At its eighteenth session, held on 20 May, the Committee on Defence and Security discussed conclusions on respect for human rights during the state of emergency instituted after the assassination of Prime Minister Djindjic in March 2003, and Operation Sabre, the ensuing police action aimed at cracking down on organised crime.

The head of the Public Security Service of the Ministry of the Interior, Major General Miroslav Milosevic, and the Inspector General at the Ministry of the Interior, Vladimir Bozovic, attended the session, providing explanations for information submitted to the Committee and answering questions posed by deputies.

The session concluded that the authenticity had been verified of the audio recording of 166^th session of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, at which the Government had discussed instituting the state of emergency. The Committee also concluded that a total of 11,655 members of the public were unselectively detained in police custody, that detainees were tortured and human rights abused, that telephones of individuals were tapped in contravention of law, and that APBs were issued for individuals not directly related to the murder of Prime Minister Djindjic. It was concluded that the Office of Communications had, in contravention of law and regulations on the work of the Government and the Office of Communications, performed duties outside of its purview, including composing and issuing announcements on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior and the Security and Information Agency dealing with statements made by detainees.

In addition to this, the conclusions of the committee state that a complete inspection of documents of the National Defence Council needs to be performed, that the Ministry of the Interior should be instructed to permit the Committee to inspect the report of the Office of Communications, on the basis of which the state of emergency was lifted, and to require the Office of the Police Inspector General to forward responses of the Inspector General to all cases of torture, as well as the status of investigation against individuals responsible for applying torture.

The Committee requested the Ministry of the Interior to submit information on the situation in the municipality of Bujanovac and the reasons for the removal of certain checkpoints from localities with majority Serbian population, as well as from one ethnically mixed locality.