The idea that Stanisic become Milosevic's Putin came from Russia. Stanisic, "Reporter's" sources claim, has accepted the proposal in principle but also stipulated some conditions. The first and main condition is the purging of the police, especially of the secret police, of members of the Yugoslav United Left (JUL). The present head of the SDB is a member of JUL, Rade Markovic. Stanisic also has some political conditions which are unknown at the present time. JUL and the Radicals will certainly not care for the idea of Stanisic as Milosevic's heir at all, but for now they can do nothing to prevent it. This scenario especially spoils the plans of JUL which already "saw" Ljubisa Ristic in this position. The hostility of the coalition partners of the SPS toward the former head of Serbian police is so great that allegedly his personal safety is in danger. The situation really cannot be any different considering everything that Stanisic knows about the leaders of JUL and the Serbian Radical Party.
First Radio B92, then Beta Agency posted this as the top news of the day and consequently the "case" of Stanisic, marked urgent, was taken over by the world news wires as well.
After it was decided by the executive committee of the main board of the Socialist Party of Serbia that their meeting should conclude with an analysis of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, and that the remaining items on the daily agenda would be considered "at one of the later sessions" (one of the participants told reporters that "it was assessed that it would be just too much for one day"). It was not until the second broadcast of the Serbian Radio Television news that Stanisic's name was finally mentioned in the context of a statement from the office of president Milan Milutinovic in which he "expressed his special gratitude for his work to date".
Against Seselj: These statements did not leave a special impression on the American agency Associated Press which, clearly demonstrating its understanding of political relations here but also tying in the incident with current developments in Kosovo, wrote that "the president of FR Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic today dismissed Jovica Stanisic, who in the capacity of the head of the secret police spoke out against the use of force against the illegal KLA, thus coming into conflict with the 'hard-line' official policy". According to the AP report, Stanisic led "a faction inside the government" which opposed the collaboration of president Milosevic and the leader of the Radicals, Vojislav Seselj. "The dismissal of Jovica Stanisic is an indicator of the victory of the hard-liners over the reformist forces inside Milosevic's government," assessed the American agency at that time and added that "Stanisic also allegedly opposed the repression of the independent media in Serbia".
In the course of the same night, reporters of "Glas Javnosti" managed to contact Stanisic by telephone. During a brief conversation he told them, in response to the question whether he had been offered another position, the following: "I rejected everything". He refused to elaborate on what he had been offered and by whom saying only: "You must try to find that out on your own." "I will indicate what I think of everything that has been done only in the form of an official statement. I don't give interviews and that's how it will stay," said Stanisic.
By the next day "reliable sources" had already discovered "everything" that he had been offered and it wasn't much (the position of an ambassador to Poland). Stanisic hardly indicated "what he thought of everything" in the official statement which was delivered to editorial offices the next day by an official courier. In the statement, the former head of the SDB of Serbia did not leave much room for stories about his resignation (which had been mentioned as a possibility by the former general of the Yugoslav People's Army and the current president of Socialdemocracy, Vuk Obradovic), nor for the illogical claim of SPS spokesman Ivica Dacic that his term in office had expired ("This is not a dismissal of Stanisic but a regular process of selection of new people following the expiration of terms of office."), clearly indicating that this was a decision by the government to dismiss him. Stanisic concluded this statement with the words: "I want to believe that in the future, which is not free of threats to national security, the SDB will perform its duty in accordance with the principles which I honored and which I served."
Tell Slobo the Truth: The salvo of reactions to the dismissal of Stanisic, besides those coming from the political parties, was further added to by the numerous commentaries of political analysts and reporters. In the majority of them, negative forecasts were directed at the regime (radicalization and "settling of accounts with the people" are to follow, "they will be breaking into our apartments next") while positive notes were reserved for Stanisic himself (rational, cold-blooded but reasonable, advocated the recognition of election results, refused to allow bloodshed during the three-month demonstrations, attempted to hook up Milosevic with some of the opposition leaders, a friend of Djukanovic's, allegedly advocated freedom for the media and, above all, "dared to tell Slobo the truth"). Cooler journalist heads with a predisposition toward irony stated that the UN Security Council should be asked to include in Resolution 1203 a condemnation of repression of the independent media and a retroactive demand for the reinstatement of Jovica Stanisic.
The incontestable fact about Stanisic's career is that it came full circle in Kosovo.
