Nika: Rehabilitate persecuted Albanians by law

The parts of the program of the NGO "Ulqini aktiv" that relate to national, ethnic and other discrimination since the time of communism and after its formal dissolution, will also be in the function of passing laws on lustration, a former political official announced.

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Slave for two years and two days: Muhamet Nika, Photo: Printscreen YouTube
Slave for two years and two days: Muhamet Nika, Photo: Printscreen YouTube
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The NGO "Ulqini aktiv" was recently founded in Ulcinj, which, in addition to the basic program principles, will also represent the Association of Persecuted Albanian Politicians in Montenegro, which after the death of the president Bahri Briskua, ceased to exist.

Authorized representative of the newly founded NGO Muhamet Nika, a former long-term political and public official, said that in accordance with that commitment, he will soon submit an initiative for the adoption of a law on lustration in connection with the persecuted Albanian politics in Montenegro.

"Parts of the program that refer to national, ethnic and other discrimination from the time of communism and after its formal disintegration will, among other things, be in the function of passing a law on the lustration of politically persecuted Albanian intellectuals," said Nika to "Vijesta".

As a student at the University of Pristina, in the early eighties of the last century, advocating for the Republic of Kosovo, as an alleged irredentist, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

"To be precise - two years and two days, because I stayed in prison even on the weekend, when I was supposed to be free", Niko remembers how the then regime extended his sentence until Monday because it was Saturday.

Together with him, some other students from Ulcinj ended up in prison in Kosovo. At his request, Nika later served his sentence in Spuž.

"Well Nika, you are in prison because your people testified against you and not ours", Niko remembers how the Montenegrins told him in Spuz.

He is convinced that the "honest" Albanians, with the consent of the then regime, stifled the chances of the political elite of the Albanians who were formed at the University of Pristina in the fight for the independence of Kosovo.

"As a direct participant in the events of 1981 in Pristina, who also personally knew more than half of the delegation from Rambouillet, I claim that we ended up in prison because of an organized hunt by communists on alleged irredentists, in order to scare Kosovo. But Ulcinj also suffered, where the leadership of the SFRY located the Udba laboratory and the first political differentiation by school institutions, by mutilating the curricula," claims Nika and remembers that the "disobedient" teaching staff of Albanian nationality then ended up on the street, and later and arrested.

"Although that same staff only respected the school programs adopted at the SFRY level, even when it came to the use of the Albanian flag, which was allowed by the federal law," claims Nika.

Even today, he is convinced "that the collapse of the Udba system of the Union of Communists, in the early nineties, did not lead to the collapse of communism in the sense that the structures of that time offered everyone equal opportunities."

"Those structures were still tough, so communists and democrats did not have equal chances. At least if they had given time of several years for a more efficient transformation and formation of democratic structures... But they didn't, they seized power in the whole of Montenegro, only Ulcinj was an opposition city", Niko remembers the period when the single DPS had power in the whole of Montenegro except in Ulcinj, where the Democratic Alliance, led by Mehmet Bardhi.

At that time, Nika was also a member of parliament, and later in the leadership structures of RTCG as a witness of the struggle for supremacy in that media house between DPS currents Momir Bulatović i Milo Đukanović.

In 2003, Nika founded the Party of Democratic Prosperity, which advocated for an independent state in its program.

"That's how we acted in the referendum, but the state gave it back to us with a stigma, thus repaying the 'honest' Albanians who falsely testified against the prominent teachers of their compatriots," says Nika.

He points out that the passing of the law on lustration would rehabilitate all Albanians in Montenegro who, during communism, ended up in prisons or persecuted in any other way due to their legitimate political beliefs.

"Here, for me, for example, they count the time spent in the army as length of service, but not the prison sentence due to the allegedly hostile attitude towards the state, which in the meantime has disintegrated several times", says Nika and recalls a recent incident he had with members of a political parties in front of the Municipality building.

"There were no elements or material evidence for criminal prosecution, but then someone remembered to look at the criminal records when I was allegedly an enemy of the state. Because of that aggravating circumstance, it's cynical, I was sentenced to six months probation," says Nika.

He claims that the regime is not the only one to blame for all of this.

"The existing Albanian parties and their self-discrimination are also to blame for not using all the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution and laws. This, among other things, is evidenced by their indolence when it comes to election laws," claims Nika.

The goal of the NGO "Ulqini Aktiv" is support and assistance for the improvement of the environment and the protection of nature and the environment... the encouragement and involvement of intellectuals, primarily from the field of education, who are familiar with recent material from discrimination... the preparation and development of the ability and interest of young people to nurture the struggle in the spirit of legality of institutions and respect for legality in suppressing high corruption, gathering and informing young people about the positive aspects of passing some laws, such as lustration law...

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