Witness Says Defendants Not Linked to Serb Militia Group Prosecution alleges Serbias security service supported paramilitary

groups. By Velma ari - International Justice - ICTY, TRI Issue 722, 16 Dec 11 A former acquaintance of Serbian intelligence officials Franko Simatovic and Jov ica Stanistic testified this week that an infamous paramilitary unit acted indep endently and without support from the accused men. Franko Simatovic and Jovica Stanisic are charged with participating in a joint c riminal enterprise with the aim of forcibly and permanently removing non-Serbs f rom large areas of Croatia and Bosnia, through the persecution, murder and depor tation of Croat, Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat populations. Simatovic was commander of the special operations unit of the Serbian State Secu rity Service, DB, a unit also known as the JSO or Red Berets, while his co-accus ed and former boss Stanisic was director of the DB at the time of the events. According to the indictment, Stanisic and Simatovic also helped establish, suppl y with arms, and finance paramilitary groups that acted in close coordination wi th the Yugoslav Army, the Serb Territorial Defence, the Bosnian Serb Army, and t he SVK, a Serb force operating in Croatia. After the closing of Stanisic s defence proceedings, Simatovics defence began by calling Dejan Lucic as its first witness. Asked to introduce himself, Lucic said that he was a little bit of everything, an d a man who tried to do whatever was in his power for the progress of the Serb p eople. He said he had worked as an analyst, reporter, editor and novelist, and had authored a number of books related to political theory and reality. The witness said he had known both of the accused for quite some time and consid ered them acquaintances, since he knew Simatovic from elementary school, and Stanis ic from university times. He said he occasionally met them, the last time being i n 2008 when he gave Stanisic one of his books. Lucic said that he had only been politically active for a very short time, but t hat this time had been significant since it gave him an insight into very relevant issues. The witness joined the opposition Serb Renewal Movement, SPO, party, in 1 990, because its ideals reflected those he and his family believed in. The SPO was founded in Serbia by Vuk Draskovic in 1990 as a traditionalist, mona rchist and nationalist party. According to Lucic, alleged paramilitary leader Dragan Vasiljkovic, known as Capt ain Dragan, was also a member. Vasiljkovic allegedly founded and commanded the Knindza paramilitary force based in Knin, Croatia, as well as a paramilitary training camp located in nearby Gol ubic. According to the indictment, this training camp received logistical suppor t from the Serbian DB and from the defendants. The indictment further states that persons who completed training at Captain Dra gan s centre would then be deployed to other paramilitary units supported by the DB, or special ops units of the DB proper. Vasiljkovic, who appeared as a witness in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in 200 4, has become an Australian citizen and goes by the name Daniel Snedden. He is c urrently awaiting extradition from to Croatia to face war crimes charges.

Snedden [Vasiljkovic] was a very individualistic man, a lone shooter of sorts, the witness said. Nobody quite understood him. But he had this driving desire to hel p Serbs wherever they lived, particularly in Krajina, where he wanted to do ever ything in his power to prevent a repeat of World War II. He wanted to prevent an other genocide of the Serbs. Lucic confirmed that he had known Vasiljkovic because they were both SPO members . In 1990, he came to the party and said that he wanted to help the Serbs in Knin a nd meet Milan Martic, the witness said. Martic was leader of the Serbs in the bre akaway region of Krajina in Croatia. In late 1990, he asked for the party s approval to travel to the US and meet the Serbian diaspora and American authorities and warn them about what was going to happen, the witness continued. According to Lucic, Snedden [Vasiljkovic] had faile d in his trip, but he nevertheless continued his close contact with Milan Martic and the Krajina Serbs. Asked by Simatovic s attorney, Mihajlo Bakrac, about Vasiljkovic s Knindza unit, Lucic said he had the impression that it was never supposed to be a military suc cess, but was much more a moral kind of effort by means of which Vasiljkovic want ed to aid the Serb people and give them a sign that they had to fight. It was all Vasiljkovic s idea, but one which made him the most popular Serb alive in Krajina, more popular than the Patriarch Paul [the head of the Serbian churc h], the witness said. Simatovics lawyer claimed that rather than helping Vasiljkovic, the DB was spying on him and that there were reports to prove it. In one conversation intercepted by the DB, dating from late March 1991, Vasiljkovic complained that the Serbs ha d given up on him. The witness was unable to confirm nor deny this statement, but felt that it fits well into the general impression. Prosecutor Adam Weber referred to Lucics own website, and said it included claims that the witness was a good friend of the accused Simatovic and contained links t o the website of the Red Berets, which the defendant once commanded. The witness dismissed this merely a marketing trick to boost sales of books, while the web li nk was simply of general interest to his audience. He denied being a friend of the accused, but restated that he knew them both def endants as acquaintances. The prosecutor also alleged that the witness was connected with the DB and had b een expelled from the SPO because of this link. The witness dismissed this as nonsense, although he acknowledged that he stopped b eing a member of the SPO in 1991. When the prosecutor confronted him with a video clip showing Vasiljkovic boastin g about having developed a friendship with Simatovic, the witness said he couldn t say anything about the nature of that relationship. Stanisic and Simatovic, arrested by Serbian authorities on June 13, 2003, have b oth pleaded not guilty. The trial continues next week.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.