Because it is in Kosovo that Milosevic was launched into a political orbit and that Stanisic found his way into Slobo's heart. It was after the famous meeting held on Vidovdan [St. Vitus day] 1989 where Stanisic not only participated in the organization and security arrangements during Slobodan Milosevic's arrival to the celebration of the six hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo but also managed the operatives who, the story goes, ruined the plans of the leaders of the Yugoslav People's Army who "tried to make his position more difficult" but also prevented an alleged assassination attempt against Milosevic. For the man for whom the famous platitude "once a policeman, always a policeman" was true from his first day on the job (immediately upon completion of his studies at the Faculty of Political Science with a major in international relations, he started working for the State Security Service), the road to second-in-command was now definitely open. From his counterintelligence career most frequently mentioned are periods during which he specialized in the KGB, then established a network of collaborators among emigrants in Germany, and that he took part as an operative in the campaign to capture terrorist Sanchez Ilich Ramirez, better known as Carlos, in the Belgrade Excelsior Hotel.
Before becoming "the chief's right-hand man" Stanisic first became known among his colleagues as Radmilo Bogdanovic's man. It is in that capacity that, during the period "when the time came for the Serbs on the outskirts of the future state to take up arms and organize themselves", he was a key factor in negotiations that the Serb leadership led with the Croatian side. The release of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan and Zoran Stefanovic, both arrested in the infamous weapons affair, was arranged with Manolic and Degoricija. Both the freed men later found themselves on the lengthy list of those who lost their lives in the streets of Belgrade after the war and whose murderers were never discovered. During the war the majority of these young men with thick criminal files was nevertheless engaged in special paramilitary formations which were active from Slavonija, Baranja and western Srem, throughout Krajina to Bosnia, and subordinate to the so-called "military faction". Stanisic is considered to have belonged to it as well as Radovan Stojicic Badza (who at the time that Milosevic come to power was head of special forces units of the secretariat of internal affairs (SUP) of Serbia) and Mihajlo Kertes (at one time the federal police minister). And although command of "the red berets", the establishment of the training center of the Serb Volunteer Guard in Erdut and many other activities have been ascribed to Stojicic, who was also subsequently assassinated, the fact is that it has also been revealed (of course, never officially confirmed) that the "red berets" were under the command of State Security Service officials Raja Bozovic and Frank Simatovic Frenki, giving credence to those who believe that it was Stanisic who was the mastermind behind all operations undertaken from Knin to Bihac.
Two television appearances: However, unlike Kertes and Stojicic, who had their pictures taken wearing camouflage uniforms in the field with Arkan, there are no such records of Stanisic. He appeared before the public in front of the television camera no earlier than 1995 but he appeared twice in the same month and both times it was completely unexpectedly. First, during the celebration of the State Security Day when a delegation from the MUP of Serbia, after being received by Milosevic, then president of Serbia, went to the Boulevard of the Greats to visit the grave of the most famous Serbian policeman of all, Aleksandar Rankovic. The public genuflection to the shadows of Leka Rankovic thirteen years after his death as well as the failure to circumvent the grave of Slobodan Penezic Krcun suggested not only reassessment of their roles but also the firmness and strength of the State Security Service characteristic of their time.
His activities in general, especially among the leadership of the Yugoslav army among those who were of pro-Yugoslav orientation, were assessed as an attempt to subjugate everything, including all the services of the Yugoslav People's Army, to Serbian interests and the Serbian police. The generals eliminated during the "Opera" affair believe that Jovica Stanisic is responsible for the creation of the entire incident, and one of the people directly involved in this story states that only fifteen days prior to the initiation of the hunt, a particularly sharp exchange took place between general Aleksandar Vasiljevic, then head of the Security Service of the Yugoslav People's Army, and Stanisic, head of the State Security Service of Serbia. Vasiljevic on that occasion accused Stanisic of trying to reconstruct the post-war [WWII] intelligence service of OZNA whose third division was responsible for the army. "It's not going to happen!" Vasiljevic shouted but Stanisic, despite the highly tense atmosphere, without raising his voice, remained completely calm and unbending in his convictions. Even when general Vasiljevic illustrated his "No!" to the reconstruction of OZNA by an angry and crude finger gesture pointed toward Stanisic, the latter remained calm and responded decisively "It will happen." The picture of this intention by Stanisic is further completed by events from 1993 when the MUP of Serbia broke into the building of the federal MUP and took over its technical base, communications system and archive.
