Albania became one of the original Warsaw Treaty Organization members in 1955. Separated from the other signatories, its forces were unable to participate in the pact's field exercises and after 1961, because of its rift with the Soviet Union, was not invited to attend the organization's meetings. In 1968, protesting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Albania formally withdrew from the pact.
Communist China was Albania's only military ally in 1970. In 1970 the Chinese were believed to be enabling Albania to maintain its forces at approximately the same levels that had been reached by 1960 with Soviet assistance ([see ch. 6], Government Structure and Political System).
SECURITY FORCES
Albanian sources publish little concerning the security police except for some articles expressing gratitude for their services and a smattering of information relative to their responsibilities. Few of the observers who have visited the country since 1945 have been in positions to see, or have been qualified to judge, their actual performance. It is undoubtedly true that the Albanian leadership emulated many of Joseph Stalin's techniques for controlling the population, that it modified its attitudes and practices less than did the other East European Communist countries after Stalin's death, and that it has maintained a high degree of Stalinism since its break with the Soviet Union and alignment with Communist China ([see ch. 6], Government Structure and Political System).
There is probably credibility in reports stating that no other Communist country has as extensive a police and security organization relative to its size as that which operates in Albania. Hoxha has regarded the security police as an elite group, and they have been the mainstay of his power. By 1961, although arrests had tapered off from earlier levels, fourteen concentration or labor camps were still in use. Foreign visitors in Tirana have reported that it is impossible to move around the city without escorts and that conversations with ordinary citizens are discouraged. Local police, servicemen, and security police are in evidence everywhere.
All security and police forces were responsible in the governmental structure to the Ministry of the Interior. The minister in 1970 was Kadri Hasbiu. Each organization—the Directorate of State Security, the People's Police, and the Frontier Guards—constituted a separate directorate of the ministry. The total regular uniformed security personnel numbered approximately 12,500. This figure did not include the plainclothes security police, informers, or the citizens who were performing their two months of mandatory auxiliary duty attached to local police units.
A larger proportion of personnel in the security forces are Party members than is the case in the regular military forces. In the state security organization, nearly all of those who serve in important positions are believed to be Party members. In the Frontier Guards the officers and many of the men are Party members.
The Directorate of State Security
The Directorate of State Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit te Shtetit—commonly abbreviated to Sigurimi) is organized into four battalions and has more plainclothes personnel than uniformed. It celebrates March 20, 1943, as its founding day and is credited by Hoxha and others of the Party leadership as having been instrumental in the victory of his faction of the partisan effort. Actually the People's Defense Division, from which the Sigurimi evolved, was formed in 1945. Composed at that time of some 5,000 of the most reliable of the resistance fighters, it was headed initially by Koci Xoxe, who was executed as a Titoist four years later. Mihalaq Zicishti was its chief in 1970.
The stated missions of the security police are to prevent counterrevolution and to eliminate opposition to the Party and government. Its interests are directed toward political and ideological opposition rather than crimes against persons or property unless such crimes appear to have national implications.