The Serbianization of theYugoslav People's Army

There was good and bad news for Milosevic at his war crimes trial on Wednesday. The good news occurred when witness B-104 backed off his earlier written statement that Milosevic ordered the destruction of four villages in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The bad news was that witness B-1493, a high ranking former Yugoslav Army officer, came to testify.

Witness B-1493 told how the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was Serbianized and changed into a tool to assist in ethnically cleansing Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also testified that the Serbian Territorial Defense (TO), as well as paramilitaries from Serbia, was deployed in Bosnia and Croatia. A Republic's TO can only be deployed outside the republic with the assent of the republic's president, in the case of Serbia, it was Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic's main defense to war crimes charges in Bosnia and Croatia is that Serbia, and he as its President, had nothing to do with what he claims was a civil war. The ex-Army officer said otherwise.

A career professional in the JNA, witness B-1493's first inkling of change came in early 1991 when he received an order from the First Military District (Belgrade) to prepare an emergency plan to deal with a potential internal enemy, suggested at the time to be extremist elements within the Croatian nationalist party, the HDZ. It was the first time, he testified, that he had been directed to draw up maps based on the ethnicity of the population.

A few months later, in May 1991, he was ordered to lead a Joint Detachment (made up of diverse units) to the Borovo Selo area of Croatia to calm a reportedly volatile situation and to prevent interethnic conflict. On deploying in Vinkovci, near two villages, one largely Serb (Mrkovci), the other largely Croat (Jankovci), he and his troops heard shooting coming from near Mrkovci. As they went to investigate, they were halted at a roadblock by three men dressed as WWII era Chetniks, complete with insignia. Two of the Chetniks pointed machine guns at the witness, while he asked the third to remove the roadblock. The third man said he would have to check with his commander, went into a nearby house and came out with a fourth man, dressed similarly to the other three. The on-site commander said he'd have to check with his commander, who was in Sremska Mitrovica -- in Serbia. He did and permission was given to let the JNA detachment pass.

No fighting was apparent in Mrkovci, though a reconnaissance group saw four more men fleeing toward the village. They, too, were dressed as Chetniks. Hearing shooting from the direction of the other village, Jankovci, the detachment headed in that direction and found a house burning. B-1493 called authorities from the villages to meet with him. They told him the Croats and Serbs had lived peacefully near each other for centuries, celebrated holidays together, intermarrying. Infiltrators from outside, they said, had begun causing problems.

Fairly quickly, B-1493 was able to pacify the area. He filed a report to his commander, including the startling appearance of the Chetniks (figures he'd only seen in old movies). While he received a quick reply to remain and provide security, the next day a colleague arrived with orders to replace him. Two days later, intense fighting began. 'You might say that's when war really broke out in the area,' the witness testified. Though the villagers wrote his commander asking for his return, he was reassigned to more menial duties. When B-1493 confronted his commander about the Chetniks, the commander's response was to deny their existence. They were 'tomcats,' he said.

The events in these Croatian villages were the model for igniting ethnic tensions leading to ethnic cleansing. Infiltrators from outside provoked violence in an area and the JNA was sent in to re-establish peace. By the time it withdrew from Slovenia, according to the witness, the JNA was no longer the people's army, but a Serbianized military force whose objective was to protect Serbs in Croatia (and later Bosnia). Under the guise of separating supposedly warring parties, the JNA sided with the Serbs and aided their efforts to gain control of and ethnically cleanse significant regions.

In autumn 1991, witness B-1493 participated in a team to mobilize JNA battalions from Serbia to form a Brigade to fight in Bijeljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was astonished when 90% arrived wearing Chetnik insignia on their caps, a violation of JNA regulations that would formerly have been punished with prison. Nothing was said by the brigade commander. He had a further shock when the commander addressed the 1500 to 2000 men as 'brave Serb heroes,' setting out to protect and defend the Serbian people instead of by the traditional JNA address, 'comrade soldiers.'

The witness also described the process by which the JNA removed weapons from the general population, then, months later, returned them to the local Serb populations in Croatia and Bosnia. Local JNA headquarters were also moved to predominantly Serb populated areas, and non-Serb officers were replaced. When JNA units, now predominantly Serb and Serb led, were withdrawn from Slovenia and Croatia, they were re-deployed to Bosnia.

Prosecutor Dermot Groome introduced a telegram sent to the Second Military District Commander responsible for Zvornik by his close friend, the director of a public railway company. In it, the man informs his friend that Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic), whose forces are attacking the area, has given the local people an ultimatum to lay down their weapons. 'I don't think the ultimatum will be accepted. I believe this will lead to an unprecedented massacre of the unprotected and innocent population and to horrible environmental consequences. . . . I send this dispatch as a cry to heaven and appeal to you in line with the most illustrious traditions of the Yugoslav Army and highest moral norms of our peoples to protect the endangered population from catastrophe such as they have never before experienced in their history.' The commander wrote a note across the telegram: 'Inform General Jankovic to take all measures to protect the citizens in Zvornik.' When Prosecutor Groome asked the witness whether all measures were taken to protect the citizens, he responded, 'We know what the result was of Arkan's activities and other units attacking Zvornik. Practically, not a single unit of the JNA was activated to prevent it.'

The prosecution showed a short video clip of Biljana Plavsic, member of the Presidency of the Republika Srpska, embracing and kissing Arkan, following the massacres. The video also showed the Chief of Staff of the JNA's Second Military District saluting Arkan and greeting him, 'instead of arresting him,' according to witness B-1493, identifying them for the Court.

On cross examination, Milosevic seemed to think aggressive questioning was a useful substitute for relevance. Judge May didn't agree. When Milosevic attempted to question B-1493 about the Bosnian Referendum on Independence, various peace plans, foreign Mujahedin in the Bosnian Army, Bosnian politics and what other witnesses have testified to, Judge May stopped him, threatening at one point to end cross examination entirely if the accused would not focus on something relevant to the witness's testimony. When Milosevic did manage to find that focus, he provided the witness with opportunities to add to his evidence about organized actions against Bosnia's non-Serb population. In response to a question from Milosevic, witness B-1493 was able to testify that the pattern developed in Croatia, by which irregular forces provoked local conflicts to justify JNA intervention and control, was repeated in Bosnia. He added that the 'specials' were given liquidation lists with the names of community leaders to aid in the JNA's assumption of control. While the JNA did nothing to stop paramilitary attacks, JNA troops assisted in searching and looting civilian houses.

When cross examination ended, Milosevic had done little if anything to distort the picture that emerged from B-1493's testimony about how a once-proud army, whose mission was to protect and defend the Yugoslav peoples and their multi-ethnic state, was turned into a force that assisted in pitting those people against one another, destroying not only Yugoslavia, but the lived reality of multi-ethnicity itself. According to the witness, the JNA became the tool of one of those constituent peoples, whose mother republic was heavily involved in creating ethnically pure regions beyond its borders. That republic was Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic was its president.