The spies among us

Sixteen years after the collapse of the communist regime in Albania the debate on the former collaborators of the State Security Service, the former secret police of the communist regime has once again been revived. The parliamentary majority controlled by the Democratic Party of the centre right which is in office appears to be in the process of rapidly drafting a new law to address the issue of former collaborators of the secret police known as the State Security Service. In comparison with all the countries of the former communist Eastern Bloc, Albania perhaps constitutes the most extreme case of violence and crime committed under communism by all the instruments of violence including the army of secret collaborators of the secret police. According to official information, in fact quite controversial, it is thought that one out of every three Albanians collaborated with the secret police. In many cases now made public since the collapse of the communist regime, people have disclosed that the network of secret police agents had penetrated the very cells of society, to the point where these collaborators sold out members of their own families and even parents, children or parents in some cases. Although the phenomenon was not Albanian, in the case of Albania this phenomenon was extreme in relation to how widespread it was and the viciousness of the crimes committed. After the collapse of the communist regimes in the former communist Eastern Europe, a number of countries called for the secret files of the authoritarian dictatorships or regimes to be opened. It looked as though a similar process was also going to take place in Albania of confronting the past by making public the archives of the secret police. One of the aims of the action launched in the other former East European communist bloc countries including Albania was to purge the new political class, prohibiting forever or at least for some time, the participation in politics and other top institutions of the State of all the former collaborators of the secret police. It is now more than a decade and a half later and the debate about the former collaborators of the secret police of communism has been revived strongly. Why and why now?
During the last fifteen years in Albania, the issue of the former collaborators of the secret police has been utilized politically by two administrations, one belonging to the Democratic Party (Center Left) and one to the socialists. All governments that have come to office in Albania have tried to use these issues to attack and wipe out political opponents. In 1995, the Government of Mr. Berisha, at that time the President of the Republic passed a law in Parliament which had been designed to prohibit former collaborators of the secret police from participating in politics or from being appointed to top positions. The law itself is seriously controversial it was very strongly opposed by the socialists at that time in Opposition. The law was passed on the eve of 1996 parliamentary elections and it was obvious that the aim was to prevent a number of important Opposition leaders from standing. Hen the socialists came to office following the very grave 1997 crisis they showed reluctance in general to deal with the issue of the former collaborators. This came about because in a certain manner the socialists were also heirs to the communist party. What has happened over the past ten years has been nothing else that exploiting this issue to blackmail and threaten political opponents. The secret files have never been opened and whoever has been in office has preferred to cast a sly glance in their direction and only for short term political interests. The primary aim has always been to get rid of political opponents of the moment or to exert pressure and blackmail against a given law maker, minister, director, judge etc. The local media has often published names of MPs and top officials-former collaborators of the secret police. The tactics used to date have been more than clear-not to open the secret files of the time of communism, but keep them tightly closed so they can be used as pressure for political gain. The issue of the former collaborators has again come back to Parliament. Bearing in mind the way these files have been politically used so far and the current circumstances, it is difficult to believe that the spies in our midst are not going to be used again.