Mat Agreement

The Mat Agreement was an agreement between 5000 families in Mat and Italian authorities in Albania. The agreement was publicised by the "Tomori" newspaper on the 7th of November in 1942.

The clauses of the agreement

The agreement included 13 clauses, these being:

1. The people of Mati, comprising 5,000 families, undertake to denounce to the competent authorities, or to arrest themselves, any participant in political intrigues against the current regime that may be carried out within their territory:
2. If, after the conclusion of this agreement, one man should kill another with or without cause, his family would be punished by the people of Mati with banishment from Mati for three years, and his property, movable and immovable, would be confiscated and become state property;
3. The same penalties were to be imposed on any man who went with a betrothed girl, or a married woman:
4. When a domestic animal was stolen and the thief was not found, the village to which the thief's tracks led had to pay the value of the animal, but also prove that the trail had passed beyond the land of this village.
5. Anyone who helped criminals (this included patriots who resisted Italian rule) and gave them food and shelter was considered subject to the punishment provided by clause 2.
6. Whoever carried weapons of any description without declaring them was punished with death;
7. Anyone who published untruthful words about state policy, public security, or public finances, contrary to the interests of the current regime and its policy, was to be punished according to Vice-General's Decree no. 185.
8. The representatives of the people would regulate and examine all the complaints regarding the land, irrigation system, water deposits, roads and forests, and if a commission managed to resolve a dispute between two people, the commission's decision was non-binding. If the decision was disputed, the disputant would have to forward the case for examination to a specialized court.
9. Land in Mat is generally without regular title deeds and ownership comes and is proven only by means of a written deed (senet) and a meal according to customary law. Later on the ownership of property purchased 5, 10, 20 or 30 years later, by a bill, or by a meal, as witnesses testify, was not taken into consideration, or if it was considered, it was a constant source of riots and murders. To put an end to such confusion, the provincial commission was prohibited from interfering with the land exchange in this way until the government registered all the land according to the prescribed laws.
10. The chairman of the Commission would be the sub/provincial prefect and members of this commission: the political secretary of the sub-prefecture, the commander of the gendarmerie, the commander of the Albanian fascist militia and representatives of the people, who assisted in the design of the agreement;
11. It has to do with the communists, or as the Bolsheviks were called, who had appeared in those parts. It was instructed that these persons should be saved first, whether they were young or old. But they were not to be allowed to live within the district of Mati. If such persons were found, the people of Mati, together with the provincial authorities, should destroy them, not only with rifles, but also with an iron fist....
12. According to Albanian statutory law, the Italian people were considered brother people, with the same father and mother. This meant that the two peoples belonged to the same one who was the Imperial King and the King of Albania and Italy. The signatories therefore undertook to destroy anyone who insulted the King by speaking against him, and would punish all those specified in clause 2.
13. This Agreement or Faith, taken at a plenary meeting of the people of Mati, would remain valid until the end of the general war. Anyone who broke it would be considered a traitor to this country and the regime.

The agreement was signed by Beqir Sitki Hasa, Chairman of the Commission and Prefect of Mati.

Sources

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