12 May 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· DOS to insist on Sefket Musliu's extradition (RTS/Beta)
· DOS will no longer engage Steiner (SRNA, FoNet, Beta)
· Steiner is creating problems in Kosovo-Metohija, Covic (Tanjug)
· Demaci: North Kosovska-Mitrovica will never return to Kosovo (Beta)
· Svilanovic: Kosovo's final status far from resolved (FoNet)
· Orthodox church stoned in Pristina (Beta)

Regional News

Serbia Montenegro

· Vujanovic elected as Montenegro's new president (Global News)
· Pro-independence candidate wins presidential election in (AP)
· Independence-minded Montenegro finally elects president (AFP)
· UPDATE 3-Montenegrins elect Vujanovic as new president (Reuters)
· 2ND ROUNDUP: Vujanovic new president of Montenegro (dpa)
· Police intercept two human trafficking networks to Western Europe (AP)
· Serbian police sever channel for smuggling Chinese into E.U. (dpa)
· Belgrade admits past army links with war crimes fugitive Mladic: (AFP)
· EU Ambassador: administrative professionalism crucial (FoNet)
· Serbia: Mandic Arrest Threatens Karadzic (IWPR)
· Milosevic faces new war crime evidence (Guardian)

DOS to insist on Sefcet Musliu's extradition (RTS/Beta)

DOS is to insist on the extradition of Sefcet Musliu, who has been arrested and detained in Kosovo, said Rasim Ljajic upon the ruling coalition presidency meeting last night.

The Presidency of DOS has concluded that the Chief of UNMIK Michael Steiner is not ready to talk with the Serbian authorities on Kosovo, as he still has not replied to such a proposal made by the presiding member of DOS Momcilo Trajkovic, Ljajic told Beta. DOS is not going to ask for UNMIK's cooperation on this anymore, but it will insist on Sefecet Musliu's extradition, said Ljajic. The leaders of DOS have accepted the initiative for establishing the State Council for Kosovo and have generally determined its composition.

It was also concluded for the following session of the ruling coalition Presidency to be dedicated to the elaboration of the new Serbian Constitution. Ljajic said that the Presidency also discussed the functioning of the State Union of S-M and expressed its readiness to pass laws on the Council of Ministers and on the Federal Supreme Court as soon as it is possible.

DOS will no longer engage Steiner | SRNA, FoNet, Beta

Speaking after last night's DOS presidency session, minister Rasim Ljajic said that DOS will insist that wanted militant Albanian Shefqet Musliu, arrested in Kosovo recently, be handed over to Serbian authorities.

In an interview with agency Beta, Ljajic said DOS leaders had concluded that UNMIK governor Michael Steiner had displayed no readiness to discuss the Kosovo issue with the Serbian Government, as he had still not replied to Kosovo MP Momcilo Trajkovic's suggestion that discussions commence.

Accordingly, DOS will no longer request UNMIK co-operation in that area, although they will continue to insist that Musliu be delivered.

The Saturday evening DOS session also saw the acceptance of an initiative for the forming of a state council for Kosovo, discussion of the Action Plan for the Montenegrin harmonisation negotiations and confirmation of the Social Democratic Union's membership of the ruling coalition.

The next session will focus on the drafting of the new Serbian Constitution and Ljajic said that he expects laws governing a ministerial council and a high court of the state union to be formed as soon as possible.

Steiner is creating problems in Kosovo-Metohija, Covic

PODGORICA , May 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian Deputy Premier Nebojsa Covic, who is also the head of the Kosovo-Metohija Coordination Center, said Sunday that UNMIK chief Michael Steiner "has for a long time been a factor for creating problems" in Serbia's southern province, "rather then resolving them".

"Steiner has always deemed his personal marketing as more important than the life and problems of the inhabitants of Kosovo-Metohija," Covic said in an interview to Podgorica daily Dan.

Demaci: North Kosovska-Mitrovica will never return to Kosovo | Beta

PRISTINA -- Sunday -- Kosovo-Albanian politician Adam Demaci has assessed that the issue of defining Kosovo's final status has reached a dramatic phase.

