It is difficult to ascertain the overall effectiveness of the various police and security forces in the maintenance of public order because no official crime statistics are published. Official statements in the press provide little or no information on the extent of crime other than the inordinate coverage of those crimes that are political in nature and considered threatening to the Party or the state. Statements by the rare Western visitors to the country concerning the police state atmosphere have led to the assumption that public order is rigidly maintained.

Although military and security forces were small in proportion to the size of the military age male population, they were nearly double the per capita average maintained by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or by Warsaw Pact nations. Whether or not the people recognized the armed forces as a burden, the country has never had the industrial or economic base to maintain them. Since World War II it has relied, in turn, on Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and Communist China for aid. Chinese assistance since 1961 has been sufficient to maintain equipment previously furnished by the Soviet Union and to replace some of the older weapons as they became obsolete.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The free-spirited and hardy Albanian mountaineers have had excellent reputations as individual fighters. The Romans recruited some of their best soldiers from the regions that later became Albania. In succeeding periods many Albanians became famous in the military service of the Ottomans.

Nationalism was rarely necessary to motivate these men. Before 1912 the country had independence for only one brief period. It was gained then by the national hero, Skanderbeg, and freedom evaporated almost immediately upon his death in 1468. The history and legends attached to him make up a large part of the national military tradition. Other than in his day, freedom was rarely fought for except in the context of defense of tribal areas against the incursions of marauding neighbors. There were few occasions when Albanians rose up against occupying foreign powers. Conquerors generally left the people alone in their isolated mountain homelands and, as a feudal tribal society persisted, there was little if any feeling of national unity in the country ([see ch. 2], Historical Setting).

Organized military action also played an almost negligible part in attaining independence. Some revolutionary activity occurred during the rise of national feeling in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There were clashes between insurgents and Turkish forces as early as 1884 but, at the same time that the Albanians were resisting Turkish practices they considered oppressive against themselves, they were defending the Turks in their hostilities with the Greeks or the Slavs. They continued to be recruited into, and to serve in, the Turkish army.

By 1900 about 8,000 armed Albanians were assembled in Shkoder, but they were unopposed, and a situation resembling anarchy more than revolution prevailed in the country during the early 1900s. There were arrests, incidents of banditry and pillage, and many futile Turkish efforts to restore order. Guerrilla activity increased after about 1906, and several incidents occurred, which produced martyrs but which were not marked by great numbers of casualties. Nevertheless, although it was unorganized and never assumed the proportions of a serious struggle, the resistance was instrumental in maintaining the pressure that attracted international attention and led the great powers, when they intervened after the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, to recognize the independent state of Albania.

World War I began before the country could establish a viable governmental body—much less form, train, and equip a military establishment. During the war years it was occupied by the warring parties, and the last of them remained into 1920.

Ahmet Zogu—as minister of the interior and minister of war until 1922 and prime minister from 1922, except for a brief exile in 1924, until he became King Zog in 1928—created the first national forces of any consequence. Before 1925, so that he would have some assurance of their loyalty, these consisted of about 5,000 men from his home tribal district. Starting in about 1925 with Italian assistance and a considerable degree of Italian control over the forces, men were drawn through universal conscription. The first drafts called about 5,000 to 6,000 annually from the approximately 10,000 young men who became eligible for the draft each year. Italian aid equipped the forces, and Italian officers provided most of the training and tactical guidance, to the point that they had effective control over their employment.

At about the same time the Gendarmerie was formed with British assistance. It had an Albanian director, a British general who served as its inspector general, and a staff of British inspectors. The Gendarmerie became an effective internal security and police organization. It had a commandant in each of the ten prefectures, a headquarters in each of the subprefectures (up to eight per prefecture), and a post in each of the nearly 150 local communities. Its communications network was for many years the most complete telephone system in the country.