As WWII liberation marked, unease lingers over communist-era legacy

Celebration of 70 years of liberation from Nazi occupation and end of WWII in the country brings out lingering issues about the brutal communist regime that followed.
TIRANA, Nov. 27 – Over the weekend, Albania is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in the country and its liberation from the Nazis. But the celebrations have been tinged by the brutal legacy of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha that followed.
There have been several protests against what some see as an attempt to legitimize the communists through their role during the war.
A group of human rights activists and former anti-communist dissidents have called for more focus on the crimes and practices of the communist regime installed after the war.
At an event in Tirana this week, they also proposed legislation, that if approved by parliament, would shed light on the files of Sigurimi, Albania’s feared communist-era secret police. A group of MPs also supports the legislation.
The draft law aims to shed light on the crimes of communism and letting Albanians know whether their public officials were formerly associated with the communist secret police.
Elsa Ballauri, head of the Albanian Group for Human Rights, said Albanians have a right to see the secret files of the communist regime.
German Ambassador to Albania Hellmut Hoffmann attended the meeting to bring his country’s experience with opening the secret files of the former communist following unification between East and West said that opening the files will be a hard process.
“This is not just a matter of parliament, the media and public discussions — there are thousands of families involved,” he said. “The issue is how to deal with it in a way that protects the dignity of the victims.”
Afrim Krasniqi, an academic who has researched on the crimes of communism, said the secret service files should have been opened during the 1990s, but a series of successive failed attempts had meant the process had stalled and even been abused to target specific officials.
“We talk about the secret files whenever approaching election campaigns,” he said.
However, this week, Prime Minister Edi Rama also weighed in, calling on action “to release the collective memory from the communist nightmares.”
He hinted that Albania should no longer keep the former communist secret intelligence police files hidden from the public.
Post-communist Albania has made many attempts to open the files. But they have always failed. Sometimes they have been selectively used to stop people running for a political post. Such efforts have only sparked the anger and the debate of the common people who are entitled to know the work of the former regime, as they have been promised.
Many Albanians have called that all the former informers of the secret police should become known.
Political prisoners are still seeking compensation for unjust political imprisonment suffered, and many activists from that community are strongly against any honors bestowed on Hoxha and his regime.
With the motto “condemning the communist genocide,” former political prisoners and activists gathered in Shkodra this week seeking condemnation of the crimes of communism and a better treatment of their community, which continues to be the poorest of the Albanian society.
They said they are fearful certain segments of the political left are trying to rehabilitate Hoxha and his regime.