Karadzic-Plavsic: His second television appearance showed him in the role of a diplomat when, in the capacity of Milosevic's special envoy, he went to Pale with the mission to free 120 UN soldiers who had been taken hostage by the Republic of Srpska Army because of NATO threats to bomb their positions. After taking part in confidential conversations with the RS leadership and Radovan Karadzic himself, Stanisic accompanied the "blue helmets" to Serbia and saw them off to Zagreb from Belgrade's Surcin Airport. Considering that it was Karadzic who decided at the last minute to improve relations with Milosevic by allowing him to get some important diplomatic credits, instead of Carter or Yeltsin as he had originally thought, it is difficult to believe that while arranging for the transfer of the imprisoned UN soldiers Stanisic actually said to Karadzic, as some media reported: "Sloba said to tell you that unless you let the hostages go something very bad will happen to you."
He had a second, somewhat different mission again as an intermediary on the other side of the Drina between the conflicting sides of the leadership from Pale and Banja Luka. For two hours, they say, he prowled around in front of Banski Dvori [RS government building] and later held confidential talks with Biljana Plavsic until midnight before her arrival for talks with Milosevic on reducing tensions in RS. Later, following the incident where Plavsic was detained at Surcin Airport and the phone tapping scandal involving the highest levels of RS leadership was "discovered" by foreign intelligence agencies (which was interpreted as a slap in the face to the State Security Service of Serbia which was considered to have been behind the phone tapping), he was selected not only to guarantee Plavsic's personal safety but to personally escort her to Banja Luka. Later she would say that he was "an escort with whom one could talk about anything".
His closest friends have always described him exclusively in terms of superlatives, stating that in addition to being a highly educated and eloquent "100 percent patriot", he had done "everything that could be done under the circumstances for the Serbs" and that he represents "everything rational that is left in this regime". Even the leaders of some of the opposition parties have been heard to say that Stanisic appears to be a very responsible man because he considers even what appear to be minor details in relation to the major political questions from the aspect of possible influence on the position of the nation and the state. Some will say that he paid the highest price of all for his friendship with Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic and that it was not to his advantage, after his dismissal, to have the former police minister of Montenegro, today premier Filip Vujanovic declare that Stanisic was "an exceptional professional" and "highly respected" in Montenegro, and that collaboration with him both during the period when he headed the Montenegrin MUP, and later, was "exemplary".
Shame on you, Vlajko: Finally, according to many witnesses, he was the only man who dared tell Milosevic absolutely everything perhaps because "in his essentially Communist mind there was no room for a putsch" (Aleksandar Tijanic). This, however, did not prevent him from commenting on the draft proposal for the creation of a strong state police force by the federal chief of police Vukasin Jokanovic with a single sentence: "This is pure amateurism." Nor did it stop him, immediately following the selection of Vlajko Stojiljkovic to the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia, from sharing with the president and a group of ministers a list of his reservations with respect to Vlajkovic's intelligence and abilities which could be compared with what Radical Tomislav Nikolic meant when he said at the parliamentary podium that "Vlajkovic may have had experience in the police force but in the meantime traffic lights have been invented." Stanisic placed his written resignation on Milosevic's table two hours after announcing his resignation during that discussion (which no one took seriously at first).
Milosevic kept him at his side, giving him the federal function of advisor for national security to the FRY president, which no one in the government later mentioned at all. Namely, this function is not recognized by the Constitution and legal experts treated it as one of the advisory positions in the president's cabinet. The existence of the function was discovered in a highly unusual way, when the name of the head of the advisor on state security of Serbia, Jovica Stanisic, was read from list of passengers who accompanied president Milosevic on "a trip to China of historic significance".
To be or not to be in Stanisic's career is not quite in the style of Hamlet. This is something that he realized himself when, following the premiere of the film "Balkan Rules", seeing the filmed and relatively bloody view of some activities which fell squarely within his domain of responsibility, he reduced his impressions to one sentence: "Somewhat Shakespearean, but basically Serb."
The superstitious perhaps may find some symbolism in the fact that the last time he was seen in public, just days before he was dismissed, was at the premiere of Kusturica's film "Black Cat, White Cat". He said nothing then. Nor later. To date he has remained out of reach of both the media and politics. If you ask why, you haven't really understood the reasons why he survived, while he did, both in politics and in the police.