Speaking at a Pristina conference organised by his Alliance of Free Thinkers, Demaci said: "Kosovo is in a dramatic situation and if we don't open our eyes to it and contribute together then it will be under Serbian authority again".

Pristina's Albanian-language media today quoted Demaci'swarning and his assessment that if Kosovo stays in Serbia it would be the result of the signing of various documents.

Amongst them he included the Rambouillet Accord, UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the Kumanovo agreement.

Demaci also complained of the International Community's constant requests that Kosovo establish the 'eight standards' before final status can be determined.

Demaci said that the achieving of these insurmountable standards was "not only choking Kosovo's people, but also preventing their right to freely move in the direction of independence".

Demaci explained: "Each day we are pointing out that Kosovo has escaped from Serbia, yet on the other hand Serbia creates mini-states in Kosovo, organises elections for Serbian institutions under the noses of Kosovo's superintendents [UNMIK] and the international community".

"Northern Kosovska Mitrovica will never again return to Kosovo", he added.

Previously, Demaci championed the notion of Balkania, a confederation of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Svilanovic: Kosovo's final status far from resolved | FoNet

BELGRADE -- Sunday -- Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic has today branded reports that Kosovo's final status would be settled by June as complete and utter nonsense with no basis of truth.

In an interview with Serbian daily Blic, Svilanovic said: "I'm not aware of any information supporting that. It simply isn't true. At this time nobody has a finished model for Kosovo's status".

Svilanovic said that the issue remains "one of the most important questions for our country and the region", assessing that the key requirement at this moment is the guaranteeing of Serbs remaining in the Kosovo territories where they live today.

Orthodox church stoned in Pristina | Beta

PRISTINA -- Sunday - An unidentified group of attackers last night pelted rocks and stones at the Orthodox Church of St. Nikola shortly after nightfall.

According to agency Beta, the windows of the church were broken and a local source said that this was not the first attack in the past two months, since UNMIK removed its security team.

Police arrived on the scene, but they have declined to give details to the press.

Pristina's St. Nikola's church is the oldest orthodox building remaining intact in Kosovo

Vujanovic elected as Montenegro's new president

Source: Comtex Global News

Filip Vujanovic, the candidate of the ruling coalition, won the presidential election on Sunday in Montenegro, an unofficial organization declared.

According to the Center for Monitoring Elections (CEMI), about 48 percent of 458,000 registered voters cast their ballots in Montenegro, a republic of the newly formed Serbia and Montenegro, the successor to the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Vujanovic won 63 percent of the votes as the candidate of the Democratic Party of Socialists and the Social Democratic Party.
Miodrag Zivkovic from the Liberal Alliance, received 31 percent of the vote while independent candidate Dragan Hajdukovic got four percent.
The republic held two presidential polls last December and this February, but both of them were declared void as the voter turnout fell below the minimum requirement of 50 percent needed to win.
But under the newly revised electoral law which scrapped the turnout rule, candidates can be elected no matter what the turnout is.

Pro-independence candidate wins presidential election in

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC

PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Filip Vujanovic, a former prime minister who pledged to hold a referendum on independence from Serbia, won a landslide victory in Montenegro's presidential election, according to preliminary results.

Vujanovic, who is the small republic's parliament speaker, won about 63 percent of the Sunday vote, according to the Podgorica-based Center for Election Monitoring, a non-governmental organization whose previous election results proved reliable.

Miodrag Zivkovic from the radically pro-independence Liberal Alliance, won 31 percent, and Dragan Hajdukovic, a little-known independent candidate, who also favors separation from Serbia, was third with 4 percent, the observer group's exit polls showed.
Turnout was 48 percent of some 456,000 eligible voters, the group said. First official results will be announced on Monday.

A jubilant Vujanovic, addressing his supporters after the unofficial results were announced, pledged to ``gradually take Montenegro toward mainstream Europe'' during his 4-year presidency.

