Red Berets’ Role in Bosnia Disputed at Stanisic Trial

At his trial before the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Thursday, the defence for Jovica Stanisic, former chief of Serbia’s state security service, SDB, said the Red Berets unit was located in eastern Bosnia and came under the command of the Yugoslav Army, JNA, in the autumn of 1993.

A prosecution military expert witness, Reynaud Theunens, denied that, saying that according to the documents he had analysed, the JNA had total control over the Red Berets all the time.

The witness also insisted that any actions aimed at protecting state borders should have been confined to Serbia only and not Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Theunens maintained that, at that time, the SDB’s special forces assisted the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, in achieving a “third strategic goal” – which was to effectively remove the border dividing Serbs along the river Drina.

The indictment charges Stanisic, and his intelligence agent, Franko Simatovic, alias Frenki, with crimes against Bosniaks [Muslims] in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and says the Red Berets unit was involved in forcible transfers of the Muslim population from eastern Bosnia.

Stanisic’s defence attorney, Wayne Jordash, did not deny that Bosnian Serbs conducted the “forcible relocation” of the Muslim population from eastern Bosnia – but did deny that the special forces of the SDB took part.

Stanisic’s defence said that in the autumn of 1993, “a joint command” of the JNA and the Serbian Interior Ministry, MUP, was established in Bajina Basta, in western Serbia, to protect the Serbian state border.

This was led by the commander of the special military forces, Mile Mrksic. The commander of the special unit of the Public Security Department of the Serbian MUP, Obrad Stevanovic, was his deputy, Jordash claimed.

To support his allegation, he quoted a statement by a former leader of volunteers of the Serbian Radical Party, Branislav Vakic, who said one of the persons he had contacted in Bajina Basta was Simatovic “Frenki”, whom he called “Stevanovic’s deputy”.

Stanisic’s attorney also quoted Mrksic’s written permission to the special purpose forces of the Serbian MUP to transfer the “spoils of war” from Skelani, in eastern Bosnia, to Serbia.

Theunens confirmed that, during an operation called “Udar”, [“Blow”] which the VRS conducted in eastern Bosnia in the autumn of 1993, members of the Serbian MUP and SDB were under a joint command with the JNA.

The witness also said that SDB officers, such as Radojica Bozovic and Vasilije Mijovic, stayed in the field in eastern Bosnia long after the completion of the operation.

According to documents he had analysed, Mijovic trained VRS military police in Podrinje from April 1992 onward, but his actions were not limited to that.

The VRS documents, including VRS commander Ratko Mladic’s orders, which were presented in court, imply that the army was dissatisfied with problems caused by Mijovic’s men and that it unsuccessfully tried to put them under its command.

On the basis of letters that the VRS sent to the commander of the special forces of the Serbian MUP, the expert witness concluded that Mijovic obeyed orders from Belgrade.

Stanisic’s defence did not deny the existence of evidence showing that Stanisic played “an important and visible role” in the “Pauk” operation in northwest Bosnia in the autumn of 1994.

The “Pauk” operation had “Stanisic’s fingerprints” on it, Jordash confirmed.

By conducting that operation, Serbian forces, including SDB special forces, put Bosniak strongman Fikret Abdic back in power in northwest Bosnia following an inter-Muslim conflict between his units and the Bosnian Army.

However, Stanisic’s defence suggested that “Pauk” was also aimed at enabling the return of thousands of Muslim refugees, who had fled to Croatia from an offensive by the Bosnian Army.

Theunens responded by saying that he had “not found evidence that the ‘Pauk’ operation was launched for humanitarian reasons”.

However, he accepted a suggestion by Stanisic’s defence that members of the SDB did not forcibly transfer the local population during the operation, but helped Muslim refugees return to the northwest Cazinska Krajina region .

Jordash attempted to relativise the expert witness’ thesis that Stanisic had deployed his men to the “Pauk” operation.

In his findings, the expert witness quoted Mladic’s note from a meeting in October 1994 at which the then Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic, said: “Jovica can deploy 300-400 men to help Abdic take over [Velika] Kladusa” – in northwest Bosnia – while Stanisic himself said: “We can form a death battalion consisting of 700-800 men”.

Stanisic’s defence attorney suggested, however, that the SDB chief said later on that he would “take some men from Banja Luka” and “gather others from around the area”, which, according to Jordash, meant he “did not agree to send 400 of his men”.

Theunens responded by saying that, considering “the high level of command”, it was unlikely that Stanisic would “drive around the area, looking for volunteers”.

In the opinion of the expert witness, this was also confirmed in the field in Cazinska Krajina, where officers of the Special Operations Unit, such as Milorad Ulemek, alias Legija, and members of the Scorpions formation, which was under the control of the SDB, were present, among others.

The retrial of Stanisic and Simatovic will continue on Tuesday, March 19.

The crimes charged on Stanisic and Simatovic were committed, according to prosecutors, during the execution of a joint criminal enterprise.

This was aimed at the permanent and forcible removal of Croats and Muslims from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia for the sake of achieving Serbian domination. The prosecution alleges that Serbian then President, Slobodan Milosevic, led the joint criminal enterprise.