Security in Serbia is state-centered

“Citizens of Serbia live in uncertainty since they do not know what the Government will do and whether they will be safe. Security strategy is vaguely defined and it lists threats for the country. Strategy can only tell us that we are threaten by everything and that there is no way to deal with it“, said the author of the book „Deprived security“ and president of BCSP Executive Board Miroslav Hadžić.

During the presentation of the book, held at Centre for Cultural Decontamination on December 24, Ombudsman Saša Janković said that citizens have no trust in the law enforcement authorities and that security in Serbia became „state-centric“. Janković also mentioned that citizens are not in the focus of interest and that Government does not recognize the fact that there is no state interest which would be confronted to the interest of the citizens. During this presentation, Ombudsman indicated that in Serbia we are witnessing militarization of security and asked why is the Prime Minister secured by military security agency, since he is representing civil authority. Also, he warned about the gravity of leaving the legal frames.

Professor of law at the Union Faculty, Bogoljub Milosavljević, estimated that politicians and the government control security agencies, but that it is always important to ask in whose interest the security is being controled. He also said that certain elites are being needlessly overprotected.

„Elite can have even higher level of security than it is reasonable. There are people who are too much protected, and they do not deserve it. Certain famous people and politicians have state security, from the government’s budget, and on the other side there are citizens who are not that safe“, Milosavljević said.