e, in
addition to those who receive the training. Students in the program have
been compared with those in the Communist Chinese Red Guard, but the
organization of the Albanian program is designed to keep it closely
aligned with the school curriculum and with active military units to
prevent large-scale independent action by youth groups.

Paramilitary programs of Party-sponsored youth organizations are similar
in many ways to those in the school system. Pioneers take children, both
boys and girls, between the ages of seven and fourteen. A group of these
young Pioneers carried rifles and submachineguns in the 1968 Tirana May
Day parade. From ages fifteen to twenty-five they may belong to the
Union of Albanian Working Youth, frequently called the Communist Youth
Movement. The Union of Albanian Working Youth had 210,000 members in
1967. Nearly all personnel drafted into the armed forces fall within the
youth movement's age brackets, and its units within the services are
active. Political and ideological indoctrination is intensive in these
organizations and prepares the youth for possible membership in the
Party in later years (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).

Military Justice

There is no distinction between the civil judicial order in general and
the military order in particular, but military crimes are treated in a
separate chapter of the penal code. That chapter treats those acts,
committed by persons under the jurisdiction of military courts, that are
directed against military discipline, military orders, and the like.
They include a broad variety of violations against persons, property, or
the state.

A military crime, in the Albanian system, has two characteristics
distinguishing it from nonmilitary crimes. The crime is committed
against regulations established for the performance of military service,
and the defendant is a member of the armed forces. For criminal justice
the security forces under the Ministry of the Interior and all local
police are considered armed forces and are subject to military law and
to trial in military courts, as are reservists or persons called to
military or police duty for short periods. Also, military violations are
believed to include a variety of crimes against the state that might not
be classed as military in Western countries, including some in the
so-called socially dangerous category. As is the case in the Soviet
Union, persons who fail to report