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Me on "Voice of the People" and "the saboteur's son" on "Voice of America"

2025-11-15 10:57:00, Opinione Luan Rama

Me on "Voice of the People" and "the saboteur's son" on

Elez Biberajt, on the date of birth

Just as they had divided the land where Albanian was spoken and lived with a border since "when Montenegro was Illyrian and when from one sea to the other I was the lord myself", the life of Hysen Kadri's family from Shoshani, which was once part of the Margegaj agricultural cooperative, in the Tropoja district, was also divided by a border from the tribe, village and homeland.

The decision to flee, that is, to escape, was certainly not an easy one. Like all escapes.

Me on "Voice of the People" and "the saboteur's son" on

Because escapes, regardless of the circumstances and motives, are never easy.

And yet, he, Hysen Kadria (Elez Biberaj's father), together with his brother, Niman, had taken the danger into account.

And in 1951 they fled. They left the border and truly fled Albania.

That flight also marked the beginning of the life of Elez Biberaj, who was born a year after the flight, in Plav, Albania, across the border with Albania, on that side of the mountains. Just like today, 73 years ago.

It was November 15, 1952.

Elez Biberaj's parents came from prominent families in the Gjakova Highlands and all over the region. The great patriot Haxhi Zekë Byberi was of Byberaj descent. His mother, on the other hand, was the daughter of the Hoxhaj of Gashi.

Elez Biberaj was rocked in that "cradle." He grew up in the other half, with half of this side embodied in his father and mother.

His life resembles an epic film. There, moments, events and characters of the most diverse and strangest kind intertwine, collide and coexist, that not even in the wildest fantasy could anyone imagine that they could come together. And, for this very reason, I think that the case of Elez Biberaj is completely unique, special and unrepeatable.

Unlike any other case of escape, even though all escapes are ultimately escapes.

Life has not reserved suffering or the many troubles for the family, conceived with epic mountain pride and led by a mother who had the greatest wealth and dignity of nobility.

But they neither defeated him nor weakened him, they did not push him away nor make him retreat.

Although in a different communism, life in Yugoslavia in the 1950s-1960s of the last century was not easy for Hysen Kadri's family. So, neither for the childhood and adolescence of Elezit himself. Although Tito was the first, that period is marked in Yugoslav history (also in the Yugoslav history of Albanians there), as the time of Rankovi?, the time of UDB power, a time of great state massacres against Albanians.

Escaping from there and arriving in the US was salvation. Salvation and a blessing.

Elez Biberaj challenged life. He managed to get the best out of it, in a reality that, although it was not his, he knew how to make it his own, knew how to impose himself on it. The famous journalist of "Voice of America", also managed to become the director of the official voice of the United States of America.

Therefore, beyond the name, Elez Biberaj is today an institution.

It is a reference to a dedicated citizen and patriot.

He is the example of a skilled professional who reached a height to be admired and sought after by many who will become someone in life.

I first met Elez Biberaj in his office. At the "Voice of America". It was March 1996.

Even though he was very friendly, he was also very Albanian in the way he received me and how he behaved so that I would not seem distant, inside me a feeling of guilt, although innocent, prevented me from feeling redeemed. In fact, it seemed to me that the whole experience in those moments had made me so vulnerable that I was expecting Elezi to ask me from moment to moment exactly what I did not want to ask; about the “son of the saboteur”.

I was there, in his office. With him. Eye to eye. I was a journalist for "Zërit të Popullit". And Elez Biberaj had every right to ask me about "the saboteur's son".

The conversation between us was special, open. Very valuable to me, not only on a professional level, but also interesting and exciting without limits, and completely equal as between colleagues, despite the inequality in many things between us.

However, not only did he not mention the topic of the "saboteur", but with a nobility that is unique to his breed, he did not even let me know that he had read that article. That article published in "Zërin i Popullit" on November 18, 1990. So, 35 years ago.

In fact, what I'm talking about wasn't even a piece of writing. It was a letter. An anonymous letter. Without an author. Badly written and published in complete contradiction to the newspaper's professional and ethical standards. And to top it all off, a note on behalf of the editorial staff placed at the end of the article: "Zëri i popullit" does not have the habit of publishing anonymous letters. But, only this time we made an exception, for the very special interest that the anonymous letter above represents."

I don't know whether Elez Biberaj knew or not when he was little and when he was running to school from Hoti to Gjakova and Prizren in those middle years of the last century, before they left the Albanian countries that were under Yugoslavia and went to the USA, that his father had been declared a traitor in his homeland. But today, since there is a precious friendship between us both, I can imagine how the Albanian voice of the "Voice of America" ??felt when he read in "Voice of the People" that they called him "the son of a saboteur" and accused his father of being "sent by the Yugoslav UDB, as a saboteur and murderer in our country".

At that time, I had not even worked at the newspaper for three months, but among colleagues we had discussed "the saboteur's son," who himself came to us as a "saboteur" through the waves of "Voice of America."

The great collapse that was about to engulf us was felt everywhere, even though it was not acknowledged.

"Voice of America" ??through the voice of Elez Biberaj had become a message of freedom. That voice foretold us what was expected to happen among us and where we needed to go. Therefore, neither then nor now, I find no reason to understand who and why ordered the publication of that letter.

Neither then nor later, whenever I met Elez Biberaj, did he ever ask me why “Zëri i Popullit” was forced to break the habit and publish an anonymous letter! The leaders of the party or the newspaper could very well find a militant who would agree to do the same thing. There were plenty of people who would take it upon themselves to sell their name. But surprisingly, “one of those anonymous ones” was chosen as if to testify to the intellectual and professional misery, but also a sense of complex and inferiority in confronting the “son of the saboteur” of “Voice of America”.

This example alone is enough, namely the fact that Elez Biberaj never considered or was interested in learning any details about that anonymous letter, which arrived at the editorial office with an order from above and was published in "Zërin i Popullit", to understand the height of his nobility.

He never asked me and he never will ask me, because his canons are of a different nature. They are the canons of a free man. Of a man who has freedom as the cult of life.

So today, on his birthday, I have to tell Elez Biberaj that his life is the model we need. At the very least, to get to know him.

Elez Biberaj has an obligation to give us this model, to offer it to us generously, with the kindness that is his. And with nobility.

Because Elez Biberaj is no longer just about himself. And not just about his family.

It belongs to all of us.