The largest opposition coalition in Montenegro, which favors close ties with Serbia, failed to agree on a joint candidate, handing Vujanovic a clear victory.

Vujanovic succeeds his ally Milo Djukanovic, Montenegro's most powerful politician and current prime minister.

Zivkovic, satisfied with the surprising number of votes he got, later conceded his defeat.
Vujanovic represents the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, which advocates independence for Montenegro from much bigger Serbia. He has pledged to hold a referendum on the republic's independence in three years.

Serbia and Montenegro replaced in February their Yugoslav federation with a loose union giving both republics almost complete independence but keeping them linked by a slender central administration.

Serbia is more than six times larger than Montenegro and is home to more than 8 million people. About 650,000 people live in Montenegro.

Many Montenegrins believe that their picturesque Adriatic Sea republic would be much better off economically and politically without the Serbian dominance.
Voters endured scorching heat on Sunday as Montenegro held its third presidential election in six months.

The last two presidential elections in December and February were discounted in accordance with Montenegro law because less that half of registered voters went to the polls. Parliament has since abolished the 50 percent turnout requirement.

Montenegro is under strong international pressure to remain in its union with Serbia.
The European Union-brokered arrangement that created the new country allows each republic to vote in three years on whether to continue the union or separate.

Independence-minded Montenegro finally elects president

By Victoria Stegic

PODGORICA, Serbia and Montenegro, May 11 (AFP) - Reformer Filip Vujanovic won a presidential election Sunday in Montenegro, smaller partner of the Balkan state of Serbia, independent observers said citing unofficial results.

If his victory is confirmed, Vujanovic's delicate task will be to preserve Montenegro's goal of eventual independence from Serbia without provoking the ire of the European Union.

The mountainous Adriatic republic is one of two entities making up the union of Serbia and Montenegro, a state formed in February to replace the rump Yugoslavia, formed by former president Slobodan Milosevic in 1992.

The new state was formed under pressure from the European Union, which feared independence moves in Montenegro would fuel further instability in the Balkans.

Vujanovic's expected victory was expected to support reforms aimed at preparing Montenegro's eventual integration, as an independent state, into the European Union.

Zlatko Vujovic of the non-government observer group Center for Monitoring (CEMI) said their estimates showed Vujanovic had won around 65 percent of the vote cast.
The observers estimated that the turnout was more than 48 percent of some 455,000 registered voters, he said.

The republic's electoral commission was expected to present its official preliminary results on Monday.

Speaking to supporters in his Democratic party of Socialists (DPS) in the capital Podgorica, Vujanovic said, a pro-European path would be a priority for his rule.
He stopped short of immediately calling for independence from Serbia, saying his first moves would be to engage in "activities which lead Montenegro into the European Union" and NATO's Partnership for Peace programme.

Vujanovic, 49, a long-time key ally of pro-independence Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and himself a former prime minister, was almost certain to win the poll, the third in almost six months.

The first two attempts -- in December and February -- failed because under 50 percent of Montenegro's 450,000 eligible voters turned out.

Since then the electoral law has been amended to remove the 50-percent mimumum threshold.

More than 1,000 local and foreign observers were monitoring the ballot.

Marko Blagojevic of the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), another independent observer group, said: "It is clear that the elections have succeeded."

He said minor irregularities noted during the vote on Sunday could not affect the validity of the polls.

Vujanovic's two rivals, Miodrag Zivkovic, leader of the separatist Liberal Alliance, and independent candidate Dragan Hajdukovic, won about 30 and four percent respectively, Vujovic said.

Analyst Srdjan Darmanovic said that "although the percent of voters was slightly lower than in the previous polls, it was obvious that (the victory of) Vujanovic would not be endangered."

The post that has been vacant since November when Djukanovic stepped down to become prime minister. All three presidential candidatehave made the issue of Montenegro's sovereignty a priority in their campaigns.

The new state of Serbia and Montenegro was formed under EU pressure. But under the agreement both partners have the right to opt for independence after three years.
That was a concession to independence-minded Montenegro, whose population of 650,000 is dwarfed by Serbia's 10 million citizens.

