Gendarmery (Serbia)

Gendarmery officers, 1865

The word žandarmerija is a French loanword ("gendarmerie"), and is pronounced "zhandarmeriya". The Žandarmerija corps date back to the Principality of Serbia, established on June 28, 1860, and originally consisted of 120 infantrymen and 15 cavalrymen. From 15 to 17 June 1862, the Serbian Gendarmerie played a crucial role in the conflicts around the Čukur fountain in Belgrade - a little more than 100 gendarmes opposed a Turkish force several hundred times stronger and practically saved Belgrade and Serbia. The 1884 Law on the Gendarmerie established the State Gendarmerie which was organized into detachments with one detachment in Belgrade and every district town. In 1919, the Gendarmerie became an integral part of the Royal Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, tasked for watching over public order and security, maintaining order and peace and ensuring the execution of the laws. The Gendarmerie was subordinated to the Minister of Military Affairs in terms of supply, discipline and military training, and in terms of use, training, maintenance of public security and gendarmerie service - to the Ministry of the Internal Affairs. After World War II gendarmery was disbanded only to be re-establishe more than half a century later, in 2001, after the disbandment of the Special Police Units (Posebna Jedinica Policije, PJP).[1] One of its first major assignments of newly-formed Gendarmery was capture of the suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. That same year, the Counter-Terrorist Unit was established within Gendarmery, but was separated in 2007 to become an independent unit within the Police.[3] In 2005 the Persons and Infrastructure Protection Unit was established, to carry out close protection and technical protection tasks.[3][1] In 2011 the Gendarmery was reorganized and the First Quick Response Detachment was established, consisting of the specialist companies of all Gendarmery detachments along with the Diving Center.[3]

The Gendarmery's missions include:

• Restoring public peace and order if it has been heavily disturbed (including riot control)
• Countering organized crime, terrorist and other violent groups
• Repressing prison riots
• Providing security to the security-sensitive foreign embassies in Serbia (those of the United States, China, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Croatia and Albania)
• Securing the 384 kilometers long and 5 km wide Ground Safety Zone along the administrative line between Serbia and Kosovo (in joint action with infantry battalions of the Serbian Army)

It may also perform any duties decreed in the laws and regulations.

Gendarmery is organized in four "detachments" (odredi), battalion-size units, each with their own territorial jurisdiction (based in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, and Kraljevo).[1] Detachment is organized as independent unit in order to be able to execute every-day duties on its territory of jurisdiction although, if needed, can provide assistance to other detachments as well.[4] The structure of the detachment is as follows:

Echelon march of Gendarmery members

• Command
• General-purpose unit (composed of a general-purpose company and fire support platoon); specialized in crowd and riot control.
• Specialist unit (composed of: counter-terrorist company, reconnaissance platoon, sniper team, K-9 team and mine-explosive team), specialized in counterterrorism, fighting violent groups, organized crime groups.
• Security unit (company-size unit in Belgrade-based detachment, platoon-size unit in other detachments); specialized in tasks of physical and technical protection of sensitive sites (protection of certain foreign embassies in case of Belgrade-based detachment or other sensitive sites in case of other detachments).
• Armored vehicles unit, tasked with mechanized support to other units of the detachment.

In addition to the detachments deployed throughout the country, the Gendarmery has one specialized unit: the Diving Unit of the Gendarmery (Ronilačka jedinica Žandarmerije), headquartered in Belgrade.[1] It is tasked with conducting special actions in water-dominated environment and is consisted of three specialist teams: intervention team, searching team and nautical team.[3]

Firearms

Vehicles

Model	Image	Origin	Type	Variant	Number	Details
BOV		Serbia	Armored personal carrier	BOV M15	20	Armed with 12.7mm RWS
BOV		Serbia	Armored personal carrier	BOV M11	20	Armed with 12.7mm RWS
BOV		Yugoslavia	Armored personal carrier	BOV M86	20	Armed with 14.5mm KPVT heavy machine gun
BOV		Yugoslavia	anti-aircraft	BOV-3		SPAAG with triple M55A4B1 20mm cannon
BOV M16		Serbia	Armoured multi-purpose combat vehicle	BOV M16 Miloš		Armed with 12.7mm RWS
Lazar armored vehicle		Serbia	Armored personal carrier	Lazar-3	12	Armed with 12.7mm RWS
Saxon		United Kingdom	Armored personal carrier	AT105 Saxon	1	Armed with 12.7mm Zastava M02 Coyote
Praga		Czechoslovakia	Anti-aircraft	M53/59 Praga	3+	Armed with 30 mm twin AA autocannon
AIFV		United States	Infantry fighting vehicle	YPR-765	1	YPR-765 seized from Dutch UN peacekeepers in the Bosnian War
TAM		Yugoslavia	Riot control vehicle	TAM 110		Riot trucks
TAM		Yugoslavia	Armoured personnel carrier	TAM 110		Ris armored truck
TAM		Yugoslavia	Military truck	TAM 150		T11 truck
Humvee		United States	All-wheel-drive vehicle	HMMWV	30-50	American-made Hummers procured via Cyprus used by former Special Operations Unit
Land Rover		United Kingdom	All-wheel-drive vehicle	Land Rover Defender
Sevel		Italy		Fiat Ducato
Yamaha		Japan	ATV	Kodiak 700
Toyota		Japan		Toyota Land Cruiser
Škoda		Czech Republic		Škoda Rapid

Commanders

Since its establishment, the Serbian Gendarmery has had six Commanders:[1][5]

No.	Portrait	Commander	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Minister of Internal Affairs
1		Radosavljević, GoranColonel Goran Radosavljević (born 1957)	28 June 2001	17 August 2004	3 years, 50 days	Dušan Mihajlović Dragan Jočić
2		Tešić, BorivojeColonel Borivoje Tešić (born 1956)	17 August 2004	23 June 2008	3 years, 311 days	Dragan Jočić
–		Grekulović, SrđanColonel Srđan Grekulović (born 1962) Acting	23 June 2008	3 June 2009	345 days	Dragan Jočić Ivica Dačić
3		Dikić, BratislavColonel Bratislav Dikić (born 1970)	3 June 2009	17 July 2013	4 years, 44 days	Ivica Dačić
–		Božović, MilenkoColonel Milenko Božović (born 1965) Acting	17 July 2013	2 August 2013	16 days	Ivica Dačić
4		Božović, MilenkoColonel Milenko Božović (born 1965)	2 August 2013	13 March 2015	1 year, 223 days	Ivica Dačić Nebojša Stefanović
5		Dragović, GoranColonel Goran Dragović (born 1967)	13 March 2015	2 August 2018	3 years, 142 days	Nebojša Stefanović
6		Luković, DejanColonel Dejan Luković	2 August 2018	Incumbent	5 years, 84 days	Nebojša Stefanović Aleksandar Vulin Bratislav Gašić

• Police of Serbia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gendarmerie (Serbia).

• Official Žandarmerija of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
• Short video about Žandarmerija
• "Nadležnosti" [Duties]. Ministry of the Interior, Republic of Serbia (in Serbian)