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ural to urban areas many of the local youth – in order to find a better future – moved out of
the village. After 1990 several locals, both those who during the communism worked in the
village cooperative and those who moved to the urban cities, migrated to Greece. Most of
those who stayed behind and worked in the village cooperative have never returned to
Dhërmi/Drimades.
The village of Qeparo is the only village in Himarë/Himara area where the Law on land 7501
was implemented. In other villages of Himarë/Himara area the law was implemented “in a
creative manner” by returning the land to its previous proprietors (Çakalli, Papa, Dhima, Milo
and Jorgji 2006: 217-36). This led to several conflicts within the families, soia/fise and the
village community. A group of local intellectuals (Çakalli, Papa, Dhima, Milo and Jorgji
2006) comments that the law 7501 on the property in Albania leads to paradoxes 54 . According
to the law the land should be given to the members who used to work in a cooperative. If the
land was not given back (because it used for a public good) than it should be compensated by
some other land of similar value than the previous one 55 . In practice, however, this case
evolved several deviations. If a member of the cooperative, for example, used to own three
kinds of properties before collectivisation – e.g. a house, agricultural land and pasture land –
the law prescribed that he was given back only the house or the house and the pasture land
whilst the agricultural land was given for the compensation to some other member of the
cooperative (Çakalli, Papa, et.al. 2006: 229-230). As an answer to the growing problems
considering the decollectivisation the government accepted the Law on restitution and
compensation of the property (Law no. 9235) resulting in severe opposing views.
The local intellectuals provide three explanations to illustrate that the Law no. 9235 is not
suitable. They explain that the law did not take into consideration: that Himarë/Himara was
subjected to in and out-country movements throughout the centuries; that the members who
entered cooperatives in 1957 tripled because of the pro-natalist policy in communism (see de
Waal 1996: 171); and that the classification of the land (e.g. agricultural, pasture and coastal
land or “free land”) legally changed its meaning (see Çakalli, Papa, et.al. 2006: 217-36).
Because of incompetence of this law the Association of Himara Community together with the
local intellectuals and Himarë/Himara municipality decided to abrogate the Law on land (no.
54 Similar anomalies and their consequences are noted by de Waal who conducted research on landownership in
Mirdita of Northern Albania (de Waal 1996: 169-192).
55 The compensation of the previous land proprietors can be financial or be done in nature. In case it is done in
nature the previous land proprietor is compensated with the land of the equal value.
97