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Maliq Camp: Vloçisht

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Emri Maliq Camp: Vloçisht
Vendndodhja: Vloçisht
Viti i Ndërtimit: 1947
Burimi i Informacionit: Kastriot Dervishi, Burgjet dhe Kampet e Shqipërisë komuniste, ISKK publication

In Spring 1947, a prisoners’ camp was created for the drying of the Maliq Swamp. It was first placed in Vloçisht and then moved to Pojan. The camp’s center was in Vloçisht, but there was a work front in Nizhavec too.  Around 2500 political prisoners were concentrated in this camp, including economist and writer Dhimitër Pasko, who slept in cane barracks and worked at least 10-12 hours per day with leech-filled water up to their waists. Some of them lost their lives in that swamp. The 36-year-old priest graduated in Rome, Josif Papamihali, was buried in swamp grounds after dying from exhaustion, whereas lieutenant-colonel Sulejman Vuçiterna, refusing to see himself working in a swamp, would hasten his end by hitting his toes with a shovel as a sign of protest.

In the Vloçisht Camp, prisoners would awake at 3:30 am and start work in the canal at 6:00 am while returning to the camp at 8:00 pm. Some of them, who were too sick to work, were actually buried alive in the canal. This was how hoxha Qazim Melçani, lieutenant-colonel Tefik Hoxha, Riza Qako, Jaçe Zleusha, Luigj Luli, Ali Elezi and others saw their end.