by Damir PILIC
The attack took place on Saturday, December 30, 2000, at about 7pm, in the courtyard of Jaksic's family home. It seems that Jaksic was saved by pure coincidence. At the crucial moment, while the two attackers were sneaking in the courtyard of his house, he left the house and went towards the courtyard gate intending to go to the street and get something from the car. It seems that that confused the attackers, who had just started pulling hoods over their faces, obviously planning to burst into the house, where only a moment ago Jaksic had been with his wife and small children. Had they succeeded in that, the consequences would have probably been tragic. This way, sudden Jaksic's appearance forced the attackers to act quickly before they were fully prepared for that, and they started shooting immediately in the dark of the courtyard staircase, so that everything ended up being much less precise than the culprits (and organizers) desired.
One of best known lawyers in Croatia, the president of the Lawyer's Association Dubrovnik and a member of a series of international organizations for the protection of human rights is today being treated at the surgery clinic of the Dubrovnik Hospital. He is stable, but the doctors believe that the rehabilitation will last for up to one year.
It is true that lawyer Srdj Jaksic was in the past decade one of few lawyers, not only in Dubrovnik but in whole Croatia, who dared to defend clients with "unsuitable" ethnic and political affiliation. At the same time, he is one of the best lawyers in the country. His extreme professionalism prompted a whole series of Croatian war veterans from Dubrovnik, who after the reassessment of disability pensions were left without earlier rights and privileges, to hire Jaksic to represent them in their cases against the Defense Ministry (MORH).
Among other, Jaksic has recently defended some small drug dealers, so that one can hear in Dubrovnik rumors that that is a possible motive for the attack on him. Known as a thorough and hard worker, according to those rumors Jaksic got too close to unmasking some big narco bosses, some of whom work for the Police. It can even be heard that one of his clients has recently "spilled the beans" and mentioned some names form the higher reaches of the narco-pyramid.
However, the behavior of the Dubrovnik Police in the whole case was rather strange. Their actions prompted Jaksic's family to believe that the Police was deliberately trying to minimize the gravity of the case. At first the official police spokesperson stated on the local radio program that Jaksic had been hit by two bullets (instead of four) and that he had been "lightly wounded"(!). After wounded Jaksic found out that the Police claimed that the attackers had merely wanted to "scare" him, on Tuesday he phoned the Dubrovnik Police Chief, Eduard Cengija. However, that only led to further aggravation as according to Cengija Jaksic should be blamed for the attack.
Dismissive attitude of the Dubrovnik Police was obvious from other details as well. For example, a Police explosive expert arrived to the crime scene full 20 hours after the attack and asked Jaksic's wife Vera, who had in the meantime visited her husband several times in the hospital, whether she had noticed a bomb under her car. Furthermore, bullets that were taken out of Jaksic's body have been left in the hospital for full three days and the Police still hasn't come to pick them up. Similarly, bloody Jaksic's shirt (essentially the only piece of evidence) lay for hours on the stairs in front of the house; policemen stepped on it and only after three hours it occurred to someone to put it in a plastic bag. Finally, the Police needed full three days to carry out a thorough investigation of the crime scene.
Some details (use of a 7.62mm caliber handgun, and a silencer) indicate that the attack was carried out by professionals, despite the fact that they failed to finish the job. Residents of Dubrovnik are quietly commenting that the style of this attack is very similar to a mass of about 300 crimes committed in Dubrovnik (mostly explosions) in the early nineties, which have so far remained unresolved.
At the time Josip Kukuljan was the Police Chief in Dubrovnik. He is today an advisor of the Police Minister Lucin. Kukuljan was in 1994 replaced by Eduard Cengija. On the other hand, Cengija, due to nature of his job mostly collaborated with the chief of SZUP [one of Croatian secret services] in Dubrovnik, Petar Luburic, better known in the public as one of infamous "partners" in the Dubrovacka Bank case (Luburic has for a while been on a sick leave, but is still officially working for the Police).
Nevertheless, it is suspected that links between the Police, SZUP and local criminals, who are registered in the SZUP as "external collaborators" and are used for dirty jobs, remain from 1994. According to some speculations in Dubrovnik, it is believed that Jaksic's assassins were recruited within their ranks, just as those responsible for about 300 explosions from the early nineties, which is allegedly the reason the Police failed to catch any of the culprits. Obviously, the "external collaborators" and their superiors were quiet for a while to now, once they realized that the new authorities do not intend to impose on them, return to their favorite work.
