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.

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The camp commander, Yeiz Gjoka, from Gusmar, Tepelena, had previously been a shepherd.

Internees

• • Mërkur Babameto (-)
  • Panareja Dhima (-)

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In the beginning of 1953, 700 prisoners worked in this unit. In the command’s report, it was admitted that this camp’s prisoners were violated barbarically.  Neim Musaraj was camp commander.

The data from the biography of camp commissar Njazi Banushi indicate that the camp operated from July 1952 to September 1953. This camp’s staff was made of formerly agricultural labourers with elementary education.

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Beqir Ajazi, one of the convicts who worked at this camp, writes:

“In the Spring of 1950, some of us were taken to the Yzberisht Camp. The textile factory was almost finished and the canal of dyes, with which fabrics would be coloured, needed to be built. After so many years in labour camps, this was the best and most comfortable. The land was softer and the treatment more humane.”

After the works finished, prisoners were taken to the Artisanal Workshop.

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They were at the Elbasan-Peqin automobile road, not too far from Bishqem. Works started on 2 January 1950 and continued until 16 September 1950. Five hundred prisoners worked in poor conditions for the construction of the bridge. A large amount of work was performed, such as moving of soil, filling, transport, etc. According to the camp comman’s estimations, 70,350 working days were performed by the prisoners. Other convicts came here from Lekaj in February 1950. According to testimonies, convicts from the prisons of Durrës, Vlora, Tirana, Gjirokastra had been taken here.

The works were directed by imprisoned engineers Avdulla Muça, Mark Dindi, Namik Xhelili. Prisoners were divided in three work brigades. Some of those who worked at the site were Doctor Hasan Jero, Xhaferr Ypi’s sons, Asllan and Tomor Ypi, Zafer Xhafer Vila, Beqir Ajazi, Koço Semini, Genc Preng Pervizi, Father Donat Kurti etc. Tasi Marko was the commander directing the works.

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Convicts would be exploited to build an approximately 50-km-long irrigation canal that would extract the water from the Shkumbin River and take it to the fields between Kavaja and Peqin.

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In a report dated 13 August 1948 of the Branch of Enforcement of Criminal Decisions, it was mentioned that:

“The prisoners going to work every day are 623 and their performance is quite satisfactory.Able-bodied children have also been put to work three-four hours per day.”

The canal was inaugurated on 21 July 1949. The main length of the canal was 38.5 km, whereas the network where it was distributed was 113 km.

In 1953, convicts from Camp No. 2 come to work for the Devoll-Thanë canal, eight kilometres long and 25 metres deep. They worked that year from March to November .

Prisoners:

• •  Foto Bala
  • Isuf Hysenbegasi

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After the works finished, the prisoners returned to Maliq. Beqir Ajazi was one of these prisoners. He writes:

“It was finally decided for us to leave Beden and go to the Lekaj Camp. The Durrës-Rrogozhina railway passed through a few small hills fully made of gravel. According to the road plan, the track’s level in these hills needed to lower to the quota required by the train. This lowering of the level of hills in that damned gravel was very, very difficult, not to say impossible, especially for the voluntary youth. Therefore, they decided to take us there, because not only the wish to give the country a railway, but also that of violence acted upon us.”

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Father Zef Pllumi was one of the prisoners who came from Shkodra and worked in this camp. It is interesting that 29 Catholic priests worked in a single brigade. They had all come from the Shkodra Prison. They were: Mikel Koliqi, Tom Laca, Nikollë Shelqeti, Nikollë Laska, Rrok Fisku, Nikollë Mazreku, Ndue Suma, Ndue Soku, Mark Hasi, Zef Pllumi, Vlash Muçaj, Pal Gjini, Injac Gjoka, Gegë Luma, Agostin Ashiku, Donat Kurti, Çiril Cani (75 years old), Frano Kiri, Dionis Makaj, Karlo Serreqi, Leon Kabashi, Aleks Baqli, Filip Mazreku, Mëhill Miraj, Mark Harapi, Jak Gardini, Anton Luli and Alfonc Çuni.

The first work was flattening a small hilly area by the Shkumbin River. Convicts worked eight hours per day, but an hour would be added “in honour of Comrade Stalin”, after that another one “in honour of Comrade Tito”, and lastly another hour “for the commander, comrade Enver.” All living conditions in the camp were poor.

Along with the work itself, the walking distance from the work front to our camp grew more and more tiring. The canal’s length increased the distance in kilometres from the camp, therefore their return from work would become increasingly exhausting.

“Bymid-October, the Beden Camp had become this lump of waste that deserved setting fire to so as not to pollute the earth with more germs”, – Zef Pllumi writes.

Aside from opening canals, the prisoners were also exploited for deforestation, planting etc., and their number of working days was assessed at 16,017.

By September 1950, convicts who worked in Bishqem came to this camp.

The camp commander was Beqir Liço, who used to be at the Orman-Pojan Camp.

By November 1950, Shkodra’s prisoners returned to their places.

A few days before the camp was closed, convict Mustafa Vata was killed in the camp seemingly due to an escape attempt. He had served two years in prison and needed only a few more days to be released. Even the camp command reached the conclusion that he did not want to escape and that the guard was wrong.

Convicts

• • Mikel Koliqi
  • Tom Laca
  • Nikollë Shelqeti
  • Nikollë Laska
  • Rrok Fisku
  • Nikollë Mazreku
  • Ndue Suma
  • Ndue Soku
  • Mark Hasi
  • Zef Pllumi
  • Vlash Muçaj
  • Pal Gjini
  •  Injac Gjoka
  •  Gegë Luma
  •  Agostin Ashiku
  • Donat Kurti
  •  Çiril Cani
  •  Frano Kiri
  • Dionis Makaj
  • Karlo Serreqi
  •  Leon Kabashi
  •  Aleks Baqli
  • Filip Mazreku
  •  Mëhill Miraj
  •  Mark Harapi
  •  Jak Gardini
  •  Anton Luli
  • Alfonc Çuni
  • Beqir Ajazi
  • Mustafa Vata

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