Vujanovic promised Sunday that if elected president he would call a referendum in three years time, so that the people could choose whether to remain in the union with Serbia or go their own separate way.

Earlier Sunday, Djukanovic said the election was "important to preserve political stability and continue with pro-European and reformist policy."
And Svetozar Marovic, president of Serbia and Montenegro and another Vujanovic ally, said Sunday's "vote will confirm that the majority in Montenegro wants to go towards the European future as quickly as possible."

Vujanovic's expected victory will also strengthen the position of Djukanovic, who has launched widespread reforms aimed at preparing what he hopes will be an independent Montenegro's eventual integration into the European Union.

With Vujanovic as head of state, the parliament dominated by his Democratic Party of Socialists, Djukanovic will have firm control of the future of Montenegro.

UPDATE 3-Montenegrins elect Vujanovic as new president

By Julijana Mojsilovic

PODGORICA, Serbia and Montenegro, May 11 (Reuters) - Pro-independence candidate Filip Vujanovic convincingly won Montenegro's presidential election on Sunday at the third attempt to hold the vote, independent monitors said.

He becomes Montenegro's first president since the Yugoslav federation was transformed in February under European Union pressure into a loose union of its two remaining constituent republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

Vujanovic says he favours breaking away from much larger Serbia but that his party will give the new union a chance. Each republic has the right to hold an independence referendum after three years.

Vujanovic, the candidate of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, got the support of more than 63 percent of those who voted, the Centre for Monitoring Elections (CEMI) said less than hour after the polls closed at 9.00 p.m. (1900 GMT).

CEMI said the turnout was 48 percent. Miodrag Zivkovic, of the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro, won 31 percent while the independent Dragan Hajdukovic got support of four percent of those who voted.

Analysts said that although Vujanovic got less support than in the previous two unsuccessful bids for the presidency, the weakness of the opposition was more surprising.

``Zivkovic's result showed that though citizens expressed less trust in the authorities, their confidence in the opposition parties was even less,'' said Miodrag Vlahovic, the head of Podgorica's Institute for Strategic Studies.

Vujanovic won most of the votes in presidential elections in December and February, both declared void when the voter turnout failed to reach the minimum of 50 percent. The tiny Balkan republic scrapped the turnout rule in February.
Under the new rules, a candidate need only beat his rivals to be elected, no matter how many of the more than 450,000 eligible voters cast their ballots.

Djukanovic, who had agreed to shelve plans for independence, stepped down as president to become prime minister after leading his party to victory in parliamentary elections last October.

2ND ROUNDUP: Vujanovic new president of Montenegro

Podgorica (dpa) - Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's deputy, Filip Vujanovic, on Sunday soundly beat his opponents in a repeat presidential election, but again failed to reverse voter apathy.

According to preliminary unofficial figures provided by the independent monitoring oganization CESID, Vujanovic has collected 63.3 per cent of the votes cast to win the five-year term.

The chief of the hardline pro-independence Liberal Alliance Miodrag Zivkovic won 30.8 per cent, while the independent runner Dragan Hajdukovic came in with 3.9 per cent of the votes.

The apathy which led to the disqualification of previous two attempts at electing a president, in December and February, nevertheless continued. CESID estimated the turnout at around 48 per cent, just marginally higher than in the previous failed polls.

The final showing then was 47 and 46 per cent, respectively, but Montenegro has meanwhile scrapped the turnout provision from the law to assure a successful election, in line with recommendations from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

After casting his ballot, Vujanovic said: ``I will be president of all citizens and help all as much as possible.''

With Vujanovic's victory, Djukanovic's coalition, which won an absolute majority in early parliamentary elections in October, formally rounded up his grip on power.

The main opposition bloc, which has boycotted the failed votes, did not field a candidate or take an official position regarding the election and candidates.

Montenegro, the smallest of the six former Yugoslav republics, has about 650,000 inhabitants. It is now in a loose union with Serbia, which replaced the Yugoslav federation early this year.

