For freedom and legality in my country, Albania

ABSTRACT: Biography of an Albanian intellectual, stage director, a critical dissident towards dictatorship. All intellectuals who were isolated by the regime automatically became "dissidents". They had no trouble getting together but they knew they were spied upon. In Italy he got in touch with Radio Radical and started working there. The former dissidents are now integrated, even if they are all seeking their own political platform.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 25 November 1993)

"I graduated from the Academy of Fine Art of Tirana as a stage director. A sort of Prague Spring was under way in Albania in that period.. I was appointed playwright at the National Theatre of Tirana, where I worked three years. Then I had to quit because I found myself in a critical position vis-à-vis the cultural and literary nomenclature of the regime. That was when I decided to migrate". Arthur Zheij, journalist, has been working for Radio Radicale for three years.

In his country Arthur was a dissident. But how did an intellectual who criticized the regime live? How did the mechanisms of isolation of the regime work?

The dissidents had common positions and behaviours. Their own anonymous existence forced them to that: the intellectuals who could find no space in the official press organs were isolated by the nomenclature. Anyone who wasn't published automatically became a dissident.

In other words, the intellectuals who were isolated met together.

Yes, what we had in common was the fact of being isolated. Tirana and the whole of Albania are little more than a large village. Intellectuals have few but lively spots where they meet. It wasn't difficult to get to know each other.

What about the regime's secret police?

It was a constant presence. You could immediately trace those who worked as agents, so we would ask them, "how are you, spy?" or "do what you like, but you think about your own future" or things like that. It worked because they were afraid.

When did you come to Italy and why did you join the Radical Party?

I came here at the suggestion of some friends who have now become political leaders in Albania, to raise public awareness on what was happening and was about to happen in my country.

I came to Italy in November 1990 with a normal tourist visa and no money at all. I got in touch with several agencies, I released some interviews and was also interviewed by Radio Radicale. That was my direct contact with the radical world. Radio Radicale and the Radical Party unexpectedly became allies for my people. We needed people to denounce the scandal of human rights violations. I can never forget the live broadcasts on Radio Radicale during the period of the Albanian boat-people.

What are you old friends and fellow dissidents doing now?

Some of them are still dissidents. Some are now ministers, ambassadors. One of them is the prime minister.

I suppose there still are isolated intellectuals...

Yes, we dissidents were against dictatorship and against Stalinism. The new party which is currently in power in Albania lacks a real political platform. It was a front more than a party, the front of the anti-communists. With freedom of thought each person tends to find his own political platform. This has lead also to a process of differentiation among the former dissidents: and someone still prefers to remain a dissident.