by Milos VASIC
A police hunt, unprecedented since 1972 when they hunted Ustashe [pro-Nazi Croat movement from WWII] terrorists in Bosnia-Hercegovina, on a great patriot, Milorad Ulemek-Lukovic, also known as Legija [Legion](Gospel according to Mark, 5:9) is underway. The same applies to Dusan Spasojevic, known better as Duca than as Siptar, and to a few more characters with undisputed patriotic pedigrees. And then, on Tuesday morning, at three p.m. Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic informed the nation that another three proven patriots from the Special Operations Unit, the most patriotic unit ever, were taken into custody under suspicion of killing Zoran Djindjic. The three in question are Lieutenant-Colonel Zvezdan Jovanovic, also known as Zveki and Snake, expert for knife and quiet executions, deputy commander of the JSO, who allegedly pulled the trigger; Sasa Pejakovic Pele, a JSO member (joined the unit after 1997), was an accomplice; and Dusan Maricic Gumar, JSO commander, was arrested because of his “links with the Zemun criminal clan”. Vreme has learnt that another patriotic artist from the JSO – its morale officer, certain Lecic, the same one who was mentioned in the last issue of Vreme as a former deputy of Milan Radonjic, the head of the Department of State Security Center in Belgrade at the time crimes on the Ibar Highway [assassination attempt on opposition politician Vuk Draskovic in which three of his bodyguards died] took place. Somewhere in Novi Beograd [New Belgrade], obviously the favorite pasture of the Zemun clan, the police dug up a semi-automatic sniper rifle “Heckler und Koch” G-3. Experts will tell whether the rifle was used to murder Zoran Djindjic, as the police claims.
Therefore, the puzzle is slowly coming together after two weeks of forceful actions by the Police and the Security-Intelligence Service (BIA). More than three thousand and five hundred persons have been taken into custody during that period, while about a third of them have been kept in prison for 30 days. Close to the beginning, on the same day, arrest warrants for Dusan Spasojevic and Legija Ulemek-Lukovic (former JSO commander), as well as another 20 characters, were issued. Wherever the investigation headed, it encountered evidence and links with “red berets”; it turned out that that snake has one head. Lieutenant-Colonel Zvezdan jovanovic, Zveki and Snake, shook hands with Slobodan Milosevic on May 4, 1997, during the infamous banquet in Kula; in 1999 he received a high decoration; he was the deputy of Zika Ivanovic “Montenegrin” when Ivanovic was Slobodan Milosevic’s bodyguard. Dusan Maricic Gumar (his father had a tire repair shop in Gracac; in 1991 he was recruited by Frenki Simatovic to the Krajina Police), took Ulemek-Lukovic Legija’s place as the commander of the JSO in the summer of 2001, when Legija had to resign because of repeated violent incidents and an attack on officials performing their duties. From the start it was obvious that Gumar was Legija’s puppet as was Miodrag Bracanovic (JSO morale officer), who ended up as the deputy head of the State Security Service (Andrija Savic’s deputy) due to blackmail after the armed rebellion of the JSO in November 2001, when the ultimatum of the “red berets” led to the firing of Goran Petrovic (head of the Department of State Security) and Zoran Mijatovic (his deputy).
Thus we got the whole leadership of the JSO on a plate with a blue rim: for now four of them (a commander, deputy commander, morale officer and a soldier) are in custody, and a former commander is at large – all because of well-founded suspicion that they murdered Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic or participated in the conspiracy leading to the assassination. Besides them, the founders of the unit are also in prison: Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic; the key witness Mihalj Kertes is cooperating with the authorities since October 6, 2000. The Government of Serbia, under whose command the JSO has been since November 2001, will have to deal with that fact somehow. Until recently they lavished all sorts of luxuries on them, raising the Snake in their lap, until the lieutenant-colonel did not catch his Prime Minister in the cross-hairs of his sniper rifle.
