By Linda Karadaku for Southeast European Times in Tirana -- 19/04/11
"…shots were heard at the Kiri River at 5 o'clock in the morning, the communists were executing people," remembers Klara Luli Shiroka. [Ana Pekmezi/SETimes]
Albania has no official figures of how many opponents of the communist regime were killed, persecuted, or sent to concentration camps and isolated areas.
But associations of former political prisoners, quoted by the Albanian daily Shqip, estimate that 5,577 men and 450 women were killed by the regime between 1946 and 1991. Families, even distant relatives of the "enemies", paid in other ways as well.
Many women were sent to prison for years, accused of "agitation and propaganda" against the regime, leaving a generation of children largely left to fend for themselves.
Now 72, Klara Luli Shiroka has lived a tragic life.
It began in 1944, when her father Gjelosh Luli, a career officer of the King Zog regime, went to the mountains in the north, where he battled partisans until he was killed. "He had contrary ideas to communists," Klara says.
In 1945, his widow and two young daughters were taken away in a lorry with others.
"I remember when they sent us to Valias. It was a big stall, about 30 families all together. The young men and strong women went out and got tree branches and made beds. Some others cleaned the place and some women used a big pot to make macaroni," Klara recalls.
Later, in Kucova, the whole group was left for days in the yard of a prison where they slept on the ground. "All they would give us was a bit of cornbread and a leek for each family," she adds.
The constant moves continued until 1948, when the communists decided to send them back to Shkodra. At that point, they had little more than a small pile of clothes and a little suitcase.
They would avoid eye contact with former acquaintances, for the safety of all concerned.
"People, even people we knew, were passing by and turning their heads in another direction, or we would turn our heads in another direction, so as not to cause them trouble. [This was] when shots were heard at the Kiri River at 5 o'clock in the morning, the communists executing people," she explains.
A relative, Katrina Luc Nishi, managed to take them in, but the accommodations were very modest.
Then the communists took Klara's mother away, sentencing her to five years in prison for agitation and propaganda. Her two little girls were left alone with Katrina, who did her best to support them.
"My mother was a very strong woman. She used to tell us, "keep your heads up, you have to remember whose daughters you are…," says Klara. Elena died after 1990 and experienced the fall of communism.
Klara married Engjell Shiroka, whose brother had also gone to prison "for politics". Together they had two children.
"My mother explained to my children what had happened and why we were in such a situation. She explained to them the communist system. She showed them where our house had been, which was burned to the ground by the communists," Klara explains.
But it is a story her mother told her about prison that haunts her. "There was a sentence written in the cell, carved in the wall with a nail. It said "God is with us!" My mother stood and prayed to God to save us and to be able to get out of that place," Klara tells SETimes.
Source: SETimes.com
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