ment is the parallel structure
of the BKP, whose members are in control or are influential at every
level.

People's councils are empowered to adapt decisions and orders of higher
authorities to their own individual needs. Local councils prepare plans
and budgets in consonance with the national plans and, after decisions
have been made at the national level, the local councils conform to the
national policy. People's councils are involved in the day-to-day
affairs of their constituencies in government services and
administration, the maintenance of public order, the protection of state
and communal property, and the protection of the rights of its citizens.
In these areas the local police, known as the People's Militia, are the
instruments of the local council, but their responsibility is also to
the next higher level and on up to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (see
ch. 15).

JUDICIAL PROCEDURE

The highest judicial organ is the Supreme Court, the members of which
are elected by the National Assembly for five-year terms. Below it are
twelve regional and ninety-three district courts, and the military
courts. The Supreme Court is a court of original jurisdiction as well as
of appellate jurisdiction. It is organized into criminal, civil, and
military divisions. In the administration of justice, courts and
prosecution are referred to as "weapons of the dictatorship of the
proletariat." Judges and assessors take part in the dispensation of
justice. These positions are elective.

The Office of the Chief Prosecutor is established to see that the laws
are obeyed by the ministries and other national departments, bodies of
local state power, economic and public organizations, and officials as
well as citizens. The chief prosecutor is elected to a five-year term.
He is subject to recall, however, before the expiration of his term and
is responsible only to the National Assembly. Again, as is true with the
Supreme Court, between sessions the chief prosecutor reports to the
State Council.

The chief prosecutor exercises wide powers in the performance of his
functions. Because he is elected by the National Assembly, he is certain
to be a loyal party member; he appoints prosecutors (district and
communal) for lower levels and can recall them before the expiration of
their terms. Together with the minister of justice, he controls the
judicial system for the communist party.

In interpreting the communist theory of "unity of