Paramilitary: Familiar Faces on the Borders

Archives

January
20, 2007:
After nearly a century, the Serbs are again letting the police,
rather than the army, guard the national borders. For a long time, it was
believed that the military would be more reliable for guarding the border. That
turned out not to be the case. The troops could be bribed. By having police
take care of border security, you don't eliminate corruption, but at least you
have local people, familiar with the area, watching the frontier. If there is
an emergency, you end up having more capable border guards. Along the Kosovo
border, this becomes particularly important, since some of the local cops are
Albanians (to reflect the population of southern Serbia), as are many of the
smugglers. Yes, Albanian cops can be bribed by the smugglers, but if you
absolutely have to stop someone, or solve a crime by the smugglers, at least
you have cops who know all the players.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close