Shkodër commemorates those killed at the border during the communist dictatorship

2024-06-16 19:30:00, Aktualitet CNA

Shkodër commemorates those killed at the border during the communist

VOA

Family members of those killed at the border, together with former political prisoners, commemorated today in Shkodër June 16, 1990, the Day of those Killed on the Border by the communist regime.

On this day, at the border point "Hani Hotit", in Malësi i Madhe, the border forces killed 17-year-old Pëllumb Pëllumbi, during his attempt to illegally cross the border towards the former Yugoslavia. The murder of the 17-year-old Pëllumbi awakened the revolt of Shkodra youth, who took to the streets of the city protesting with calls against the dictatorship and the regime of the time.

Zenel Drangu, who heads the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Shkodër, said that the communist dictatorship, at its end, deceived young people and killed them at the border as they tried to go to freedom.

"In 1990, the law changed. From 10-25 years of imprisonment, which was for attempted escape, it changed to illegal crossing, which was punishable by 3-5 years of imprisonment. Then, many young people decided to try their luck, but the bad thing was that they were caught at the border, they were caught alive and, after being tortured, they were killed", he says.

In May 1990, Gjekë Beqi together with his brother Vatë Beqi tried to cross the border, but the border forces dictated and shot at them. Gjeka was injured while his brother was killed.

"On May 18, escaping to Yugoslavia together with my brother, who was killed the same day before me, I was injured and ended up in the hospital. Everyone here was a prisoner, it was a big prison 28 thousand kilometers. Some could not stand this type of prison, some suffered fatally like my brother and Pëllumb Pëllumbi", he says.

Gjeka shows how the regime of the time, in an attempt to stop the escape of young people outside the borders, used violence, murder and massacres, terrorizing the Albanians who sought to escape to freedom.

"Two young men, Dodë Gjerkajn and Gjon Kumbullak, killed them at the border in Pentar, tied them to the back of the military car and terrorized the entire city of Shkodra, telling citizens and passers-by that this is what we do to them who try to run away", he says.

The head of the Association of Former Political Prisoners, Zenel Drangu, who suffered for many years in the notorious former prison of Spaçi, after an attempt to escape, appealed to find the burial place of many Albanians, killed by the dictatorship because of their political beliefs.

"The remains of the 500 killed have not yet been found. So, an appeal to the government and the Ministry of the Interior to show where their murder was committed, where they buried them, as it is the right of the family members to have a grave and carry a bouquet of flowers", he says.

During the years of the dictatorship, starting in 1949, about 1,000 Albanians were killed at the border while trying to cross illegally out of the country in search of freedom. Only in 1990, when the dictatorship was coming to an end, 54 people were killed at the border, most of them young men and women./ VOA