At the sitting held on 17 March and chaired by the Committee Chairman Dragan Todorovic, the Committee on Defense and Security considered the Security Information Agency’s Activity Report for period January-December 2008 and the Report on the state of security in the Republic of Serbia.

The reports were presented to the Committee members by the SIA director Sasa Vukadinovic who stressed that the security situation in the Republic of Serbia was stable. According to him, the illegitimate declaration of Kosovo-Metohija independence is the greatest source of destabilisation, as well as the appearance of destabilisation risks in other parts of Serbia. Extremism has emerged in the south of Serbia, and in some regions there are groups acting from the position of religious and ideological radicalism. He deemed that the tension in the north of Kosovo-Metohija and the attempt to put it under the control of Pristina might lead to terrorist group actions and overall destabilisation. Acting in compliance with the Law on Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, in the previous year SIA was engaged in locating and apprehending Stojan Zupljanin and Radovan Karadzic.

In 2009 the SIA will focus on locating and apprehending Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, opposing separatism and terrorism, opposing the activities of religious agents and radicalism, opposing overall extremism, preventing the activities of foreign agents and fighting international organized crime. Also, it will make the suppression of illegal money entering legal flows in Serbia and fight against trafficking in human beings one of its priorities.

A lengthy discussion followed, in which the SIA director responded to the deputies’ questions, focusing on the topics of the situation in Kosovo-Metohija after the arrival of the EULEX Mission, human trafficking, human organ trafficking in Kosovo-Metohija, interests of foreign intelligence services, investigations on the destruction of files after 5 October 2000, relations between the SIA and intelligence services of other countries and documentation of crimes committed by Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK/UCK) in Kosovo-Metohija. The Committee members objected to the terminology used in the drafting of such reports, and the Committee’s possible employment of all of its the legal resources for surveillance over security services was also discussed, as well as the possibility of closing the Committee’s sittings to the public when such reports are submitted.

Following the discussion the Committee adopted the Security Information Agency’s Activity Report for period January-December 2008 and the Report on the state of security in the Republic of Serbia by a majority of votes.