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Albania
Auxiliary Police
All able-bodied men
were required by a 1948 law to spend two months assisting the
local police. They served with the People's Police in their localities,
wearing police uniforms that were distinguished by a red armband.
The Auxiliary Police provided additional manpower for the regular
police and also gave a large segment of the population familiarity
with, and presumably a more sympathetic understanding of, police
activities and problems.
In early 1992, the police and internal security forces were losing
the tight control they once held over the population. They, and
the regime they supported, were beginning to yield to the impact
of the popular, revolutionary forces had that toppled the other
communist regimes in Eastern Europe in late 1989 and 1990. Although
poorer, more isolated, and more repressed than the peoples of
the other East European communist countries, Albanians were beginning
to assert their civil and human rights.
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Up-to-date English-language sources on Albania's armed forces
and its internal security apparatus are scarce because until 1991
Albania was the most isolated and secretive state in Eastern Europe
and in-depth research on these subjects was inhibited. Albania's
print and broadcast media provided little information on the country's
defense capabilities or policies and even less on its internal
security forces. The History of Albania, from its Origins to the
Present Day, by Stefanaq Pollo and Arben Puto, and The Encyclopedia
of Military History, by R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor Dupuy, present
historical perspectives on Albania's national security evolution.
Klaus Lange's "Albanian Security Policies: Concepts, Meaning,
and Realisation," is the best, and perhaps only, scholarly article
exclusively dedicated to Albania's national security. F. Stephen
Larrabee and Daniel Nelson address Albania's historical and strategic
relationships with its neighbors in the Balkans, and Yugoslavia
in particular. Elez Biberaj's Albania: A Socialist Maverick provides
a valuable description of the political fortunes of party officials
in the national security apparatus and the impact of the party's
changing foreign policies on national security.
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) translations
of broadcasts from the official Albanian news agency as well as
translations of Yugoslav and Greek broadcasts have been good sources
on internal security developments, especially since 1990. FBIS
translations of Yugoslav publications on the military and domestic
unrest in Albania are worthwhile and probably generally accurate
despite Yugoslavia's interest in portraying Albania in an unfavorable
light. Louis Zanga, who writes on Albania in Report on Eastern
Europe for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, occasionally discusses
internal security matters. The Military Balance, published annually
by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, also provides
information on the changing organizational structure, size, and
equipment of the armed forces over time. (For further information
and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of April 1992
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