FERAL TRIBUNE: Are you satisfied with the efforts the Dubrovnik Police has made to find the attackers?
SRDJ JAKSIC: I can not discuss that, but I would like to say something about the efforts of the doctors. From the first moment, when the ambulance arrived to my home, until now, they have been extremely professional, faultlessly humane and careful. I wish all other services were equally professional.
Although the most brutal so far, this was not the first attack on you and your family in the nineties. Could you tell us something about that?
All sorts of things happened. One could say that everything started on May 22, 1992, when my wife's art studio was blown up. After that there were other incidents. First, I was called up although none of my colleagues, lawyers, have been drafted for military service. Then the Military Police, while why I was with the Army, harassed my wife regarding papers and Croatian citizenship. Then they slashed tires on my car... Really, there were all sorts of things. But, you see, even four bullets fired from the distance of a meter and a half [five feet] did not help.
Yes, that is true. For a while no one did anything about that. Then I made some effort and the Human Rights Committee, German Foreign Affairs Minister Kinkel and others intervened on my behalf. After that I was summoned to the Police and harassed. They said that it was their impression that I had been slashing my own tires for the sake of self-promotion in the media. Supposedly, the only way I had of getting in the papers was by repeatedly causing $500 of damage on my own car, every time.
When was the last time your car was damaged?
I think that it's been almost eighteen months since the last incident of that sort. Hey, the last time I even managed to get some money from the insurance company!
What is your comment on the atmosphere in the city regarding this incident?
I have received many messages from Dubrovnik and all over Croatia, but my wife tells me that the public in the city, I am referring to conversations in cafes and similar stuff, is unanimously backing the culprits. It can be heard that I deserved it, that I was lucky not to be assassinated earlier, that I should have been attacked a long time ago, that that is nothing surprising, etc.
Some media are insisting on the theory that you irritated Croatian patriots with your recent defense of the Montenegrin Dejan Subotic, indicted for war crimes committed in the Dubrovnik region in Autumn 1991. In other words that this was a politically motivated attack?
I am at the moment representing 200 policemen from the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Police; I also represent a policeman who was attacked by a bully. I am a professional. I represent those who approach me. My clients cover a very wide spectrum; I have always represented all those who approach me. And I never got involved in politics. A few days ago, jokingly, I told someone that I would not represent him unless he left the HDZ. As I have for years been involved in human rights violations cases, it makes sense that recently I have been approached by HDZ members whose rights have been violated.
Another theory is widespread in Dubrovnik. According to that theory, you were attacked because recently you've been defending some small drug dealers, too dutifully, so that big bosses got scared that their names may become public, together with names of their political and police mentors and protectors?
We cannot discuss that. That is ordinary speculation. I told the Police that that is a possible motive. But motives can be different. It could have been a divorce case in which I participated. You can always find dissatisfied people. I cannot discuss specific cases from my practice, as I am obliged to secrecy by the lawyer's codex and my relationship with the client.
I do not think that the same culprits will try again, but I believe that there is significant danger that various psychopaths could be prompted to try something similar. Above all I am afraid of cases such as the one that took place on Sunday, a day after the assassination attempt on me, when my wife was attacked and insulted at the bus station, where she had gone to buy a newspaper for me. It was enough for that man that he had recognized my car, to start insulting and intimidating my wife.
You said that during the investigation you do not wish to discuss the Police actions. Nevertheless, could you tell us whether you're satisfied by the measures taken by the Police for your own protection and the protection of your family taken after the attack?
The Police is guarding me in the hospital instead of protecting my children at home. My wife told me that they put one policeman the night after the attack in front of the house. However, once the entrance door is closed, we are completely safe from that side. The attackers managed to get inside because I left the door open. And the Police only last night, and today is Wednesday, realized that they have been guarding the entrance door for three days, while my wife was alone with children in the house above which lies several acres of forest. A whole Russian Army could come from that side and set up a camp and no one would notice their presence for a year. And they have been watching the street. Only last night they put a man above on the other side of the house.