Student List: Declassifying Intelligence Files a Priority, but Without Political Vendetta

Students (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Speaking for the Nov. 9 edition of the Nova daily, Student List member Svetlana Stanarevic said that Serbia needs a complete depoliticization and professionalization of its defense and security frameworks as well the implementation of strict civil and judicial oversight in both.

“The declassification of [intelligence service] files must be an absolute priority, but the process cannot be conducted as a political vendetta but rather through strict legal procedures,” said Stanarevic, who is an associate professor of the University of Belgrade School of Security Studies.

According to her, Serbia is one of Europe’s few former Socialist countries which never conducted full lustration and declassified its intelligence files, resulting in “the same networks of informants and compromised personnel jumping from one establishment to another for decades, enabling each new regime to conduct political blackmail.”