Who demolished the private facilities at Savamala in Belgrade under the cover of darkness? The Prime Minister claims that the government had nothing to do with it but jurists insist that the police should be held accountable for not protecting citizens and their property.
“Is it Idiocy or a crime?” How are we to define the nightly demolition of private facilities by masked men at Savamala in Belgrade?
Serbia’s PM claims that we are talking about idiots. The person responsible is a complete idiot, if he had come to demolish the buildings in broad daylight, everything would have been fine. I don’t know what to tell you. The person responsible is clearly insane. I don’t know why he didn’t get a wrecking ball to demolish it all. I would have applauded him. Great, you’ve torn down the dump they made from the place”, said Serbia’s PM Aleksandar Vucic at a press conference.
Vucic didn’t read the report of the ombudsman Sasa Jankovic but he promised that the competent authorities will look into it as well as Jankovic’s claims that his conversations might be eavesdropped though the PM claims otherwise:
“If it turns out I’m wrong the complete security sector will be sacked since I’ve received firm assurances that that is not the case.”
Vucic will ask for an apology if it turns out he had been right, while SasaJankovic said in response to the PM statement that the report should be read first before it is responded to and adds that it is the police is the one who should apologize:
“The only one who has a reason to apologize is the Ministry of internal affairs – to the citizens for leaving them to fend for themselves in complete disregard for the law and at the mercy of hooded men with dredgers in Savamala in the night of the 25th of April between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.” says Jankovic in his statement.
Bogoljub Milosavljevic, who is a professor at the Law Faculty of the Union University, also believes that the police needs to be held accountable: “The police are responsible for not reacting when the security of the citizenry was at risk in a highly inappropriate action under the cover of night that was all but criminal in its implementation”, he says.
Even though he mainly responded to questions about the masked men that ID-d and detained citizens by hurling accusations at the Democratic Party, Vucic promised that the competent authorities will look into these claims.
The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights insists that they do just that.
“I believe it is very hard to admit a mistake and that it is very difficult to explain to the hooded men participating in this action that they have overstepped their authority. If those people were members of government authorities, or members of the communal police or any other unit then that also is cause for great alarm that the security of all of us is jeopardized”, says Milan Antonijevic.
It was only 10 days after the demolition that the High Prosecutors Office in Belgrade had launched a preliminary investigation and requested all the information the police has been pertaining on the nightly demolition, but none on the hooded men.
