ant
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.

In the late 1950s the Sigurimi had seven sections: political,
censorship, public records, prison camp, two sections for
counterespionage, and a foreign service. The political section's primary
function was the penetration of opposition political factions. One of
the counterespionage sections was specialized and had only a
responsibility for eliminating underground organizations. The censorship
section operated not only with the press, radio, publications, and other
communications media but with cultural societies, schools, and
schoolteachers. The public records section was also charged with
ideological supervision of economic agencies.

Sigurimi personnel at labor camps attended to the political reeducation
of the inmates and evaluated the degree to which they remained socially
dangerous; camp guards were local police. The foreign service section
placed its personnel as widely as possible in order to maintain contact
with aliens or foreigners in the country and in diplomatic and visiting
groups.

Sigurimi personnel may be conscripts called during the annual draft or
may be career volunteers. Personnel are screened, and the conditions of
service are made sufficiently attractive to secure as reliable and
dedicated men as possible.

Frontier Guards

The Frontier Guards are o