The Unfinished Business of rT ansitional Justice: Reparation of oF rmer Political Prisoners in Post-Communist Albania In East Germany reparation was designed to restore the status of the persons who were wrongfully convicted as part of a larger institutional effort of recognizing injustice and victimhood.24 From 1989 to 1999, about sixty-two thousand criminal investigations into GDR governmental injustice led to 670 trials and about one million public sector employees were vetted for pre-1989 secret police contacts and abuses of power.25 Additionally, financial compensation has been provided to victims and a monthly ‘victim pension’.26 In Romania, in the first two decades government provided symbolic financial compensation for each year of imprisonment or displacement endured, income tax exemption, time spend in prison or force labor was recognized for pension purposes.27 Nevertheless, only monetary compensation to victims in Romania have been criticized as an attempt to buy the silence of political prisoners.28 The Romanian post-communist governments have neglected their obligation to provide reparation, as delayed rehabilitation and meager monetary awards were not accompanied by apologies, valued information and other nonmaterial benefits.29 Nevertheless, more should be done to fill the research gap regarding the measurement of the impact that these process have had in Europe.30 Historic Context: Communist Albania and Political Prisoners From World War Two until 1990 Albania was hermetically sealed from the rest of the world with no diplomatic relations with other countries apart from short-lived cooperation with Soviet Union (1956 - 1961) and Communist China (1961 - 1978). The communist regime lead by dictator Enver Hoxha until his death in 1985 applied an extreme form of Stalinism in Albania. Albanian communism was extremely centralized and the communists dominated all aspects of life with the state playing a central role in shaping society. The  Directorate of State Security  (Albanian:  Drejtoria e Sigurimit të Shtetit), commonly called the  Sigurimi, asserted political control and arrested critics while border guards shot people who tried to flee. Sigurimi was considered by dictator Hoxha as the ‘sharpest and dearest weapon of the Party’.31 The political police employed some 10,000 full-time agents and it is estimated that one in four Albanians worked for Sigurimi agencies, usually as informants.32 Sigurimi was a key instrument for Hoxha to retain power. It employed regular and brutal purges fo opponents and operated a well-established system of prisons and internal exile. Sigurimi verified the ideological correctness of party members and ordinary citizens, monitored private phone conversations and correspondence, and purged the party, government, military and intelligence agencies of individuals closely associated with Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and China, after Albania broke off with each of these countries.33 The economy and industry of the country continued on a downward trend, with technological developments of other countries excluded from Albania. Hoxha centralized every aspect of 24. Christiane Wilke, ‘Recognizing Victimhood: Politics and Narratives of Rehabilitation in Germany’ (2007) 6 JHR 4 25. Ibid 26. Lavinia Stan, Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Romania: The Politics of Memory (Cambridge University Press 2013) 164 27. Ibid, 167 28. Ibid 29. Lavinia Stan, Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Romania: The Politics of Memory (Cambridge University Press 2013) 181 30. A study measuring the impact of reparation measures has been conducted in the Czech Republic, see further Roman David, Susanne Choi Yuk-ping, ‘Victims on Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Reparation of Human Rights Abuses in the Czech Republic’ (2015) HRC 27 31. Luan Shtepani, ‘Sigurimi i Shtetit, zbardhet urdhri “tepër sekret” i Kadri Hazbiut’ (Shekulli, 2017) < http://shekulli.com.al/sigurimishtetit-zbardhet-urdhri-teper-sekret-kadri-hazbiut/> accessed 28 February 2019 32. Fred Abrahams, Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe (New York University Press, 2015) 15 33. Robert C. Austin, Jonathan Ellison, ‘Albania’ in Lavinia Stan, Transitional Justice in Easter Europe and Soviet Union (Routledge, 2009) 178 35