Cerrik

Assassins take aim...

This is the outskirts of Cerrik, in south-central Albania. 1996. In the middle of the US-instigated civil war in Albania.

(I was living in Hungary at the time).

The day before this photograph was taken, anti-communist Albanian President Sali Berisha's security team was ambushed in Cerrik and most (I think nine or 12) of them were assassinated from the rooftops of the communist-era panel houses. It was a bloody massacre.

We in the British Helsinki Group (perhaps stupidly) traveled to the scene of the crime the next day to report on what really happened. The tension was so unbelievably high in that small village, which had been known as a very strongly pro-communist outpost. We read the press reports from the Albanian pro-government media but the mainstream US media told us it was all a lie. No one was killed. It was just propaganda from Berisha’s thugs.

So we hired a taxi in the middle of the civil war to take us to the place we heard a horrific massacre had occurred at the hands of the remnants of the pro-Hoxha forces in Albania. Communism was not dead.

Thirty seconds after the above photograph was taken, which depicts Hoxha the leader of the Albanian Communist Party, signifying their triumph over the forces of the anti-communist President Berisha, the killers of the President's security team deployed wildly from dense trees on each side of the road with AK-47s in our faces. Ready for more trophies.

"Out of the car!"

They wanted to kill us.

It was just me and Jonathan and our translator and taxi driver. They lined us all up alongside the car, outnumbering us by double, and put their guns in our faces. I remember the feeling that I did not want to get out of the car because it felt so safe compared to what was coming. I measured those last precious seconds in the safety of the car before they shoved their guns in and demanded we depart. I knew I would die, because it was only a day since Berisha’s bodyguards had been killed.

Once outside they screamed and shook their guns in our faces and our translator (who would have been killed immediately had his identity been known) spoke in a quiet and measured tone - he was a doctor - to walk them back from the brink - a brink from which they killed the president’s bodyguards the day before,

So yes it was only through very careful negotiation from our translator friend (with other connections that I will not disclose), that we managed an agreement to leave immediately and they agreed to lay down their arms. If you've ever been in a situation when someone was trying to kill you you will understand that strangely everything proceeds in slow motion.

Needless to say, the US government was on their side. The side of the communist murderers, that is. That was an early and very poignant lesson to me that the US government was always on the side of the violent extremists against the peaceful nationalists and anti-communists.

Years later, this first-hand knowledge helped me understand why Washington supported al-Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq and Syria and, lately, violent Nazis in Ukraine.

I understand this part of US foreign policy because I had the business end of a US-backed AK-47 in my face with a person jumping up and down so excited about pulling the trigger.

These lessons are not learned in the universities nor in the luxurious think tanks of Washington, DC. And you won't see it on Fox News or MSNBC/CNN.

I came face to face with the beasts of Washington and I am thankful for having survived. Millions have not.

Post script: our driver tried to kill me at least three times after this event. The details are not for this story, but he had a mental breakdown being with us as all this was happening and he felt that shooting me would help his situation. Thankfully he did not succeed.

To be continued…