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Albania
DEFENSE ORGANIZATION
As chief of both party and state, Enver Hoxha was commander in
chief and had direct authority over the People's Army until his
death in 1985. His successor, Ramiz Alia, also had a strong connection
to the People's Army through his military career, having reached
the rank of lieutenant colonel and political officer in the Fifth
Division of the NLA at the age of nineteen. According to the constitution
adopted in 1976, the People's Assembly, a unicameral legislative
body, had authority to declare mobilization, a state of emergency,
or war. This authority devolved to the president when the People's
Assembly was not in session, which was more often than not under
communist rule, or was unable to meet because of the exigencies
of a surprise attack on Albania. Albania's interim constitutional
law, published in December 1990 and enacted in April 1991, made
the president commander in chief of the People's Army and chairman
of the relatively small Defense Council, composed of key party
leaders and government officials whose ministries would be critical
to directing military operations, production, and communications
in wartime (see Reform Politics, ch. 4).
The People's Army encompassed ground, air and air defense, and
naval forces. It reported to the minister of people's defense,
who was a member of the Council of Ministers and was, by law,
selected by the People's Assembly. The minister of defense had
traditionally been a deputy prime minister and member of the Political
Bureau (Politburo) of the party. He exercised day-to- day administrative
control and, through the chief of the general staff, operational
control over all elements of the military establishment. The chief
of the general staff was second in command of the defense establishment.
He had traditionally been a candidate member of the Politburo.
Each commander of a service branch was also a deputy minister
of defense and advised the minister of people's defense on issues
relative to his service and coordinated its activities within
the ministry. Each represented his service in national defense
planning.
The major administrative divisions of the People's Army served
all three services. These divisions included the political, personnel,
intelligence, and counterintelligence directorates; the military
prosecutor's office; and the rear and medical services. The intelligence
directorate collected and reported information on foreign armies,
especially those of neighboring Yugoslavia and Greece. The military
prosecutor's office was responsible for military justice. It organized
military courts composed of a chairman, vice chairman, and several
assistant judges. The courts heard a variety of cases covered
by the military section of the penal code. Military crimes included
breaches of military discipline, regulations, and orders as well
as political crimes against the state and the socialist order.
Military personnel, reserves, security forces, and local police
were subject to the jurisdiction of military courts. The medical
service had departments within each of the military branches providing
hospital and pharmaceutical services. At the national level, it
cooperated closely with the Ministry of Health, using military
personnel, facilities, and equipment to improve sanitary and medical
conditions throughout the country and to provide emergency medical
assistance during natural disasters.
Data as of April 1992
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