The police did not announce the exact make of the sniper rifle “Heckler und Koch G-3, with caliber 7.62 x 51mm NATO, which was dug up in New Belgrade. Namely, there are three different versions of sniper rifles of that famous company: standard G-3 A3 in variation SG/1, a military sniper rifle, with somewhat finer manufacture and adjusted for sniping (with adjustable trigger); semi-automatic MSG 90 (introduced in 1987) with much better properties, such as adjustable but and trigger, special barrel etc.; and special highly accurate sniper rifle PSG-1, which according to “Heckler und Koch” consistently produces holes with diameter of 8 centimeters at the distance of 300 meters. Given the distance from which Zoran Djindjic was hit (180m) any one of these three versions would have been efficient. Optical scopes used with similar rifles are either “Zeiss” or “Schmidt und Bender”, of very high quality and adjustable up to 1000 meters, although the proven efficiency of the 7.62 x 51 mm NATO bullet does not surpass 600 meters when a rifle is used by skilled shooters; anything further than that is a matter of luck and atmospheric conditions. Here, it should be mentioned that certain number of “Heckler und Koch” G-3 SG/1 sniper rifles was secretly imported to Yugoslavia in July 1991, within the delivery that arrived in Bar [port in Montenegro] (seven ships with 30,000 tons of weaponry and military equipment); those rifles were used for the first time in 1992, near Zvornik, by Arkan’s Serb Volunteer Guard; later they were not seen; it seems that their country of origin is Lebanon, military surplus of Christian Maronite militias; they may be of German or other origin, as tens of countries have license for manufacture of these rifles. It is known that one rifle of that type was purchased for the Intelligence Directorate of the State Security Department, while Franko Simatovic Frenki was its head; rumor has it that it was purchased for $9,000, which sounds reasonable, if this was the best version. In any case, if the found rifle is in working condition, ballistic analysis can be conducted within several hours by comparing the found bullet casings and projectiles (if they are usable) with other bullet casings and projectiles fired from the same rifle. After that, it is only necessary to connect the rifle with the shooter, which could be a problem as they were not found together… There is a chance that fingerprints could be found on the rifle (it is too late for paraffin glove test, but not too late for the analysis of the clothing worn by the assassin at the time he shot), as well as that it may be possible to connect the two based on the rifle’s serial number.
At this point we are stepping into serious investigative work. Namely, in the meantime the Police has found a silver grey Audi 6, hidden in an underground garage in New Belgrade, as well as a red Fiat, hidden nearby. Both vehicles came with several number plates, some of them for police vehicles, others printed on sticky foil, so that they can easily be placed over the existing number plate or taken off, as needed. The authorities also found an impressive weapons cache including Yugoslav manufactured automatic guns and many ammunition frames for them; one small caliber hunting rifle (apparently 5.56mm) with an optical scope; at least six hand held rocket launchers, known as “Zolja” [wasp], manufactured in Yugoslavia. The Police claims that all of that was prepared for February 21, 2003, when Bagzi Milenkovic was supposed to stop the convoy carrying Zoran Djindjic. The working theory is that rocket launchers would have been used to shoot at Djindjic’s armored BMW. Based on that – rather reasonable - theory the president of the fourth judicial bench of the Fourth Municipal Court in Belgrade, who released Mr Bagzi from custody after two days of previously imposed eight day prison term, the deputy of the state public prosecutor Sinisa Simic, now already infamous Milan Sarajlic was involved in this case; they say it was not his first time either.
As Vreme learned in December, one candidate for an insider witness, Zeljko Skrba, close to Momcilo Mandic, and some other individuals interesting for the Police, was murdered because his business partners in wholesale illegal drugs trade concluded that Skrba was trying to save his skin by talking to the Police. On November 26, 2002, Zeljko Skrba was murdered in a Peugeot owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ljutica Bogdan Street, in front of number 8. Nenad Batocanin, deputy head of the First Directorate of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs (security for buildings and persons), who was killed in the car with Skrba, was, as we now know, collateral damage. Namely, Batocanin had used Skrba as an informer, as Skrba had extremely useful information about wholesale heroin trade, but – which is even more important – also about the financial flow of the profits from that trade. Vreme’s sources in the Police now claim that precisely deputy state public prosecutor Milan Sarajlic betrayed at the time the identity of the dangerous witness. If that is true, then may God help him. According to witnesses, Batocanin and Skrba were killed by bursts of fire from a machine gun fired from a silver grey Audi 6, very similar to the one discovered on Monday in New Belgrade. Judging by the number of Kalashnikov machine guns discovered in the last two weeks, there is a chance that ballistic expertise may produce additional evidence.
