Armenian man finds sanctuary in East Texas
Facesdeath in homeland
By MARCELLA HERNDON Staff writer

America, America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shinning sea.

"America The Beautiful," a song that most Texans learned as a child and carried the words and meaning with them well into their adulthood. The song, originally written as a poem, speaks of spacious skies, amber waves of grain and fruited plains. This song was written to commemorate America and its occupants. It was written as a celebration of a growing country that had become a melting pot for all nationalities. Foreign nations revere America as the land of plenty, the land of opportunity, the land of freedom and more importantly the land of safe harbor.

Rrustem Neza is an Albanian native and Lufkin resident, coowner of a well known East Texas restaurant called Joe's Italian Grill with his older brother Xhemal Neza.

Rrustem who dedicated his life to being a good father, a good husband and upstanding citizen, now faces the risk of deportation and, he says, death.

The resterauteur fled to America's safe harbor after identifying the assassins of Azem Hajdari, Albanian Democratic Party leader. Known for its struggles and apposition to communism in the late 1990s, Albania - a European country of approximately 3.6 million - has had its share of corrupt governments and police brutality.

The Neza family has always been supporters and close friends of the Democratic Party in Albania and it is for that reason that Rrustem fears for his life. Hajdari organized student movements that brought down the Communist Party government of Enver Xhosa in 1990. Because of Hajdari's involvement in democratic diplomacy, there is no doubt that Hajdari created some enemies along the way to democratic freedom, Rrustem says.

Rrustem, with his brothers and cousins, either worked or volunteered at the headquarters for the Democratic Party in the city of Tirana. Each day was a new challenge for the Democratic Party but on September 12, 1988, the Neza family suffered life-altering experiences, that would take them from being an established, well-off family to a scattered, griefstricken family in hiding.

Xhemal Neza had volunteered to be a doorkeeper at the Democratic Party headquarters in Tirana. The headquarters in Tirana was a large building in a

fenced compound. Xhemal's responsibilities were to open and close the gate as automobiles came and left the compound. On September 12, 1988, Xhemal sat and talked with Hajdari and his bodyguards, Besim Cerja and Zenel Neza, Xhemal's cousin. Rrustem was not present because he had to tend to business elsewhere because he was a councilor for the city of Tropoje. According to Xhemal, at about 9:30 p.m. Hajdari received a call from a fellow party leader's bodyguard to come immediately to his location. Xhemal opened the door to the office as Hajdari, Cerja and his cousin Zenel headed to the car inside the compound wall. Xhemal also opened the compound gate for the three men to exit the compound but while attempting to close the gate after the vehicle had passed, Xhemal saw Hajdari's car get blocked off by a black Mercedes followed by a gray Jeep.

Xhemal, an unarmed civilian, was helpless when four men carrying automatic rifles emerged from the vehicles and opened fire on Hajdari's vehicle.

A sobbing Xhemal had already closed the gate in order to secure the safety of the compound and had also gone unnoticed by the killers. Xhemal saw and knew the faces of Hajdari's killers and knew that he would not be safe if they knew what he had seen. A grief-stricken Xhemal rushed into the compound and sounded an alarm as he called Rrustem who arrived at the compound within 15 minutes of the assassination. Rrustem tried to calm Xhemal and after about a half an hour nearly a thousand people had surrounded the bullet-riddled car. Other Neza family members rushed to the scene as someone noticed that Zenel, the cousin and bodyguard of Hajdari, was still breathing. Xhemal and Rrustem along with two other male cousins Gani and Selim nicknamed "Skender," put Zenel into their car and rushed him to the hospital where they were turned away.

The family then rushed Zenel to a private doctor where he received life saving blood transfusions and medical care. Xhemal and Rrustem had received word that the police had been looking for Zenel and that they needed to hide him for his safety.

A decision was made to take Zenel to another part of the country and it was during that six-hour drive that Xhemal spoke of the Hajdari's assassination to the three men, Rrustem, Gani and Selim "Skender." Once Zenel had been delivered to the doctor, the men turned their trip around and headed for Tirana where a demonstration against the assassination of Hajdari was being held. During the demonstration the Neza family men were divided in the crowd as Xhemal received injuries at the hands of police that rendered him unconscious. It would be a day later before Rrustem would find out about his brothers injuries. Rrustem visited his brother in the hospital, hurt, afraid and mortified at the injustice toward his family.

