ALBANIA/FILE: Diehard Hoxha supporters celebrate late Albanian dictator's 100th birthday

Record ID: 560696

  • Title: ALBANIA/FILE: Diehard Hoxha supporters celebrate late Albanian dictator's 100th birthday
  • Date: 15th October 2008
  • Summary: (CEEF) GJIROKASTER CITY (OCTOBER 13, 2008) (REUTERS) VIEW OF CITY HOUSE WHERE LATE ALBANIAN DICTATOR, ENVER HOXHA, WAS BORN MAN WALKING PAST GRAFFITI ON BUS STOP, READING: "WELCOME ENVER, OUR SON, 1908-2008" BOY WALKING PAST GRAFFITI ON WALL, READING: "ENVER PKSH" (ALBANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY) YOUNG WOMEN WALKING PAST WALL WITH GRAFFITI, READING: "ENVER PKSH 1908" WITH BLUE GRAFFITI SPRAYED OVER TOP BY ANTI-COMMUNISTS, READING: "MUT", THE ALBANIAN WORD OF EXCREMENT. CLOSE OF GRAFFITI, READING: "ENVER PKSH 1908" WITH BLUE GRAFFITI SPRAYED OVER THE TOP BY ANTI-COMMUNISTS, READING: "MUT" EVENT ORGANISER HANGING PICTURES OF HOXHA ON WALL HOXHA SUPPORTERS STANDING IN FRONT OF HOXHA'S HOUSE HOLDING LARGE PORTRAIT OF FORMER DICTATOR FOLKLORE GROUP FROM SOUTHERN REGION OF VLORE SINGING COMMUNIST-ERA SONGS FOR HOXHA VARIOUS OF HOXHA'S SON, ILIR HOXHA, SHAKING HANDS WITH AND GREETING SUPPORTERS ILIR HOXHA'S WIFE, TEUTA HOXHA, READING LETTER TO THE RALLY BY NEXHMIJE HOXHA, HOXHA'S WIDOW. (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) YOUNG WOMAN HOLDING PICTURE OF ENVER HOXHA, SAYING: "Our grandparents have always told us how much care Enver Hoxha showed for the people." SUPPORTER HOLDING CASSETTE WITH PICTURE OF HOXHA / KISSING CASSETTE COVER CASSETTE READING: "SONGS FOR ENVER HOXHA" VARIOUS OF VETERANS AND SUPPORTERS SHOWING EACH OTHER SOUVENIRS THEY HAVE CREATED TO COMMEMORATE HOXHA VETERAN OF THE ANTI-FASCIST NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR, RAHMAN PETOVA, WEARING MEDALS RECEIVED DURING THE COMMUNIST REGIME (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) VETERAN OF THE ANTI-FASCIST NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR, SHERIF MASKAJ, SAYING: "In the lifetime of Enver Hoxha, the people were happy, there were not crimes and murders. While nowadays, as Enver predicted, man eats man. This is what happens now." (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) ETHNIC ALBANIAN FROM KOSOVO, REXHEP KRASNIQI, SAYING: "If Enver Hoxha had not existed, if there would be no Tirana and Albania, and if they were not involved in defending the nation, there would have not been a liberation war in Kosovo and Kosovo would not have been a republic now." "LABOUR OF ALBANIA RE-ORGANISED" PARTY HANGING ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) FORMER ALBANIAN DICTATOR, ENVER HOXHA'S SON, ILIR HOXHA, SAYING: "All who came here and many others elsewhere have told me positive things, but the media has censored them. I think it is nonsense that they are afraid of a dead dictator. His power does not consist in what appears in the media but in what he has done for his people: The Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, the ethnic Greeks and the Cham Albanians in Greece." U.S. TOURISTS VISITING HOXHA'S HOUSE, NOW AN ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM ILIR HOXHA TALKING TO TOURISTS U.S. TOURIST GIVING ILRI HOXHA BADGE OF U.S. FLAG ILIR HOXHA HOLDING BADGE OF U.S. FLAG SUPPORTERS WAITING OUTSIDE HOXHA'S HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: History,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4KXV5XKSHIWPXT9J3706U6UAD
  • Story Text: Diehard supporters of Albania's late Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha, joined his son to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth on Monday, hoping history would one day restore his now-tarnished image.
    Hoxha's widow, Nexhmije, and his son Ilir wanted to welcome visitors inside three-storey stone mansion where he was born, but authorities refused to let them use the house which now serves as the town's ethnographical museum.
    Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha described the celebration as monstrous and shameful, saying Hoxha had persecuted, interned, jailed and executed a quarter of Albanians.
    Graffiti in red showing Hoxha's communist star, the acronyms of the Communist party Hoxha led, his name and date of birth are all over Gjirokaster. Some has been whitewashed or written over by detractors.
    Hoxha supporters proudly showed off the memorabilia they had collected, lamenting times gone by.
    "In the lifetime of Enver Hoxha, the people were happy, there were not crimes and murders. While nowadays, as Enver predicted, man eats man. This is what happens now," said veteran of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, Sherif Maskaj.
    "If Enver Hoxha had not existed, if there would be no Tirana and Albania, and if they were not involved in defending the nation, there would have not been a liberation war in Kosovo and Kosovo would not have been a republic now," said ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, Rexhep Krasniqi.
    Hoxha's son Ilir told Reuters that the media has censored positive comments about his father.
    "I think it is nonsense that they are afraid of a dead dictator.
    His power does not consist in what appears in the media but in what he has done for his people, the Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, the ethnic Greeks and the the Cham Albanians in Greece," he said.
    Asked by reporters if the family felt guilty about the repression and persecution under Hoxha's rule, Ilir, who in the past spent a year in jail for defending his father, said, everything had happened according to the law.
    Enver Hoxha was born on October 16, 1908, and after leading the World War Two resistance, ruled Albania for 40 years as one the world's most reclusive and oppressive states. He died on April 11, 1983.
    He destroyed mosques and churches and banned religion, closed the borders and in a bout of paranoia built thousands of pillbox bunkers across the Adriatic and Ioanian Sea coastlines.
    Today most Albanians condemn Hoxha's rule as a dark period. Although still largely rural, the country has seen fast economic growth and a building boom in recent years as it tries to catch up with wealthier European nations.
    But in Gjirokaster, amid booming songs and speeches against the backdrop of a larger-than-life picture of Hoxha, dozens of supporters hailed him for changing Albania from a feudal country to a developed nation with free schools and education.

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