Djukanovic has been promising Montenegrins since 1998 that he would lead the republic to independence.
Ahead of Sunday's election, Vujanovic said that he would call for a referendum on independence in three years, as soon as the arrangement with Serbia permits it.

Police intercept two human trafficking networks to Western Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Serbian police said Sunday they intercepted over the weekend what they believe are two rings of human traffickers smuggling people across this Balkan nation to Western Europe.

Police in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, uncovered in a suburban apartment 10 Chinese citizens brought into the country illegally. The group had entered from neighboring Romania with the intention to cross into Croatia and from there to make it to Italy, the police said.

Dozens of forged Chinese passports, including business and diplomatic passports, and also several Japanese passports were found in the apartment along with computers and passport-printing equipment, according to police.

One of the Chinese men apprehended in the apartment faces charges of organizing the trafficking while the rest were to be deported to China.

Accompanying police searching the apartment were also health workers inspecting the illegal immigrants for signs of SARS infection.

Later Sunday, Serbia's health minister, Tomica Milosavljevic, told the private Beta news agency that one of the Chinese men was hospitalized because of a ``possible SARS infection.'' The country has not registered any SARS cases so far.

Milosavljevic said it was only a precaution, since the man had high fever but no other symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The other Chinese men will be monitored for 10 days, the usual SARS incubation period, the minister said.

Police also said they were still searching for accomplices to the trafficking ring and that the suspects were citizens of Serbia and Montenegro, the loose union that replaced Yugoslavia this year.

Meanwhile, in the town of Pancevo, 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Belgrade, police discovered nine illegal immigrants, two Turks and seven people from Tunisia in a private house.

That group was also planning to reach Western Europe. Four of the nine face a 10-day jail sentence while the remaining five will be deported.

Serbia-Montenegro and other Balkan countries have long served as a transit route for many illegal aliens from the Middle East or Far East in hopes of reaching Western European countries.

Serbian police sever channel for smuggling Chinese into E.U.

Belgrade (dpa) - Serbian police said Sunday that it has arrested a Chinese national under suspicion of organizing the illegal transport of his compatriots to western Europe.

Police named Wu Lee Sang as the main organizer of a channel bringing illegal Chinese immigrants to western Europe via Serbia and Montenegro.

Ten Chinese illegals were found in an apartment raided in Belgrade, as well as more than 50 forged Chinese and Japanese passports and hardware for producing the forgeries, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The immigrants arrived in Serbia from Romania and were due to travel on to the European Union via Croatia.

The raid was conducted in cooperation with health authorities out of fear that some of the Chinese might be infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Wu faces criminal charges related to the trafficking of human beings, while the immigrants will be deported after a medical check.

Belgrade admits past army links with war crimes fugitive Mladic:

BELGRADE, May 11 (AFP) - The army of what is now Serbia and Montenegro had contacts in the past with the most wanted fugitives of the UN war crimes court, including Bosnian Serb wartime military leader Ratko Mladic, a top minister said Sunday.
"The last contact with Mladic was on May 15, 2002," Serbia and Montenegro's Defence Minister Boris Tadic was quoted as saying in the Politika newspaper.
"That is the result of an investigation conducted in the army. We are now investigating if anybody who formally (served) in the army has continued protecting those indicted," Tadic said.
This is the first top level admission by a Belgrade official of past links between alleged war criminals still on the run and the army.
The chief prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, has repeatedly accused the army of providing shelter for Mladic as well as former Yugoslav army officer Veselin Sljivancanin, indicted for war crimes.
Mladic has been indicted by the tribunal for involvement in the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.
Del Ponte has said she believes Mladic is in hiding in Serbia, although the Belgrade authorities so far have persistently denied knowing where he is.
The authorities in Serbia and Montenegro, the state union that replaced rump Yugoslavia in February, have promised full cooperation with the ICTY and the arrest and extradition of all fugitives.
Last month, several weeks after taking over the post of defense minister, Tadic ordered an investigation aimed at finding out whether the army was in contact with Mladic and Sljivancanin.
Sljivancanin is accused of the massacre of more than 200 civilians in Vukovar in November 1991.
"The last contact with Sljivancanin was on January 16, when he came to a building where he had previously worked. He was told by an officer that he could not come there any more," Tadic told the daily.
"He protested, but has never appeared again in military buildings," the minister said.

