A shocking testimony from 1949 sheds light on one of the darkest practices of the State Security during the communist terror period: the arbitrary arrests, torture and mysterious deaths of innocent citizens. Archival documents reveal the plea of a Berat mother, Makbule Nuri Mukavelati, who addressed the highest state institutions after the murder of her husband in the investigator's office.
Makbule Mukavelati, mother of eight minor children, appeared on February 3, 1949 with a letter addressed to the Ministry of Interior, the Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Military Court, and the Party Revision Commission. She asked for only one thing: to know why her husband, Nuri Osman Mukavelati, was taken from her and why he died after being arrested on the night of February 17, 1947 by the State Security in Berat.
According to her testimony, for a month no one gave her any information, until — without warning — her husband's blood-soaked clothes arrived at her door, along with the news that he had died in the hospital. She was not allowed to see the body, nor to receive the corpse, nor to have any explanation about the real causes of death.
“The condition of the bloodstained clothes showed the horror of the torture inflicted on my husband,” she wrote in her plea to the authorities, emphasizing that he was not suffering from any illness and that the sudden death was inexplicable without torture.
Makbulja also mentioned the names of two Berat Security officers who, according to her, were responsible: Strati Papa and Sulo Gradeci, who at the time were serving in other structures of the Ministry of Interior.
In December of that same year, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Labor Party responded. Instead of an investigation, punishment of the guilty, or an act of justice, the response was a bureaucratic justification, where the death of Nuri Mukavelati was explained with a list of Latin terms such as:
"nphite, ascesis, fredo, pleur soctale, deperimento organico, anemia...".
Not a word about torture. Not a word about removing the body. Not a word about the responsibility of the officers.
Just a formula to close the file — and the drama of a family with 8 children who was left without support.
Makbula's letter is today a rare document that reflects the reality of state violence in post-war Albania and the courageous testimony of a woman who sought the truth at a time when no one dared to speak.
Full text of the letter
February 3, 1949
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
ALPSH AUDIT COMMISSION.
PROSECUTOR, HIGH MILITARY COURT
Tirana
The undersigned Makbule Nuri Mukavelati from the Murat Celepi neighborhood of Berat submits the following prayer:
The State Security organs of Berat, in the middle of the night of February 17, 1947, took my husband NURI OSMAN MUKAVELATI without knowing the reason or the crime he had committed.
After my husband's arrest and since I had 8 young children to take care of, I was interested in Nuri's condition, but the Security agencies did not give me any direction or promise his quick release, telling me that he had been taken in for questioning and that he was not guilty.
However, a month after the date of receipt, the man's clothes, covered in blood, were sent to me and at the same time I was informed of his death at the Berat Hospital. The condition of the bloodstained clothes shows the horror of the torture that had been inflicted on the man and which caused his death.
This fact is undeniable because my husband was not sick enough to cause a sudden death, and especially so as not to reveal the horrors of the torture inflicted on my husband, I was not allowed to receive the body, and not only that, but we were not even allowed to see him for the last time.
For the sake of the 8 families who have been left at the mercy of their dark fate, I ask that this request be carefully considered, clarifying the reasons for the arrest and death of my husband Nuri Osmani.
In this case, I submit that the officers responsible for State Security in Berat were Strati Papa and Sulo Gradeci, the first serving in Peshkopi and the other at the Ministry of the Interior.
I am fully convinced that under the spirit of Resolution XI of the Historic Decisions of the First Congress of the Albanian Communist Party, the issue will be examined, providing me with the necessary clarifications.
⸻
Central Committee's response (original):
Party of Labor of Albania
Secretariat of the Central Committee
27.12.1949
Mrs.
MAKBULE MUKAVELATI
Murat Celepi neighborhood
BERAT.
In response to your letter addressed some time ago to the Central Committee of the Albanian People's Party, although this issue does not belong to the Central Committee of the Party; after we inquired with the competent bodies, it turns out that the issue of your husband is as follows:
He was arrested by the Security Section - Berat and died in hospital from the disease: "Nphite, ascese, fredo, pleur soctale deperimento organico, enemia and trochiyr ornika".
