Serbia: Police opens doors

The history of the South-Eastern European region has been a turbulent one, with borders and boundaries of states and empires shifting repeatedly over the course of time. As a result,  the population of Serbia today is extremely diverse. According to the results of the 2011 census that were published in November 2012, out of a total of 7,187,000 Serbian citizens, more than 1,000,000 are members of an ethnic minority.

Since its establishment, recognizing the ethnically diverse nature of the population, the OSCE Mission to Serbia has closely co-operated with the Serbian Ministry of the Interior to promote a police service that is reflective of Serbia’s multi-ethnic make-up. Their work closely follows the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities’ Recommendations on Policing in Multi-Ethnic Societies, which stress that good policing in multi-ethnic societies depends on establishing a relationship of trust between the police and minorities. “Building a stable democracy in a multi-ethnic society requires a professional police service that reflects the population it serves,” says Paula Thiede, the Acting Head of the Mission.

As part of its engagement in this area, the Mission organizes visits for national minority youth from various parts of Serbia to the Serbian Ministry of Interior’s Basic Police Training Center (BPTC) located in Sremska Kamenica (60 km north of Belgrade), to encourage them to consider a career in policing. The BPTC was transformed into a modern basic police training centre with the Mission’s assistance in 2007, from a four-year police high school established by the Interior Ministry in the 1960s. 

Two hundred young potential police recruits have visited the Training Centre over the past three years. They have come from all over Serbia: Albanians from the south, Bosniaks from the south- west, Slovaks and Hungarians from the Vojvodina province in the north and Roma, Egyptians and Ashkali from throughout the country. They learn about the enrolment process and curriculum, attend lectures, take practice exams, and speak with cadets and active duty police officers about their experiences.

Our goal is to encourage more young people from minority communities to apply to our programme. Enabling them to take the entrance exam in their minority language is an important part of reaching that goal.
Biljana Puskar

One visitor to the BPTC was Edip Aliu, a young ethnic-Albanian from Presevo, in Southern Serbia near the administrative line with Kosovo, who visited from 5 to 7 November 2012. Aliu was part of a group of 50 ethnic Albanians, Serbians and Roma, all heralding from the same region. “As a police officer I could contribute to the security of my community, my hometown and my people,” Aliu said. Irmane Maliqi, a young ethnic Albanian woman, also from Presevo, echoed his sentiment: “I would say that my family would support me becoming a police officer” – an encouraging indication that among some within the ethnic Albanian community in Serbia, the perception of state authorities is improving.

With funding of €8,000 secured from the German Embassy, the OSCE Mission has provided the BPTC with 20 licences for multi-lingual recruitment software developed by the Creative Softlab Company and the Association of Psychologists of Serbia. The software, which is already being used successfully by the Centre, allows applicants to take the entrance exam in Serbian, Hungarian, Albanian, Slovak, Czech, Romani, Romanian, Bulgarian or Ruthenian.

“Our goal is to encourage more young people from minority communities to apply to our programme" says Biljana Puskar, the Director of the BPTC. "Enabling them to take the entrance exam in their minority language is an important part of reaching that goal”.