EU Ambassador: administrative professionalism crucial | FoNet

BELGRADE -- Sunday -- EU Ambassador to Serbia-Montenegro, Jeffrey Barrett, has expressed his happiness that future Serbian administrators are being educated in the state union.

Speaking to agency FoNet, Barrett looked back to the commencement of training projects, which included 100 young people from the state union's administration, and highlighted that the country had had to be open to contrasting views of administrative practices and administrative reforms because it was isolated for so long.

Barrett assessed that politicians were crucial for closing the gap with Europe, but that administrators played an equally important role because it was they who must function in a business-like manner in the field of professional details.

He warned that such a detail must not be overlooked.

Serbia: Mandic Arrest Threatens Karadzic

How long can Karadzic evade justice now that the man thought to be financing him is behind bars?

By Zeljko Cvijanovic in Belgrade (IWPR)

The detention of Momcilo Mandic by Serbian police on April 13 is likely to help clear the way for the detention of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic.
A leading financier of the Bosnian Serb government, Mandic is alleged to have provided much of the funding that has allowed the war crimes suspect to remain in hiding.
Mandic was arrested during the police sweep that followed the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic. But nearly a month after his arrest, police have not yet specified what charges they intend to bring. This has led to speculation in Belgrade that his arrest was prompted by requests from the international community rather than having any relation to domestic issues. The war crimes tribunal has already expressed interest in arraigning Mandic, because he was justice minister in Karadzic's government during the first year of the Bosnian war. As such he was in charge of the detention camps where Bosnian Croats and Muslims were held. However, Mandic may be of even greater value to The Hague because of his alleged role in bankrolling Karadzic since the war.
The day he was arrested, the Office of the High Representative, OHR, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, issued a statement welcoming Mandic's arrest. OHR spokesman Julian Braithwaite told the Belgrade news agency Fonet that Ashdown held evidence of Mandic's alleged criminal activities, but that he had no mandate to arrest him.
On March 7, Ashdown had described Mandic as a very important link in the organised crime network in Republika Srpska, RS, which is helping Karadzic hide. "Momcilo Mandic is closely linked with the financing of Radovan Karadzic's operations," he said.
Ashdown was speaking as he issued orders to freeze all transactions by companies owned by Mandic - ManCo Oil and Privredna Banka Sarajevo. At the same time, Mandic and another 23 Bosnian Serb businessmen were banned from entering the US and EU countries or doing business with them, because of suspicions that they were aiding Karadzic. ManCo Oil and Privredna Bank Sarajevo were two of the 15 companies investigated by the Serbian police and the FBI a year and a half ago. A senior source in the Belgrade police told IWPR that the investigation established that these companies used illegal income to finance Karadzic's concealment and protection. The same source said this proved that Mandic was a part of an old network of police and criminals, which continued to control much of the black market in Serbia and RS even after former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was ousted As OHR moved to close off Mandic's businesses, the US Treasury put out a statement claiming that he remained "a major funding source" for Karadzic through his control of a network of businesses engaged in fraud and embezzlement. It said he was able to finance Karadzic because he still had "control and influence" over the judiciary, interior ministry and intelligence service in RS. It is difficult to assess the scale of the alleged support Karadzic has been receiving. In early April, the deputy commander of the SFOR troops in Sarajevo, Colonel Klaus Gerlach, said the former Bosnian Serb leader had as many as 2,000 bodyguards.
