Albania MPs Propose Ban on Studying WWII Communist Crimes

Agron Tufa, head of the Institute for the Study of the Crimes of Communism, presents his annual report to parliament in May. Photo: Malton Dibra/LSA.

The Albanian parliament is currently reviewing the country's law that regulates the study of communism with the aim of banning the study of WWII as part of the Communist period, and is also demanding that the 15 people employed at the institute get security clearance.

The proposed legislation states that "the Communist regime cannot be linked with the Anti-Fascist and National Liberation War [WWII]" because the "elimination of political enemies only started after the war".

The legislation also aims, according to an explanatory note attached to it, to "have trusted people handling classified information".

For that reason, the institute's employees must obtain clearance from a security institution under the supervision of the prime minister, it says.

But Tufa told BIRN that the proposed changes were "typical Sigurimi [Directorate of State Security, Albania's much-feared former intelligence service] techniques" and demonstrated a "Communist-era mentality" to the writing of history.

"We are being treated as a structure of the secret services and not as an institution for the study of history," he said.

He said he suspects that one of the reasons why security clearance is being demanded is a smear campaign against him, started in the media by Socialists who claimed he is a Russian spy.

Tufa, 52, is a writer who graduated from the University of Tirana and the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.

The Institute of the Study of the Crimes of Communism was created in 2010 by a special law and has published several books on Communist rule in the country.

But a few...

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