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.