The graves of the village of Trestenik in Devoll were located near the road leading to Llabanicë, at the spring of Dromi on the riverside. There they hastily dug a hole and threw his body in. They threw a few shovels of clay on top and ran away. One leg, one hand and part of his green scarf remained outside. It must have been midnight. The year 1950. In the morning, when the residents of Trestenik went out to go to work, they found the body of a man on the riverbank, half buried. At first they stopped, frightened by what they saw…!
The leg and hand left outside the grave were frightening. But suddenly they understood what had happened. Everyone knew Haxhi Barolli's green scarf. He had brought that scarf from Australia. He had been an immigrant there for years, since the 1920s. He had returned to his homeland, homesick for his family. In the evenings, when the village club gathered, he would tell his fellow villagers about Australia. He hoped that Albania would become like that.
Everyone understood that the world far away had been different. From there, Haxhi Barolli had returned rich enough that the whole family could live without any difficulty. But there came a day when he realized that he shouldn't talk too much about Australia. Government people said every day that capitalism was making people starve. He could no longer say the opposite of what the government was saying. He had often noticed that he was being eavesdropped on. The people of the Security Service were always behind his steps.
Silent as a stone
Haxhi Barolli became silent as a stone, but he was still being watched just as much as before. The security people were not stopping. It mattered little to them whether he spoke or not. Being economically well off was a bad sign for the village of Trestenik, which was barely making ends meet. Barolli had begun to think that they could imprison him, but he had never believed that they could kill him, looking him straight in the eye.
The plan for the assassination had been ready for a long time. They were only waiting for the right opportunity to execute it. The village People's Council (that's what it was called then, "people's"), assigned groups of three or four villagers to cut wood in the forest for the border post. On one of these days, they assigned Haxhi Barolli to the group of Bariq and Haxhi Merolli. They left early in the morning. After a while, they entered the "Tëllog Groves" on the border with Greece.
From the moment they told him they were going to cut wood on the Greek border, he had a feeling that things were not going well, but he consoled himself by thinking that he would be careful with every step he took. He would not give them a reason to arrest him. He hoped that he would put their schemes out of play. However, it was no surprise that he would also have the fate of his brother, Selman.
Selman's fate
For his brother, Selman, the murder plan was urgently hatched. An unexpected event was exploited. Two young children from the village, aged 10, cut the telephone line of the Border Post. They wanted to make chains for their pocket knives with the telephone wire. They had no idea what they had done. The alarm for cutting the telephone was given from the very first moment.
The Sigurimi men arrived in the village without delay. No one was left unquestioned. The perpetrators had to be found at all costs. According to the Sigurimi men, there must have been hostile groups in the village. The anxiety was great. Someone might even be arrested. It was soon discovered that the line had been cut by two small children. The village breathed a sigh of relief.
At least there would be no arrests, but the Sigurimi people didn't think so. They couldn't let such a case slip away. They taught the two children to say that Uncle Selmani had taught them how to cut the telephone line at the border post, and they said that Uncle Selmani had taught them. To make everything seem true, a witness was also fabricated. He said: "The scissors with which the telephone line was cut belonged to Selman Barolli." That was enough.
The terrible news swept through the entire village. Uncle Selman would be shot that very day. "The criminal would not be allowed to live another day." People began to listen to what would happen. Were all the rumors about Uncle Selman's murder true?! No one could say anything for sure. They prayed to God that the government people would come to their senses and stop bothering Uncle Selman. It was 1949.
Preparation for execution
The preparation for the execution was a real horror. They took Uncle Selman home and took him to the square near Uncle Rakip's shop. They stopped at the poplar tree near the mosque. Someone thought they were going to hang him. People watched from the windows. No one dared to go outside. That day, anyone they had any suspicions about could be taken off the street and executed without any hesitation, declaring him an accomplice of Selman Barolli.
Suddenly, the order was given: all the people of the village were to be brought by force to the shop square; everyone had to see how a criminal who did not like popular power died. They were able to bring only a few people and school children. No one looked at Uncle Selmani. They did not want to see his death. They would try to always remember him alive. Suddenly, a volley of machine gun fire was heard. Uncle Selmani's life had stopped. The poplar and the nearby mosque were silent. The children were seized with horror.
For whole nights, frightening dreams entered their sleep. The crowd of people they had brought there was also silent. That day was especially unforgettable for Haxhi Barolli, Selmani's brother, who had already been sent to the "Tëllog Groves" to cut wood for the border post. Why had they taken him there? Would Haxhi Barolli be able to escape execution? Perhaps life had reserved the same fate for Ibrahim Barolli's sons!
In the forest
Haxhi Barolli, the brother of Selman Barolli, who was shot without trial in the middle of the village of Trestenik, had been declared undesirable. Haxhiu was a danger to the communists. He knew more than a person living in Albania at that time should know. He had influence in the village and his word was listened to because he was a wise man. In conversations with his fellow villagers he shed light on the life that the world was leading.
It was a revelation about the information darkness that was trying to keep people's minds in the dark. While he was cutting wood in the forest, he noticed that the commander of the border post and a soldier from Peć had approached him. He knew the soldiers because they came down to Trestenik every day. He left his work and looked at them to understand what was happening.
"You are under arrest for attempted escape," they said. Haxhi Barolli could not believe his ears. When did he try to escape? Didn't they find him chopping wood in the forest? Wasn't he back there, in the same place they left him in the morning? He didn't have time to think any longer. They handcuffed him. Then a stern order was given to the soldier who was there: "Kill him!"
To be so close to death, in such an incredible way, he couldn't believe it. The officer was screaming: "Freedom!" The soldier wasn't following the order. He didn't even intend to obey his superior. "Freedom!" he kept screaming.
eXECUTION
Of course, the order had come from above, it had to be carried out without fail. Haxhi Barolli was to die in the forest, according to plan, in an escape attempt. The Border Post officer snatched the machine gun from the soldier's hands and emptied all the cartridges onto Haxhi's body.
Haxhi Llëçi, chairman of the executive committee of the city of Bilisht, took the victim's watch from his hand. He had also brought the watch from Australia. They brought his lifeless body to the middle of the village. They left him where they had killed his brother, in the shop square, near the poplar tree and the mosque, and fled.
A torrential rain fell all night. Perhaps after midnight they came and took him away to bury him somewhere by the river. There they hastily dug a hole and threw his body in. They threw a few shovels of mud on top and left. A leg, a hand and part of the green scarf he had brought from Australia remained outside.
They left them like that specifically to show everyone that Haxhi Barolli and his Australia were finally dead. But even that wasn't enough. The Chairman of the People's Council, Hamdi Shpuza, and the Sigurimi men: Shahini, Qenani, etc., forced people to step on the corpse, but no one obeyed.
For the residents of Trestenik, Ibrahim Barolli's sons were alive. A few days later, his family was deported. Only Ramiu, Haxhiu's eldest son, was missing. He had escaped. Then the other son, Nezhdet, crossed the border. The fate of Ibrahim's sons also befell Murat Barolli and his brother, Veli Ballolli, etc. Their families were deported, while his sons either escaped or ended up in prison./ Memorie.al
