Court Told of Stanisic Powers
Witness says ex-Serbian security service official was “far from popular” with his superior.
Court Told of Stanisic Powers
Witness says ex-Serbian security service official was “far from popular” with his superior.
A defence witness testifying this week at the trial of two former Serbian State Security service, DB, officials, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, said that despite his high-ranking position, Stanisic had little influence within the DB in 1991.
Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise, with the objective of forcibly and permanently removing non-Serbs from large areas of Bosnia Hercegovina and Croatia through murder, persecution and deportation of the Bosnian Muslim and Croat populations.
Stanisic served as head of the DB from December 1991 to 1998, while Simatovic worked under his authority as commander of the Special Operations Unit, JSO.
Milorad Lekovic, former chief of the DB’s Belgrade centre, testified via video link from Belgrade as a defence witness for Stanisic, his former boss. Lekovic had already given a statement to the defence, but this week he said there were "things he wished to clarify".
According to the indictment, Stanisic was closely involved with troops in Republika Srpska Krajina, RSK, the Serb para-state in Croatia. These troops were allegedly engaged in crimes against the non-Serb population in this region in the springtime of 1991.
Lekovic, however, stated that this alleged involvement was very unlikely, claiming that "at that time, Stanisic had no logistical or other resources with which he could have exercised control[over armed troops in RSK]".
The witness said Stanisic wasn't even "well known in the DB at the time, despite his position as the Assistant Chief in charge of counter-intelligence affairs", a position which he held until December 1991.
He added that Stanisic was "far from popular" with the then head of the DB and his predecessor, Zoran Janackovic.
"This was a hard time, a time of constant personal conflict in the service. There was relentless fighting, and Stanisic clearly wasn't on the stronger side at that time," Lekovic explained.
He added that on April 2, 1991, the then minister of internal affairs, Radmilo Bogdanovic, formed a commission whose aim was to find out who leaked confidential information from the DB to the media. According to the witness, Stanisic was the main target of the commission’s work and this was Janackovic's attempt to get rid of the defendant.
“Stanisic was considered to be too independent," Lekovic said.
The witness added that the commission existed until October 1991 and during all this time Stansic was completely marginalised.
"He certainly didn't feel welcome in the DB during most of 1991, but his name didn't appear anywhere in the [commission’s] final report," the witness said.
The witness explained that despite Stanisic’s position as an assistant to Janackovic at that time, "the two barely spoke with each other in the summer of 1991”.
Lekovic said that as a result Stanisic was virtually “cut off” from the DB.
"A situation was created under which there would be very little for Stanisic to do, so that he didn't even have to come to work,” he said.
During cross-examination by prosecutor Maxine Marcus, Lekovic stated that he didn’t know anything about any meetings Stanisic may have had with anyone from the Serb leadership in Serbia, Srpska Krajina, or elsewhere.
"I know nothing about that," said Lekovic again, when he was specifically asked about the series of meetings Stanisic allegedly had with Slobodan Milosevic between May and July of 1991.
He gave the same answer to all questions posed by the prosecution that were related to additional meetings Stanisic is said to have had during this same period with high-ranking Bosnian Serb and Croatian Serb officials.
The prosecutor then suggested that regardless of Janackovic's attitude toward Stanisic, the latter was an "experienced intelligence man", who would have known how to take care of his tasks without Janackovic’s knowledge.
The prosecution then asked the witness whether he knew anything “about Stanisic's activities between April and July [of 1991]", to which he replied, "I don’t know, and there is no reason why I should or would have been expected to know that.”
This statement seemed to have contradicted what the witness had said during the examination-in-chief by the defence, which is that "Stanisic most certainly had nothing to do with any matter relevant for state security in general".
Lekovic explained that this was "an assumption” he had made based on indirect knowledge, but that in reality Lekovic had no direct information about what Stanisic was actually doing.
Stanisic and Simatovic, arrested by Serbian authorities on June 13, 2003, have both pleaded not guilty.
The trial continues next week.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.
