Xhafer Deva was the Minister of the Interior and therefore the head of the police and gendarmerie in the country . A native Kosovar Albanian and deemed the most " effective and reliable " by the Germans , Deva 's forces were involved in targeting the internal enemies of the state . On 4 February 1944 , police units under his authority were implicated in the massacre of 86 residents of Tirana suspected of being anti-fascists and other excesses committed by the Gestapo in collaboration with the Albanian gendarmerie . Large number of Serbs were killed across Kosovo or deported to camps in Albania starting from 1942 . Local Albanian fighters ( Ballists ) saw an opportunity to take their revenge upon their Serbian neighbours for the suffering they had endured over previous two decades ( Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars , Colonisation of Kosovo ) . The Ballists attacked the Serb colonists , burning perhaps as many as 30,000 houses belonging to Serb and Montenegrin settlers . Roma ( Gypsies ) were also targeted by the gendarmerie and police force
Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars
Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars
German occupation of Albania