Opening remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama at exhibition titled “SECURITY IN ITS OWN WORDS” at the Prime Minister’s office:

 

First of all, I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to publicly offer my condolences to the family of Sherif Merdani over his death.

I knew him a little, yet I I’ve got a good memory of him!

In the meantime, as far as the issue that was raised here, that issue is like a link along the chain of pending issues over so many years and today I believe we can be proud of the fact that all those who suffered in the hell of communist-era prisons and are still alive, we have fully repaid them the state’s obligation through compensation.

Meanwhile, those who have been subjected to hard labour, being forced to work in mines during serving their sentences, the problem they face in terms of the pension payment is both absurd, but also because of certain aspects of the law.

I hope it would be solved soon and, at least to those who personally went through hardship in the Communist-era prisons and were lucky enough to survive and be released alive, we have settled that primarily huge moral debt, as well as the inherited financial debt unpaid over so many years if you are to take into account the fact that this process was actually launched only seven years ago, while 23 more years had already passed previously.

On the other hand, it is really extremely painful if you are to consider that a place has yet to be identified for so many families to go and commemorate and pay tribute to their beloved ones and ancestors whose remains have yet to be recovered. Meanwhile, it is totally incomprehensible that so many time has been wasted especially in the’90s, when the opportunities were much greater and when the documents disappearance and concealment was still manageable.

However, I think that all the stories of persecutions and tortures coming from the dictatorship, beyond just personal suffering, they are stories of suffering embedded in the social conscience, they are stories of incredible value for the social conscience and the future generations, those who were born during the communist period, but the regime change found them pretty young to be able and build another life, and in those who are born in the post-communist period and for whom communism is a story learned from books or the elderly, but not a fact of life. That’s why we have tried to do as much as we can, although it’s certainly never enough to bring this story to light, precisely in view of the future, and merely for the sake of all of those who have been directly affected by it.

This exhibition is yet another modes but significant contribution, I believe, in the framework of this effort and I am confident that apart from the pending and still unresolved issues and apart from the long delays over so many years, Albania today has succeeded in setting some benchmarks for the past, which are concrete, tangible and physical benchmarks, not simply written or accepted and recognized as stories, and he Authority for Access to Information on ex-Sigurimi Files is one of these benchmarks and probably the most important one and it is today that is obviously praised, as the preceding speeches clearly showed, but it is definitely undisputable that the Authority has provided many people the opportunity to open doors and explore stories yet to be fully discovered.” 

A project launched in autumn 2013 as soon as we took office, and somehow in a paradox, since such a process should have been launched from the very beginning, and should the brilliant example of Germany and other countries should have been followed by Albania so that Albania was not the country we found in 2013, the only country, together with Russia and perhaps some other countries previously part of the former communist empire in our continent, which had taken no step towards shedding light on the documents and facts about persecution.

The law was adopted two years later in 2015 and surprisingly enough resistance was waged precisely by those, without wanting to stir a debate here, should have had this project their warhorse for a fairer Albania, for an Albania readier to deal with its past, but, on the other hand, they did really nothing, because other spaces created back then actually belong to a much later time than the opportunity to become totally available to the public, which is also to be blamed for the disappearance and continued destruction of records and documents over the last 20 or more years.

Many important objects and artefacts of the then museology collection have been stolen, disappeared and sent for recycling after being sold as metal scrap, whereas many spaces and sites have been created in recent years, including the House of Leaves in Tirana, which is the most structured museum, whose residence is located precisely on the site where people were wiretapped for several decades, has drawn international appraisal and it has been awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2018, if I am not wrong.

In 2018, we have also signed a cooperation agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons, and the Commission, and the Authority are working together under this agreement, also through support from the European Union, to further raise public awareness, but of course the more time passes, the more difficult finding traces becomes, because the more difficult finding witnesses becomes for them to help in this process.

However, I am convinced the approach is the right one and we are fully committed to go on with the efforts and bring to light this whole dark part of our historic conscience, so that shedding light on this part contributes to the future and helps those who would be less and less aware of what has happened, if facts are not to be made available, if real life stories are not to be made available and instead are limited to just opinions over the facts that throughout the post-communist period are generally characterized by the sense of profound subjectivism, a sense of an emotionally understandable inclination, but definitely harmful in terms of the historical objectivity.

We have suffered the past, I believe severely, and we are most probably one of the nations and people who have experienced most the harshness and savagery of the Communist dictatorship, and we rank among those most affected and hurt by the dictatorship. However, by concluding I would like to highlight one very significant point we should always bear in mind that in order for a message to be deleted, a communist used to kill the messenger himself and the murder of the messenger just to erase the message itself makes revival through historiography and museology of all these activities and all of those who will ensue, namely all the murdered messengers, makes it very important also this painful part of the recovery of the remains of the killed messengers, because the power of narration of the facts in this case is much stronger than any story told based on subjective opinions of whomever be.

I would like to extend a specific gratitude to all those involved in this process. I know that it is not only the official team of the Authority for Access to Information on ex-Sigurimi Files now, but there are others who are involved, thanks to the opportunity that this Authority provides along the labyrinth still full of mysteries of that era and of course I want to especially thank Genta for the persistence and for the sense of openness of the institution to others and of cooperation with all those who are interested in contributing to this process. Respect for each and every one of you and thankyou to all of those being present here, since beside simply attending this exhibition they are the symbol of evidence and hardship of a past that is a precious and invaluable mine for learning about the future.

Thank you very much!