Judges and prosecutors are not the only troubled professions these days; since the Police, overjoyed, is picking up anyone who ever had a criminal file and is putting them in prison for 30 days, the time for the famous prisoner’s dilemma has come: should I betray him before he betrays me…? Everyone with reliable knowledge of the type of life that is referred by some media as tough guys from mean Belgrade streets is aware that they would betray their brothers as soon as they realize that their ass is in trouble. That’s how that works, always and forever and ever, and that is the only consistent characteristic of the criminal underworld, including its Serb patriotic variety with a cross hanging around the neck, on a thick kajla [pronounced kayla, golden chain]. Thus, it turned out that a third of those taken into custody remain in prison. Besides Svetlana, widow Raznatovic, they include various individuals who are interesting for the Police – and the media; we all know what “Fast” [local brand of cigarettes] is (it is bought at news stands and is not “Identitet” [weekly magazine reportedly financed by Legija]); some also know who Predrag Rankovic Peconi is (and who are his political supporters who in the Parliament of Serbia raised alarm and asked for a ban on cigarettes produced in Croatia); besides “Fast”, Peconi owns a chain of betting shops; TV and radio adds and programs sponsored by Peconi are still broadcast by numerous TV and radio stations; I suppose he paid for it. However, it is interesting that for months TV has been broadcasting adds promoting JSO, while it was impossible to find out whether these adds were paid and by whom. Yours truly has been unable to squeeze out from TV Pink anything more than a very reluctant statement that they had “received a fax”; and based on the fax they “donated” to the JSO several hundreds of thousands of dollars… And all along, on Sunday night, while paraphrasing transcripts of Dusan Spasojevic’s conversations published by Vreme, TV Pink conspicuously failed to mention their own role; moreover, they even came to a totally unreasonable conclusion that Spasojevic was talking to Legija – unless they are better informed than we are. Another media star has ended up in prison these days: Milan Narandzic Limun [lemon], a veteran from the Surcin gang, famous for his aggressive promotional campaign for cigarettes “Raquel” in which Svetlana, widow Raznatovic, played the main role.
Now, we can already discern a certain pattern. The Surcin gang (Cume, Peconi, Limun) attempted to go legal and to distance themselves from the unhygienic context of their hometown (car theft, illegal sale of gas and oil, illegal drug trade etc.); one of them opted for the construction business (road construction); the other two turned to cigarettes, gambling parlors etc.; some of them attempted to get into investing etc. Unlike them, the Zemun gang stuck with the proven sources of income: drugs, car theft, kidnappings and racketeering. Police raid of Iboljka Suvajdzic’s (Djura Mutavi’s [dumb] mother) quarters clearly demonstrated what sort of business they were engaged in. Police discovered handcuffs, chains, an improvised dungeon. The key question is what made the Zemun gang so confident?
There is only one plausible explanation: blind reliance on contacts with the semi-wild faction of the State Security Service, embodied in Milorad Ulemek-Lukovic Legija and his numerous positions in the Service and around it. Legija consciously initiated a planned media offensive via “Identitet” and a few other media outlets; the JSO started a few months ago an aggressive recruitment campaign; in the end it turned out that they were not interested at all in recruitment of new members, but wanted to increase their media profile and impose themselves as “doctors for terrorism”; here, I cannot by recall Nebojsa Popov’s question: “What is here a sickness, and who a doctor?” “Doctors for terrorism” are now suspected of killing Zoran Djindjic in a terrorist act; a non-governmental organization became a terrorist gang.
The Government of Serbia resorted to the only possible course of action. On Tuesday evening, it disbanded the Special Operations Unit. That was announced publicly, at 7 p.m., contrary to the initial plan to slowly “transform” JSO and gradually disperse its members to various units of Gendarmes, Border Police etc. The Special Operations Unit members were ordered to turn in their weapons, documents and uniforms and the orders are to be enforced by the Serbian Gendarmes. While I’m writing this article (Tuesday, 7;15 p.m.) JSO headquarters in Kula are quiet; only the arrival of several vehicles has been noted.