112 oT pic: The mental health system as a target of transitional justice: Mental Health reform in post-communist Albania A report from Kadri Hazbiu in 1978 towards of Council of Ministers (resource of information Kastriot Dervishi) declared that there were 17.214 people treated and hospitalized in psychiatric institutions during the period 1971-1978. An interviewee stated that statistics during the communist period can often be controversial because officials tried to manipulate them dependingthe situation and the level at which they would be exposed. Especially, statistics and reports which were promoted to the population overestimated the so-called success of the communist party in different sectors of life and wellbeing. 10.3 Addressing histories of punitive psychiatry Winter considers three levels of witnessing: legal, as in giving evidence before an (international) court against specific perpetrators; moral, implying that testimony about specific crimes against humanity frames a much wider narrative about absolute evil; and the witness as spokesperson for humanity, emphasizing that we not only have a duty to remember, but also that we forget at our moral peril.25 Story telling is a method which gives victims a voice and influences both historical and collective memory. This historical narrative also includes directly the victims and their families who share their experience to large audiences. The most famous case of a political enemy in Albania sent to a psychiatric institution was Asllan Rusi, a young talented volleyball player, who was invited to play with the successful Dinamo volleyball squad. People referred to him as a champion, due to the achievements he gave his team at the national and international level from 1963 until 1975. In 1975, the life of this talented volleyball player was changed immediately. He had a relationship with the daughter of Enver Hoxha, the dictator of Albania and supreme leader of the Communist Party which shaped his destiny. An interview with Vangjel Koja, former trainer of the Dinamo volleyball squad, reveals how Sigurimi forced him to expel Rusi from the Dinamo team, although he was the main factor in their international success. Then, Rusi was sent to a psychiatric institution without his consent and even though he was healthy and had never shown disability either physically or mentally aspects. According to Vangjel Koja, the injections that medical staff gave to Rusi caused him irreversible damage until he died in 1983 from cancer. He lost his volleyball skills of, his perfect physical condition and his mental state became unstable. The communist regime in Albania was harsh and cruel to all of those who were considered political enemies. These opponents of the regime were officially known as public enemies, who risked the progress and security of the whole population. That dictatorial system hit everyone, without any limit of age or sex. Bianka de Korvin, or Bianka Balliçi, the Countess from Trieste was witness and victim of regime punishment in January 1948, because she was a foreigner and this fact declared her as a Western agent (spy). After suffering ten years in prison, she was sent to the psychiatric hospital in Elbasan. Relatives and Sigurimi documents declare, that after Bianka left the psychiatry ‘she was halfdead’, her spinal cord was damaged and her mental condition was worsened. During the communist regime, Albania became the first atheist country in the world. The regime was barbarous and violent to people who persisted against this decision. A lot of persecutions, tortures, and executions occurred because of religion. People were prohibited to practice religious traditions, while religious buildings and institutions were destroyed and priests, imams and students in religious schools targeted. Since some devoted individuals did not give up on praying or following the practice of religion, the regime used several techniques to put pressure on them. The first executions started in 1944, the implementation of communist ideology and 25. Jay Winter, Remembering War: The Great War between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century. New Haven and London, (Yale University Press, 2006).