Political persecution under communism for religions in Albania

AuthorRavesa Nano
Pages56-61
56
Vol. 2 No. 3
January, 2017
Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research
IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania
ISSN 2410-759X
Acces online at www.iipccl.org
Political persecution under communism for religions in Albania
Ravesa Nano
Abstract
As a summary it can be added that the communist system adapted itself to Albanian reality
and circumstances. It translated its laws on the customary law practice. No institutions or
courts of judicial review were permim ed. Many laws or internal decrees and directives were
unconstitutional. The Communist Party and later Labour Party played an important role in
the legal aspects of the country which was against the ideals of freedom, democracy and
human rights practice. Until nowadays the ‘transitional justice’ is a ‘denied justice’ in Albania.
Although this paper was focused only in the communist persecution against, it is important
to mention that the past is recalled in Albania in many forms, by complaining about property
titles, or about the economic compensation of the former political prisoners etc. As the Czech
researcher Vladimir Balas notes ‘one can hardly convince people about the good intentions for
the future without a meticulous dealing with the past’ .
Keywords: persecution, communism, Albania.
Introduction
From the oU cial data results that during the communist regime 59 009 Albanians
were interned in concentration camps, while 7022 losts their lifes. Also from the
data retrieved from the Research Institute of the Communist Crimes and their
Consequences 984 Albanians have died in the prisons of the communist regime,
while 6027 persons have been killed during the dictatorship. At the same time, from
tortures and punishmets of the time 308 persons have lost the mental capabilities
while staying the communist prisons1. These crimes were commim ed in a long period
of time since the end of the Second World War until 1990. It was in their ideology
to eliminate physically all the people that were against the establishment of the
communist system in Albania. The physical elimination started even earlier, between
the diT erent rival groups inside the Communist Party. The rst physical eleminations
and punitive measures included the category labeled such as ‘war criminals’ and
‘collaborators of fascism’. This kind of punitive policy it was not only limited to
those associated with fascism but was extended also to other social groups, who
were against the communist policies. In the Law dated on December 15, 1944 ‘On
the war saboteurs against the people’s power’ were foreseen penalties up to 30 years
of prison, life sentence and death penalty. Except the arrests, imprisonments and
murders, were con scated all the properties of the persons who were declared as
war criminals. The number of persons belonging to this category within the year 1945
goes around 2048 individuals2. According to the Albanian researcher Femi Sufaj ‘this
system was similar to an absolute monarchy where all powers were concentrated in
1 Research Institute of the Communist Crimes and their Consequences. Annual Activity Report
2015. Submim ed to the Albanian Parliament on February 23, 2016.
2 Arkivi Qendror i Shtetit. F.515. V. 1945. D.4 f. 1 -22.

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