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Serbia maintains a gendarmerie, a military body in charged with special police duties. It is called '''Žandarmerija''' in Serbian.

The Serbian Gendarmerie was refounded on June 28th 2001, under the Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic, having been disbanded after the Second World War. The Special Operations Unit (JSO) and Special Police Unit (PJP) were attached to the Gendarmerie. At this moment, this is the only unit completely equipped by NATO standards. The Gendarmerie's duties are both civilian and military.
'Structure':
The Gendarmerie consists of of 4 units, each one itself consisting of 500 gendarmes. The principal bases are located in Belgrade,Novi Sad, Nis and Kraljevo.
The main assignments of the ''Gendarmerie '' are:

★ Restoring peace and stability if they have been heavily disturbed

★ Fighting terrorist and other violent groups

★ Repressing riots in prisons
'Civil duties': to provide security and public peace, to investigate and prevent organized crime, terrorism and other violent groups; to protect state and private property; to help and assist civilians and other emergency forces in a case of emergency, natural disaster, civil unrest and armed conflicts.
'Military duties': to provide, preserve and protect security and public peace, public order, to protect state and private property, to assist other security forces in case of emergency, civil unrest, war; to repress riots; to reinforce martial law and mobilization; to fight and apprehend suspect criminals, terrorists and other violent groups ;
'Other duties': To perform duties in the decrees of law and regulations other than civil, military and other duties and the duties given by the governmental decrees based on them.

Contents

History

Gallery

Uniforms

Equipment

See also

External link

History

The name "''žandarmerija''" comes from French word "''gendarmerie''". The ''Žandarmerija'' corps dates back to 1860 and originally comprised 120 officers.

From the establishment of the gendarmerie in 1860 in Serbia, there had been a need for thorough training of gendarmes, esp. in Belgrade. According to needs, prominent police members held lessons to the members of gendarmerie. First lectures for gendarmerie were periodical, unsystematic and without defined curriculum, but still important, because they represented the first steps in training and education of Serbian gendarmerie. First vocational lectures date from 1880, 1883 and 1884, when Mr. Tanasije Tasa Milenković, member of the Belgrade Police, gave lectures about police service to the gendarmes in the Command, and to non-commissioned officers of the gendarmerie.
First school for gendarmes was founded in 1899 and it was situated in Dorćol. It was closed a year after. Constant school for gendarmerie was founded in 1909, i.e. courses and regular lectures began. In the beginning courses in the school lasted for three and later for four months. Classes were divided into military and police subjects.
After the World War I, training and education of gendarmerie was approached more seriously. It was realized in the fact that the teaching in gendarmerie was lawfully regulated, so the total system of education of this formation was created between the two World Wars.
Lectures were conducted in the stations of the gendarmerie (Training and education of gendarmes in the stations of the gendarmerie was permanent. Commander of the station of the gendarmerie, oldest and best gendarmes and sergeants had the main role in it.) and vocational schools of the gendarmerie:
:(a) Preparatory schools for the gendarmerie;
:(b) Schools for patrol leaders;
:(c) School for non-commissioned officers of the gendarmerie;
:(d) Informative courses for the offices of the gendarmerie.
Goal and objective of the Preparatory school for the gendarmerie was to qualify a young gendarme who had just enlisted in the gendarmerie for individual performance of services and duties. Courses lasted for three months.oal and objective of the School for patrol leaders was to qualify a number of gendarmes for leadership of patrols and provide sufficient number of patrol leaders who will contribute to successful performance of services in regions of gendarmerie stations. Courses lasted for four months.

Goal and objective of the School for non-commissioned officers of the gendarmerie was to prepare well-trained non-commissioned officers and in that way provide sufficient number of non-commissioned officers of the gendarmerie, i.e. senior officers of gendarmerie stations and their representatives. Course lasted for six months.
It was disbanded after World War II only to be restored in 2001 as a special police force, upon an act issued by the Minister of Interior Dusan Mihajlovic. One of its major assignments was capturing the suspects in the assassination of Zoran Đinđić.

Gallery

Uniforms

The ''Zandarmerija'' uses special combat uniforms depending on situation and action setting, is equipped with various camouflages. It also has its own traditional ceremonial uniforms for special events.

Equipment

Unit are equipped with specialized firearms including submachine guns,assault rifles, shotguns, carbines, riot control agents, stun grenades, and high-powered rifles for marksmen (snipers). They often have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, entry tools,armored vehicles,anti-riot vehicles,infantry fighting vehicle,trucks,military utility vehicle,night vision and thermal vision optics.

Vehicles
Role	Type	Origin	Number
Infantry Fighting Vehicle	M-80A		2-5
Infantry Fighting Vehicle	YPR-765		2
Infantry Fighting Vehicle	Grizzly		1-2
Military utility vehicle	Land Rover Wolf		50-100
Riot control armored vehicle	BOV-M		10-20
Military utility vehicle	Mercedes-Benz G-Class		5-10
Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle	Pinzgauer		5-10
Medium truck	Saxon (vehicle)		1-2
Medium truck	TAM-110 4X4		5-10

See also

★ Gendarmerie

★ Gendarme

★ Military police

★ PTJ (Anti-terror unit)

External link

★ Official site