Yu-
goslavia's friendly and honorable intentions toward Albania.(3)
Conclusion of Conference
At its conclusion the conference unanimously chose a new committee and
adopted decisions concerning its future work. As its most important work, the
association is to fight with all its strength for world peace. The association
will gather all Albanian political emigrants and work on their polit cal and
cultural education in true socialism. The association will also work on re-
futing the slandering of Yugoslavia and Albania by the Cominform bloc and the
West, and for closer ties between the Albanians and Yugoslavs.(5)
SATELLITE PAPERS DISCUSSES ALBANIAN MINORITY IN YUGOSLAVIA
Two Satellite papers present a completely different picture of the status
of Albanians in Yugoslavia.
According to the Bucharest Vista Sindicala, 800,000 Albanians in Yugoslavia
are being persecuted. Forty percent of the Albanian officials in Kosovo-Metohija
have been discharged, arrested, deported, or have mysteriously disappeared as a
result of UDB activities.(6)
The anti-Tito Nova Borba, organ of the Yugoslav Political Emigrants in
Czechoslovakia, published in Prague, reported the following regarding the A'.ba-
nians.
The position of national minorities in Yugoslavia is unusually difficult,
with the Albanian national minority occupying the worst position. The Titoists
are today carrying out mass physical extermination of the Albanian national mi-
nority in Kosovo-Metohija. Under Tito, 800,000 Albanians in Yugoslavia have
been terrorized, deprived of economic and political rights, and are being sub-
jected to national and physical extermination.
The Titoists are depending upon the agas, beys, and Albanian-born ruling
bourgeoisie to ruin the masses of backward perple in Kosovo-Metohija. Although
formally deprived of their titles, the agas and beys have maintained their
former economic positions, while the villagers, who are slaves without any
rights, cultivate the land for them. The village poor are forced by the UDB to
work under the worst conditions in the Trepca mines, in the forests, and on
strategic installations, where they become exhausted and die.
For its bloody work; the 13DB in Kosovo-Metohija has activated all the worst
degenerates, such as Dzavit Nimani, Fadil Hodzi, Ismet Sahiri, Mehmet Hodzi, and
other criminals and traitors, who were overt agents of Himmler'a Gestapo and
Mussolini's SIM during the occupation.
The Titoists began thn mass slaughter of Albanians in Yugoslavia during the
war. Using the cynical excuse that they had collaborated with the occupation
forces, the Titoists killed many innocent men, but saved and took as their asso-
ciates the real traitors and war criminals. In 1944, they killed 300 Albanians
of the 4th Macedonian Brigade on the road from Prizren to Ulcinj. Two thousand
Albanian youths in the Yugoslav army were exposed to extermination by forced
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labor In Gorica and Trieste. The Tito gang has also exterminated all Yugoslavs
who pledged themselves to brotherhood with the Albanian people, such as Miladin
Popovic, prominent friend of the Albanian minority and a high party leader.
Since the treason of Tito's Fascist gang was exposed in 1948, the Belgrade
regime has turned its hatred against the Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo-Metohija.
Arrests, ki'.lings, and abuse of Albanians are a daily occurrence. Among the un-
counted victims of Fascist terror are Mirtez Kacatori, member of the Macedonian
Youth Central Committee; Isuf Terezi, member of the party committee in Debar;
Saligasi, member of the party committee in Strub;.; Capt Sefhet Fetahu of the
Yugoslav Army; Asin Cazini, member of the Bar People's Council; Sabri Dacl, pub-
lic prosecutor in Pristine; Becir Sahalin, former Partisan; and Ismail Cana,
member of the Control Commission in Junik.
Mass destruction of entire villages in Kosovo-Metohija is taking place and
the UDB is killing Albanian women, children, and old men. They have massacred
2.000 Albanians in Kosovska Mitrovica and 1,000 in Gnjilane. Recently the vil-
lage of Kohnor near Debar was set on fire, and the women, children, and every
living thing was killed.
The Tito regime is waging a relentless policy to separate the Yugoslav Al-
banians from their native country. Not even the most elementary schools, much
less Albanian language schools, are being opened in areas where the Albanians
live, and adults are forbidden to speak their mother tongue. The Albanian-born
age and bey rulers, the Moslem priests, those who consider themselves more Turk-
ish than Albanian, those who speak Turkish and not Albanian, and those who are
oriented to Istanbul are receiving help from the Titoists in stifling the na-
tional sentiments of Albanians,,.Turkifying them, and separating them from Al-
bania.(7)
SOURCES
1. Zagreb, Dorba, 31 May 52 (article signed by F. V.)
2. Belgrade, Politika, 1 Jun 52 (article signed by N. Smiljanic)
3. Borba, 1 Jun 52
4. Belgrade, Politika, 31 May 52
5. Ibid., 2 Jun 52
6. Bucharest, Vista Sindicala, 27 Jun 52
7. Prague, Nova Borba, 2 Jun 52
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