Operation Sablja

Operation Sablja (Operation Sabre; Serbian Cyrillic: Операција Сабља; Serbian Latinic: Operacija Sablja) was a major organized anti-crime operation launched in Serbia and Montenegro on March 12, 2003, following the assassination of Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister of Serbia. The assassination destabilized the government. Immediately after the assassination, a state of emergency was declared by interim president Nataša Mićić. The government mounted Operation Sablja.

This police action was aimed at finding the assassins and was seen as a blow to organized crime, but a number of political opponents to the Democratic Party and its government were arrested during this action in connection with the Mafia. Most were later freed. During this operation, 11,625 people have been arrested - linked to organized crime. Among them, a lot of famous people and Balkan jet-set stars. At the end of the operation, most of the suspects for the assassination were arrested. The main suspect, Milorad Ulemek, is currently on trial for murdering the Prime Minister and has been sentenced for the Ibarska magistrala crime to 40 years of imprisonment.

Some political opponents accused the government of human rights abuse during the operation but the government and proponents of the action pointed out that Serbia became a member of the Council of Europe during the action and that the majority of the organizations sent to analyze the situation during the operation including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe declared that the operation was performed without breaches of human rights. Some organisations disagree, notably Human Rights Watch([1], [2], [3], [4]) and Amnesty International. They are especially critical of the fact that some suspected criminals were interrogated without a lawyer being present.