REPORTED EXTERMINATION OF SOME 300 TIRANA CITIZENS, MAY 51

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500440007-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 5, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved Fo
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
11
INFORMATION RE
PORT
SUBJECT Reported Extermination of Some 300 Tirana Citizens,
May 51
COUNTRY Albania
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'1MII OOCYN [NT CONTAINI INIONYATI OM A/19CTINO TNC NATIONAL OCICNI(
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(THIS Is UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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This report 18 ?or the use within L
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NO. OF PAGES 2
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SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
"One night in May 1951 two hand grenades were thrown into the
Soviet Embassy in~Tirana. That same night, in retaliation for thisa"act of the
sabotage against the greatest friend of the Albanian people "-- to use the
official charge. come 400 persons were arrested, mostly members of the
intelligentsia. Three hundred were put to dP'ryth that same night. The rest
were detained at the Burgu Iri and Burgu Iv e~c,;r prisons of the Si urmi Shtetit days rely vea of the arre aed The following
persons went prom one prison to another
trying to locate them and give them food. rued fbIr about 300 persons had
been refused and returned to the donors.
"The persona killed that night included:
(a) Ali Kace'li, aged 40, a business man who owned a shop on Rr.
Barikatavet in Tirana. He lived on Rr. Fiches with his wife and
four children. They were on starvation I level after his death.
Agencies Indicated above, It Is not
o lg
osbetransmitted overseas mwith uts the t concurrence eof the
originating office through the Asai3tant Director of the Office of Co1166ton and DIssemInation, CIA
 Approved For Release 2005/08/17 : CIA-R QP9)Q809A000500440007-3
4.
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5. "Of the 100 intellectuals who were arrested
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25X1 reactionaries and "enemies of the people". ]It included many former Fascists,
but also many innocent?persons, who'were merely intellectuals and businessmen
of bourgeois origin. Struga, the Chief of t:e S.S. in Tirana, sent the list
to the MVD in Moscow. The MVD ordered theirlextermiaation in some feasible
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om
a
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CONFIDENTIAL[
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(b) (fnu) Elezi, aged 55, a pharmacist wno was unemployed in May 1951.
He was married to a French wo and had two children. They lived'i
on Rr. Durresit in Tirana.
"The chief of the Sigurimi Shtetit (Securi'1,,L ol'ice-S. u.) in TiLeana in
May 1951 was Xhavid Struga. His official title was Shef I S.SH_ AvtPt_
Tirane.
0 one of the people release
Tirana Radio Station.
dons I
the deaths of the 300 per n may were ordered by the MVD in
Moscow'. The Albanian S.SH. had compiled a fist of 400 persons considered
e
c o sabotage or cri against the regime. Two agents 1
of the Albanian S.SS. threw the grenades int the Embassy garden. (This might
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but not killed, about six were re
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CONFIDSNTIALj