900 phone calls by Nexhmije and Ramiz with Paris, who was the dictator’s widow speaking with?

The luxury expenses of members of the communist leadership became the subject of a parliamentary investigation in 1991, in the first pluralist parliament after the March 31 elections. A special commission from the State Control Office, as it was called at the time, along with a dedicated parliamentary committee, presented statistics on the excessive spending of the families of the communist leadership, particularly the family of dictator Enver Hoxha and his successor Ramiz Alia.

A weeks-long investigation into data from the Government Reception Directorate revealed millions of dollars in luxury expenses for Albanians to see, including overseas telephone calls. What stands out are the phone calls made by Enver Hoxha’s widow to Paris, 441 calls in just one year. Similarly, Ramiz Alia’s family had made 481 calls to Paris and other Western capitals.

While the report detailed the costs of these calls, an interesting question remained: who exactly was Nexhmije Hoxha speaking with, and who was Ramiz Alia communicating with?

What were the reasons for these calls, and what were the topics of their conversations?

Meanwhile, the report includes excerpts from the investigative commission’s findings on the expenses of the families living in the “Blloku” area, revealing figures of alleged abuses and other interesting details.

As is known, the former communist leadership was sentenced to prison precisely over these expenses, which were insignificant compared with the scale of killings, imprisonments, and deportations of thousands of Albanians during 45 years of communist rule.

This was the decision made by the new elite that emerged from communism, and it remains much the same today: crimes left unpunished, while propaganda focused on a few kilograms of coffee, meat, or unpaid phone bills attributed to Nexhmije Hoxha, Ramiz Alia, and other members of the communist leadership.

Excerpt from the report:

“The Government Reception Directorate covered considerable international telephone expenses for the families of Alia, Hoxha, Haxhi Lleshi, and Spiro Koleka. For others, telephone expenses were covered by the Central Committee, relevant ministries, and the Council of Ministers.

For the 19 telephone numbers belonging to Nexhmije Hoxha’s family, over the last three years the amount reached 553,000 lekë. For the Alia family, it was 456,000 lekë; for the family of Spiro Koleka, 101,000 lekë; for Haxhi Lleshi’s family, 58,000 lekë; for Llambi Gegprifti’s family, 56,000 lekë; for Rita Marko’s family, 46,000 lekë; and for Themie Thomai’s family, only for 1989, 9,000 lekë.

In total, excluding expenses covered by the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers, the amount reached 1.3 million lekë, or 186,000 US dollars.

Thus, the Hoxha family alone, during 1989, spoke with Paris 441 times, causing expenses of 195,000 lekë; with Vienna 210 times, costing 98,000 lekë; with Rome 188 times, as well as 38 times with Milan, and many others including Ankara, Budapest, Palermo, Berlin, Stockholm, etc.

What is also striking is the fact that there were up to two or three calls per day to the same country, and in some cases the conversations lasted more than an hour.

The Alia family, also during 1989, spent 251,000 lekë on telephone conversations, making 481 calls to Paris, as well as to Rome, Vienna, Geneva, Budapest, Ankara, Turin, Milan, and other destinations.

Telephone expenses unpaid by other families were also extremely high. Since these costs were covered by the state, these families knowingly abused the system by using government resources for personal connections with major European cities.

Therefore, the full amount of 1.3 million lekë was considered misuse of funds and unjustified benefits obtained by them.”

“KORÇA BOOM”