Secretary's Testimony May Prove Key to Milosevic Conviction

Milosevic's main defense to the charges against him for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia is that Serbia, and he as its president, were not involved in those wars, which were fought by local Serbs. That defense collapsed under the testimony of witness B-129, a secretary in the headquarters of Zeljko Raznatovic, aka 'Arkan,' who headed a paramilitary unit called the Serbian Volunteer Guards (SDG), aka the 'Tigers.' The Tigers were involved in some of the most brutal operations during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia.

The witness, who saw and spoke with Arkan on a regular basis from 1993 until theTigers were 'disbanded,' testified that 'Arkan would always say that without orders from the DB [Serbian State Security] the Tigers were not deployed anywhere.' She described a chain of command from Arkan to Franko Simatovic ('Frenki') and on up to Jovica Stanisic, head of the Serbian DB -- and reportedly Milosevic's right hand man. During operations, Arkan's men took their orders from DB commanders. Referring to conversations with Arkan's secretary with whom she shared an office, the witness testified, 'She always said Frenki was in charge of the unit for Special Operations and he could decide about certain things but without the approval of Stanisic he could not make a decision.' She stopped short of identifying a direct link to Milosevic, though it challenges credulity to believe the President of Serbia did not know what his secret police were doing.

In clear and unequivocal language, the former secretary described an inter-twined relationship between Arkan and the DB, which included regular telephone and radio contact, as well as exchange of soldiers. She identified the voices of Arkan and Legija (Milorad Ulemek who later headed the Tigers and the Red Berets) on an intercepted telephone conversation played in court, where they refer to the 'Stinkers,' code name of the DB, concerning a joint operation in which they are involved.

B-129 also testified about the financial and material support the DB provided to the Tigers. She described how, during one operation in Banja Luka, Arkan handed her 3 to 4 million German Marks to pay the salaries of his men. The money, he said, came from the DB. B-129 also told about transporting uniforms and pistols to the Tigers' training center at Erdut, a regular procedure during 'operations.'

Serbia's secret police were not the only ones supporting the Tigers. According to B-129, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) did so as well. '[T]he Guards [SDG] were often told to contact him [General Dusko Loncar, in charge of the VJ in Eastern Slavonia in 1995] because he supplied us with weapons, fuel and part of the money from the VJ.' She went on to tell about a conversation where Colonel 'Puki', in charge of SDG administration, called and asked her to tell Arkan that 'General Loncar was stalling with salaries. That meant,' she explained, 'that Loncar was not providing the amount of money the Serbian Army had allocated for [Arkan's] soldiers in time.'

Funds also came from Fikret Abdic and Arkan's own smuggling operation. Abdic, who led a maverick Bosnian Muslim force in support of the Serbs and against the Bosnian Government forces in the Bihac area, paid Arkan's Tigers 1500 German Marks per month each to fight for him.

Yet another source of money was Arkan's smuggling operation. When the prosecutor asked her if 'trafficking in alcohol and tobacco was Arkan's business in reality,' she simply said, 'yes.' Arkan kept his illicit gains at his headquarters and, when money was needed for his Tigers, he took it from his safe. While his smuggling operation may have been against the law, it was facilitated by the head of federal Customs, Mihajl Kertes. B-129 described how Arkan always called Kertes if a truck carrying alcohol and cigarettes had trouble at the border.

The witness described Arkan as training an elite, highly disciplined unit where severe punishment was meted out to those who violated its rules. On two occasions she witnessed 100 lashes administered to men who broke the no-alcohol rule. B-129 also claimed that while Arkan favored fighting to unite all Serbs and to retain territory they had gained, he opposed the policy in Belgrade to remove non-Serbs from that territory. She also revealed a glimpse of Arkan's dark side: 'Arkan would always say . . . that they did not have prisoners. . . . I and all the rest understood it to mean that prisoners of war were in fact killed.' She qualified this by stating that someone had been put in charge of prisoner exchange. Nevertheless, the former secretary acknowledged that the SDG, DB and Fikret Abdic's men jointly operated a prison in the Kladusa area, where 'Most of the prisoners succumbed to their wounds from beatings several days later.'

It is ironic that in the trial of a man who reportedly did everything for power, the testimony of an ordinary secretary, who took her job not for ideological reasons but simply to support herself, may prove a key piece of evidence to bring down a former head of state. Her testimony continues tomorrow.