Dacic wears mask at committee as opposition seeks sackings
A session of parliament's defence and security committee unfolded under the shadow of the Senjak case, with sharp opposition demands and a missing report.
- Police Minister Ivica Dacic attended a session of parliament's defence and security committee wearing a mask, with armed security present in the room.
- The opposition demanded answers on the Senjak case and called for sackings, but the requested report was not put before the committee.
- Police Director Dragan Vasiljevic said he did not have the report on the Senjak case.
Police Minister Ivica Dacic attended a session of parliament’s defence and security committee on Friday wearing a mask, with armed security present in the room. The meeting unfolded under the shadow of the Senjak case, marked by sharp opposition demands for answers and resignations, while the requested report on the case was not placed before members.
Dacic told members that he owed his post to voters rather than to anyone’s appointment. “I am not here because someone placed me here, but because I was elected at elections,” the minister said. He added that no one was protected, because the police had, as he put it, immediately arrested all suspects.
What did the opposition demand?
Zdravko Ponos of the Srce movement asked why armed security was present in the room and whether the head of the Belgrade police, Veselin Milic, had ever undergone an integrity test. He said he received no answer to that question.
Marinika Tepic of the Party of Freedom and Justice demanded answers on the Senjak case and argued that crime appeared lower only because, in her claim, it was in collusion with the authorities. Miroslav Aleksic of the People’s Movement asked whether any security and asset check had ever been carried out on Milic.
Why was the Senjak report missing?
The central question of the session was left without the document that might have clarified it. Police Director Dragan Vasiljevic said he did not have the requested report on the Senjak case, leaving the committee without the written material that had driven the sharpest exchanges.
The session laid bare two pictures that sit uneasily together: a minister insisting on his electoral legitimacy, and an opposition pressing for personal accountability and scrutiny of the most senior police officials. The mask on Dacic’s face and the armed security in the room became the visual frame for a debate that, in substance, remained open.
Would the Senjak report, had it reached the committee, have changed the tone of this session?
