Witness Tells of Serbian State Security Targets
Former employee claims the service pursued both Muslim and Serbian extremists.
Witness Tells of Serbian State Security Targets
Former employee claims the service pursued both Muslim and Serbian extremists.
A former Serbian intelligence officer told the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic this week that the Serbian State Security service, DB, fought in the Nineties against all kinds of extremists, including Serbs.
Radenko Novakovic, who is appearing as a defence witness at the trial of Stanisic and Simatovic, rejected prosecution claims that only Muslim extremists and the political opposition of the Serbian regime were targeted by the DB.
Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of forcibly and permanently removing non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia, through the persecution, murder and deportation of Croat, Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat populations.
They are also charged with having formed and supported units in Croatia and Bosnia, and with sending police and paramilitary forces from Serbia which took part in crimes against non-Serbs.
Stanisic served as head of the DB from 1991 to 1998, while Simatovic worked under the authority of Stanisic as commander of the Special Operations Units, JSO.
Novakovic served as an operative and then chief of the DB Operative Directorate in Belgrade after 1995. During the period relevant to the indictment, however, he headed the counter-intelligence section in the DB office in the Serbian town of Uzice.
Before Novakovic’s testimony begun, Judge Alphons Orie told the court that the authorities of Serbia asked the tribunal that Novakovic's testimony be held in closed session. However, this demand was rejected by the chamber, which only went into private session whenever the DB or its operatives were directly referenced.
Beginning his testimony, the witness described that his tasks in the Uzice office included following several groups which he described as "Serbian and Muslim extremists".
"There were militants in certain Serbian parties, but also in the Party of Democratic Action, SDA," he said, referring to the Bosnian Muslim party which had won most of the Bosnian Muslim vote in the first post-communist elections in Bosnia and was also active within the Bosnian Muslim community in Serbia.
"They wanted to spill-over the war from Bosnia to Serbia. Some Serbian volunteers - who would return to Serbia from the front lines with their weapons - were followed, as were Muslim extremists who were planning terrorist acts in Serbia," he said.
According to the defence, the DB did "everything they could to fight extremists", To illustrate this, Stanisic’s counsel Wayne Jordash said that in late 1992, the police acting upon DB findings had arrested a "notorious Serbian paramilitary", Milan Lukic.
"Lukic was arrested because of illegal possession of arms and of false documents," the witness said, stating that he was also "suspected to be involved" in the kidnapping of Bosnian Muslim civilians from the village of Sjeverin, in eastern Serbia, in the autumn of 1992.
Novakovic mentioned also that "the Bosnian Serb army had put the DB under a lot pressure to release Lukic", yet without disclosing the details about his release.
In 2009, the Hague tribunal sentenced Milan Lukic to life in prison for brutal crimes committed against Bosniaks (or Bosnian Muslims) in Visegrad, including the burning of about 140 women, children and elderly at two locations in the town.
In November 1994, Novakovic said he was sent to the Republic of Srpska Krajina, the Serb-controlled part of Croatia. He explained he was "taken to Krajina to assist in the monitoring of the worsening security situation caused by the influx of Bosnian refugees from western Bosnia". He added that it was not clear why he specifically was chosen for this task.
"In December of 1994, I discovered that there were plans for my assassination. I informed my superiors and was then moved to Serbia," Novakovic said.
During cross-examination of the witness, prosecutor Adam Weber said that he did not quite believe the claims on the DB's dedication to fighting extremism as presented by the defence.
He said that while the DB did follow Muslim extremists and political opponents of the Serbian regime, there were "a number of documents which prove that Serb paramilitary units such as the White Eagles were often overlooked".
To illustrate this, the prosecutor presented a document showing that "40 of the 49 arrested members of the Serb paramilitary formation White Eagles were freed after being arrested, and that the DB was informed of this".
Prosecutor Weber also pointed out that "the DB knew already in 1992 about the crimes [of the White Eagles] but waited until 1994 to arrest them".
"In fact", he added, "one DB document from 1992 mentioned that the White Eagles activity boiled down to slaughtering and murdering Muslims".
Judge Alphonse Orie then asked the witness whether anything was being done about this, to which Novakovic answered that the "crimes occurred in Visegrad, which was in Bosnia, and thus not under the jurisdiction of the Serbian MUP".
He also added, addressing prosecutor Weber, that "time was necessary to ensure quality processing of the received information, because serious and proper intelligence work always needs time to be carried out".
Novakovic also pointed out that he was involved "only temporarily in questioning Lukic” and didn't deal with the issue after he had finished questioning him.
Stanisic and Simatovic, who were arrested by the Serbian authorities on June 13, 2003, have both pleaded not guilty.
The trial continues next week.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.
