PRESS RELEASES

Letter by Serbian civil society organizations.

The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) strongly condemns police brutality and demands an urgent investigation into police conduct towards protesters who gathered in central Belgrade last night. The citizens have a right to peacefully express dissatisfaction with the way the government is combating the COVID-19 pandemic and the government should stop furthering social polarisation, which threatens to develop into a permanent state of violence.

As NATO’s presence in the Balkan region continues to grow, experts generally agree that NATO’s pursuit of regional cooperation and mutually beneficial relationships for security has had some level of success, but also acknowledge that NATO membership has been a source of bureaucratic frustration for some members. In the discussion “NATO in the Balkans, the Balkans in NATO,” the balance of these benefits and challenges were reflected upon by experts who analyzed how this influence has impacted the region.

The smear campaign against BCSP and the targeting of our researchers and members of the BCSP Executive Board are just another example of the increasingly hostile political environment in which civil society organizations operate in Serbia.

The state of emergency introduced due to the pandemic only exposed, accelerated and deepened the trend of state capture and the collapse of standards of democracy and the rule of law in Serbia, is the conclusion of the online conference presenting the new prEUgovor Alarm Report on June 10, 2020. The presentation focused on election conditions, the state of media freedoms and the position of migrants in Serbia.

On the occasion of the release of the recent Freedom House “Nations in Transit” report in which Serbia found itself in the category of a “hybrid regime” instead of a democratic country for the first time in 17 years, we express serious concern for the state of democratic institutions in Serbia. We call on the Government of the Republic Serbia to take these assessments seriously and work hard towards ensuring the conditions for the improvement of democracy and media freedom in the country, and call on the European Union and its Member States to adequately recognise these issues as crucial in the process of European integration.

Letter from the BCSP Director Igor Bandovic.

The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) calls on the Ministry of Defense to disclose information on the status of 60 members of the 1st Land Army Brigade who have been infected with the Covid 19, and to explain how it happened. We also call on the Ministry to inform the public of the total number of infected members of the Army, as well as of the measures taken to prevent a major spread of coronavirus in the Serbian Army.

We draw the attention of the domestic and international public to the unacceptable recent moves by the state authorities in Serbia during the state of emergency introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which undermine democracy, rule of law, basic human rights and especially freedom of media.

State of emergency introduced because of epidemic is not a legal ground for total curfew and it would raise a number of issues. Total curfew is profoundly unconstitutional and not in line with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, stated BCSP Director Igor Bandovic during the live appearance on TV N1. Reminiscing on the present situation in Hungary, BCSP Director pointed out that the state of emergency must not be abused with a goal to introduce an authoritarian system of government, in which the discretionary powers of those who rule would be without accountability. This report is republished from N1 website and originally is available here.

Serbian defence sector is facing major personnel drain, with the main reasons being workload, non-work related tasks, salaries and inability to get promotion. This was highlighted at an event organised by Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) on 5 March 2020 in Belgrade.

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina must be at the service of citizens, so that they can have confidence in it. The important roles are played by the political aspect of the normalization of relations, as well as the media, are some of the conclusions of the meeting organized by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) on the 24th of February 2020 in Belgrade.