After spending time with his brother, Rrustem attended another demonstration where he called out the names of the assassins to a crowd of about a thousand. He acknowledged that his brother Xhemal had seen the killers and identified them. Three hours later Xhemal stated that the police in Tropoje searched his house and put all his belongings outside and burned them. Rrustem, Xhemal, Gani and Skender all went into hiding as a result of their knowledge of the assassination of Democratic Party leader Hajdari; they knew that if they wanted to live, they would have to find safety in the arms of America.

Similar to a Mafia hit, a price had been placed on the heads of the four men - Xhemal, Rrustem, Gani and Skender. Rrustem and Xhemal felt that the only way they would survive, would be to escape to America and seek asylum here instead of Belgium because even northern Europe would be too close to Albania. They would have to give up their livelihood and leave everything that they had spent so many years to build. On April 12, 1999, as Xhemal and Skender tried to move from one safe house to another in preparation of their escape, the two were ambushed by police. Skender was killed and Xhemal narrowly escaped by hiding under a bridge and running through a thick forest nearby.

Rrustem and Gani decided that they could not wait any longer. The killers were still at large and several police officials were involved in the corruption. On May 24, 1999, Rrustem gathered his family as Gani borrowed a friend's car to go and retrieve his wife and children from an apartment in the city of Tirana. Gani never returned to the safe house; he was shot to death in front of his apartment building. Later, on April 2, 2002, the friend whose car Gani had borrowed was assassinated in a coffee shop in Tropoje. Rrustem and Xhemal are still today afraid that in the United States, agents of the corrupt Albanian government might find them and murder them.

Rrustem Neza, wife and children, did make it to the United States. His wife and children were able to breathe easier thinking that the Albanian secret police, "the Sigurimi," would not be lurking around the corner. But Rrustem's asylum application was denied. Xhemal and several members of the Neza family have received asylum and some even reside in Texas. Rrustem's current attorney, John Wheat Gibson contends that Rrustem was prevented from reasonably presenting his case due to ineffective assistance of an earlier attorney.

Gibson explained that Rrustem's prior attorney underwent heart surgery during asylum proceedings and did not present several key documents into evidence during other

court hearings. On August 8, 2007, at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, as immigration officials tried to board Rrustem onto a flight for deportation back to Albania, a non-English speaking Rrustem resisted removal. Screams of fear echoed through the plane's cabin as Rrustem pleaded for his life. His screams scared passengers and airline officials so Rrustem was asked to get off, due to the safety of other passengers. U.S. government attorneys Scott Frost and Tracy Short have filed court pleadings, asking the court's permission to sedate Rrustem in order to deport him by plane.

"I don't know why they would treat him this way. I love my brother very much and it is tearing my heart apart to see him this way. Why was I approved for asylum and he wasn't?" said Xhemal.

"My main concern is to prevent the deportation," said Gibson. "The drugging is just one more mean thing they are doing to this guy to deliver him into the hands of the assassins. My ultimate goal is to keep him out of the hands of the assassins."

Albanian newspapers such as the Korrieri have made Rrustem's deportation frontpage news, naming him as the witness to the assassination Hajdari. As Rrustem sits in a Haskell, Texas detention center and prays for justice, lawmakers hash out interpretations of immigrations laws and push for changes.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, who sits on the House judiciary subcommittee on immigration, has given Rrustem his full support. Gohmert believes the government's treatment of Rrustem Neza is "intolerable" and "callous."

Others say Neza has made the story up and that Albanian media doesn't even know who Rrustem is.

Rrustem's attorney, Gibson, wants a chance to answer for those in doubt; he wants a chance to clear the air.

"I do not know why anybody would hate Rrustem Neza so much they would say he is lying about being afraid to return to Albania. There is no evidence to support such a malicious accusation. There is abundant proof that Rrustem's life would be in danger, and if he only can get a chance to present it to an immigration judge I am confident he will be granted asylum. For example, Rrustem has the death certificates of two cousins who were murdered while he and a brother were hiding out with them in Albania before fleeing to the United States. The affidavits of Albania experts Dr. James Pettifer and Miranda Vickers also confirm the danger to Rrustem. Their book devotes an entire chapter to the assassination of Democratic Party Leader Azem Hajdari. The killers, especially those still in high office in Albania, do not want Rrustem and his relatives to testify about what happened the night of the murder. Rrustem's two brothers, who were allowed to present their cases to immigration judges in the US, both were granted political asylum," said Gibson.

The Neza family in Albania are now in hiding. They have abandoned their homes and possessions in an attempt to alive.

Letters of support can be sent in c/o Rrustem Neza to his attorney: John Wheat Gibson, 701 Commerce Street, Ste 800, Dallas, TX 75202 or to Congressman Louie Gohmert, 510 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515.