Since arrival Igor Žmirić to the head Special anti-terrorist units at the beginning of November last year, about 40 active members left this once elite unit.
It is mostly a question of departures for disability or early retirement at personal request - officially. Unofficially, the main reason for the mass departure is the impossibility of working in the atmosphere of fear that has reigned since Žmirić took office as the head of SAJ, writes N1.
In addition, it is said that ten more active members submitted requests for retirement, so in the coming period, if there is a positive response to the requests, the unit will function with a significant shortage of professionally trained police members. An interesting fact is that the youngest retired person is only 36 years old.
Loss of experienced professionals
According to the now retired member of the SAJ, who wanted to remain anonymous, only 70 people will remain in the operational team, and for the sake of comparison - during the last year and during the time when he managed the unit Spasoje Vulević - there were more than 120 of them. If it is known that the full combat formation is about 150 special forces, it is clear how this outflow will affect the work of the unit.
These statistics support the claims that the "special forces" are more ready to, as they say, "leave with honor" than to accept to work "under the command" of people who do not have adequate experience in the work of the SAJ, and whom they suspect was brought to that position solely by loyalty to the political party in power, as well as to the President of Serbia.
However, as former members claim, since Igor Žmirić took office, there have been no more serious actions by the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit. On the contrary, he says that they participated in actions that are not in their job description - such as the seizure of 12 kilograms of marijuana, as well as 180 stems of this plant in mid-March in Subotica, when they were on the ground together with members of the Criminal Police Department and the Police Department in Subotica.
They suspect that behind this lies Žmirić's desire to prove himself loyal to those who appointed him, given that it is no secret that the former commander of Spasoja Vulevic last summer refused the request of the police and political leadership that SAJ members be on the streets of Belgrade during civil and student protests.
Another "novelty" introduced by Žmirić concerns the car he has been using as an official vehicle since he has been managing SAJ - it is a Mercedes G class BRABUS which, according to our interlocutors, he drives on weekends. The car in question was once driven by Aleksandar Vulin, when he was the Deputy Prime Minister.
No freedom of thought or speech
The interlocutors of N1 add that the system of work in SAJ has not changed, but that the general impression is that what is their job is being "taken over" by the Directorate of the Criminal Police, which has recently been headed by Marko Krichak. In addition, they say, the professional members are demotivated because loyalty to the new commander and his associates is required, but also because of the changes that have occurred since the personnel changes at the head of the unit.
The shifts, by the way, continued, and in addition to them, transfers to the Unit for the Security of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO) were often also due to suspicions that someone was speaking against the current leadership. All of the above leads to the complete absence of freedom of speech and opinion, and these are values that, longtime members of SAJ remind, were normal in the unit while it was headed by Spasoje Vulević.
Everyone (wanted) to join SAJ
By the way, the public competition for attending the Selection Training for the SAJ, as the competition for "arriving" in this unit is professionally called, lasted last year, while the commander of the SAJ was Spasoje Vulević. At that time, a record number of applicants was recorded, about 400 of them. One of the reasons is that it was the second time since the establishment of the SAJ that it was also open to civilians, and the second is that many members of the police from the regular composition and other units wanted to come to the SAJ, which at that time was considered one of the few units under professional, not political command.
In the last six months, that has changed, according to N1 interlocutors who, for the same reasons, replaced their career with a pension, which they actually did not want.
According to them, this is the most difficult period for SAJ in its 48 years of existence, and the fact that a third of the total composition left the unit in a short period of time directly threatens its operational power.
Let us remind you that the training of one SAJ member requires years of work and huge state funds.
Milivojević: Professionals will not be beaten in the hands of the criminalized government
The president of the Democratic Party (DS), Srđan Milivojević, said that the mass departures from SAJ confirm that the government is not only destroying institutions, but also expelling professionals from the system who will not be "beaten in the hands of the criminalized government".
"The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, threatens the security of the country, by dismantling the security structures and elite units created by top professionals and bringing in unqualified personnel, who are loyal to him for the time being, but also hardened criminals," the statement of the DS states.
"All those who misused the uniform, beat children, students and citizens, as well as those who ordered, protected or covered up such repression, will answer soon, because the students are winning and returning the institutions to the citizens," said Milivojević.
He added that those who were sheltered, harassed or demoted, because they did not agree to "serve the mafia regime", will be rehabilitated.
Source: H1
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