Former BIA, Police and VBA Chiefs Sign Pre-Election Appeal
The list of signatories has grown to 178 names, including serving police officers. They urge colleagues to act according to the law at the October 25 election.
A group of former and serving members of the police and security services has sent colleagues an appeal to stick to the Constitution and the law at the October 25 election. Among the signatories are former Security Information Agency (BIA) director Sasa Vukadinovic, former police director Vladimir Rebic and former Military Security Agency (VBA) director Momir Stojanovic. The appeal was launched by the Integrity Network of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP).
The list of signatories kept growing. N1 notes that it was updated at 11 p.m., and the numbered list in that article runs to 178 names. The introduction of the same article says 146 members of the security services signed the appeal. BBC in Serbian, whose report was carried by Danas, gives no figure and only lists names, while N1 journalist Suzana Trninic speaks of “a hundred and something people.”
Who signed the appeal by former BIA, police and VBA chiefs?
Among the highest-ranking signatories are:
- Sasa Vukadinovic, former BIA director
- Vladimir Rebic, former police director
- Momir Stojanovic, retired general, former commander of the Nis Corps and former VBA director
- Spasoje Vulevic, former commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ)
- Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, retired colonel general and former head of the Security Directorate of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA)
- Milan Obradovic, retired police general, former chief of the Belgrade police department and Interpol director
- Milos Oparnica, retired police colonel, former head of the Criminal Police Directorate (UKP) and of the Internal Control Sector
Retirees are not the only ones on the list. Lieutenant colonel Goran Mijailovic of the Belgrade Police Directorate is listed with the word “coordinator” next to his name. Serving platoon leaders, majors and inspectors from Belgrade, Kragujevac, Valjevo and Prijepolje also signed.
What does the appeal ask of the police and services?
The signatories address their colleagues at three moments: on election day, after the polling stations close, and in the days of post-election tension. For election day and the period after it, the appeal says:
“On election day, it is your duty to prevent violence, intimidation of voters and electoral abuses. After the polling stations close, you are obliged to protect the integrity of the electoral process, ensure that the results are established lawfully and react to any attempt to change them unlawfully.”
For post-election tensions, they call for impartial conduct, prevention of violence and protection of citizens’ right to peaceful assembly. They put particular emphasis on personal responsibility, including what they call conscious inaction. The authors of the appeal state:
“Our legal duty is to protect citizens and serve the state, not political parties and individuals. No political interest, order from a superior or pressure from the authorities can justify breaking the law.”
The same document says that “free and fair elections are not possible without institutions that protect the will of the citizens.” The signatories also backed an initiative by CEPRIS and the group “Defense of the Profession,” which calls on prosecutors and judges to take responsibility. They close the appeal with these lines:
“The history of political crises shows that institutions can be the last barrier against arbitrariness, but also its most powerful instrument. The choice belongs to the people who work in them.”
What did the Integrity Network ask of Dacic and Vasiljevic?
The same organization is behind an open letter carried by Beta. In it, the network calls on Interior Minister in the caretaker government Ivica Dacic, the head of the “Stability Factor” election list, and police director Dragan Vasiljevic to recuse themselves from commanding police operations at public gatherings and from other election-related work. The network also asks the Interior Ministry (MUP) to examine their political involvement and determine possible disciplinary responsibility.
The reason, according to the letter, is that the officials publicly endorsed an election list and now command the forces at rallies of its opponents. The letter says:
“This measure should remain in force until the circumstances of their political involvement are examined and justified doubts about their impartiality are removed.”
The network stresses that temporary recusal is neither a punishment nor a prejudgment of responsibility, but a preventive organizational measure.
How was the appeal received?
On N1, journalist Suzana Trninic said the address by former chiefs “smells like October 5.” She dwelt on one name from the list:
“On that list you have former police director Vladimir Rebic, whom people demanded in 2020 should resign over what happened on the streets in July, over the police acting and failing to act. He is now on a list of a hundred and something people who held significant positions in the police and the army.”
In the articles we read, there is no public reaction from the government, the Interior Ministry or the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), either to the appeal or to the Integrity Network’s letter. The election is an early parliamentary one. According to Danas, 6,450,523 ballots were printed for 8,392 polling stations, and two final rallies remain before the vote: the SNS in Nis on October 21 and the Student List in Belgrade the day after.
