Resignations due to the demolition in Savamala

Belgrade Centre for Security Policy demands the resignations of the Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and Acting Police Director Vladimir Rebic for omissions in the work of the police during the demolitions in the Herzegovacka street area of Belgrade’s Savamala district on the night of April 24, 2016.

If the official investigation concludes that “the top of the police” ordered Belgrade police officials not to react to citizens' calls, BCSP demands that Stefanovic and Rebic are no longer allowed to perform any public function or civil service in Serbia.

The Ombudsman stated on May 9 in a report from the process of control of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) work during the night between April 24 and 25 that the police did not promptly and effectively acted upon complaints of citizens on the threats to freedom, security and property in the Savamala district by a large group of men wearing “phantom” masks. In the explanation of the findings of the investigation, the Ombudsman points out that the omissions in the work of the police were organised and implemented within the framework of a previously prepared plan and issued orders.

In order to rebuild the trust of citizens in the police, that these omissions significantly collapsed, it is necessary that the Sector for internal control of police conducts an investigation and determines whose orders led to the inaction of the police during the Savamala demolition, and to determine the legal responsibility of everyone in the chain of command.

For violation of the rights of citizens on lawful and proper policing cannot be held liable only duty police officers, who are the first point of contact for citizens, but also their elders, and all members of the police who are part of the chain of command, from the Belgrade police chief, Police Director and minister in charge.

The incident with man whose faces were covered with “phantom” masks has uncovered a number of systematic issues that MoI for years does not manage to answer – from human resource management, through internal control, to politicization and still nonexistent concept of community policing.