“The conditions at Spaç Camp… They would take us, send us to work, to extract copper, pyrite, with quotas. If we didn’t meet them, they’d put us in isollation cells. We were obliged to fill the wagons, meaning work was compulsory, Dhimo Sinani would come out and say: “Let’s go to work”. Without bread, without anything. They didn’t allow us to take bread with us. We would hold hands, go to the mine, and start extracting copper and pyrite.

But in the barracks where you slept, how many people were there?

In the barracks where we slept, we were 40, 45 people. The bunk beds were three-tiered.”

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“They opened Spaç Prison for the first time. I was young, so they assigned me as a miner. After about five days of instruction, they gave me a front there, two wagon operators, prisoners of course, and I started working, but the work was extremely difficult, underground, mine, those pyrite formations, because Spaç Mine produced pyrite for Laç Factory, and the prisoners built Laç, but I was not in that camp. The factory would take it after we extracted it, but the tunnel formations were extremely…, it was very risky there because they would always collapse, and there were gases too.

Were there any accidents during work?

There were many, and I got caught once, but thankfully it was a small black. I even have a scar here on my head, but I was lucky. There were a lot of people there; it was terrifying.

Was the food enough?

No, it wasn’t enough for the work we were doing; it wasn’t sufficient.”

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“I worked in the mine, in the tunnel, only advancements and on production fronts. Just load materials and get out. There were large spaces, a plane could fit inside. They would put in a metal plate, and we filled many wagons: 30-35-40 tons, for three people. While advancement is the opening of the tunnel. I also worked on those, in the third zone.

How were the working conditions?

Very difficult, especially in advancement, where the tunnels were opened. There was mine acid, and in two weeks, it would corrode the thick rail to little pieces. The wagon would shake, come off the rails, and we lifted it with hooks, we carried it on our backs.

Did the guards exercise violence?

In addition to the hard work, when we came out from there, the first two years, there were no baths to wash, no showers, at the mine entrance… they made them later, three years before I was released. After the revolt of 1973, I went at the beginning of 1976, the camp was punished, the prisoner had no right to dignity. If you raised your head up, looked at the guard up high, when we lined up to eat, or for reading the newspaper, he would say: Get up! Whip! Whip!

How many of you slept in the barracks?

Well, from 50 to 60 people. It didn’t take more than 60, but we would be up to 60 sometimes. Up to 50, not.

Were the beds bunked?

One room was 5 m by 5 m. Three-tier. My head, and the one below, reached the foot of the other, reached the head of that one, up to the ceiling. On the third tier, the head touched the ceiling.”

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