Mandic has not spoken publicly since his arrest, but the day after the OHR and US Treasury statements he rejected the allegations about Karadzic in an interview for the Belgrade daily Blic. "I am ready to go to Sarajevo for all kinds of questioning - even to the US if needed - just so I can finally clear my name and prove wrong the claims that I am aiding Karadzic," he said. A former Yugoslav judo champion, Mandic, 48, became a wealthy man in the mid-1980s when he opened a number of shops in Sarajevo. At the time, he was working as a judge and later a police inspector in the city. In 1990, as the nationalists took over in Bosnia, he was appointed deputy interior minister, representating Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party, SDS. At the beginning of 1992, Bosnian police conducted an investigation which concluded that Mandic had illegally transferred funds from the interior ministry to the SDS. But the case was overtaken by the war, which began in April that year. Karadzic gave Mandic the job of forging a new Serb police force. "I wasn't his right arm," explained Mandic later, "Radovan needed professionals and, without false modesty, I was a good policeman." Mandic was rewarded for his role in the first Serb military action in Sarajevo with the post of RS justice minister. "As justice minister I used to put on a bullet-proof vest and wage war as a soldier in Dobrinja (a suburb of Sarajevo)," Mandic later reminisced. In early 1993, he was sent to Belgrade where, as official representative of RS, he is alleged to have controlled the flow of military supplies to the Bosnian Serbs. In 1995, Mandic, together with Bosnian Serb vice-president Momcilo Krajisnik, set up a Belgrade branch of a Bosnian commercial bank, Privredna Banka Sarajevo. The bank transferred pensions and retirement benefits earned abroad to Bosnian Serbs. Mandic was general manager and the bank's biggest shareholder. And the lucrative cash transfer business, in which every delayed pension payment meant an increase in interest, made him one of the wealthiest of Bosnia's Serbs. After OHR froze its Bosnian assets in March, Privredna Banka Sarajevo also lost its Belgrade branch - its de facto headquarters - when on March 13 police stormed its offices and seized all its documentation. Mandic is alleged to have invested some of his earnings in illegal oil smuggling, a business carved up between Serbian police and mafia groups. The allegation comes from a policeman who was himself involved. Mandic has denied any wrongdoing. He survived the end of Milosevic and continued to expand his businesses by investing in real estate in Belgrade and taking part in privatisations in RS and Serbia. In January this year, Mandic purchased Morava, a marble producer in Serbia, with plans to merge it with Mermer, a Bosnian Serb company. He is said to be worth between 100 and 200 million euro. Mandic has admitted some political funding. He told the Bijeljina-based Extra magazine in December 2000 that he was financially supporting the SDS, then in a difficult position while in opposition. He also said he was paying for the defence of Momcilo Krajisnik in The Hague. It is said that no decision could be taken in the SDS without consulting Mandic. Given his influence in the region, it is thus no surprise that Bosnian Serb police did not respond to international requests to arrest him. In RS, the lines between legal and illegal business, and between illegal traders, politicians and police remain far from clear. This environment has provided Karadzic with a life support system until now. Across the border, Serbia is now moving to clear out networks of mafia and officials involved in racketeering and smuggling and to deliver war crimes suspects to The Hague. The removal of a key figure like Mandic has the potential to weaken some of these networks in both RS and Serbia, and to leave Karadzic more exposed than ever.

Zeljko Cvijanovic is an IWPR contributor in Belgrade

Milosevic faces new war crime evidence
Chris Stephen, The Hague
Sunday May 11, 2003
The Observer

You would not know it from the granite expression on his heavy jowls, but the roof has fallen in on the world's most infamous defendant - Slobodan Milosevic. After 17 months of frustration, prosecutors at the UN genocide trial of the former Yugoslav President in The Hague last week unearthed the first direct evidence that he ordered war crimes. The former secretary to Arkan, Serbia's most feared paramilitary commander, has told the trial of phone calls he received from Milosevic's men giving orders for attacks on unarmed Bosnians. Then details of a secret meeting between Milosevic and his henchmen to approve ethnic cleansing of Croatia's civilian population in 1993 were given by a former casino boss, who said he had served whisky to the warlords in the room. In another breakthrough, Milosevic's right-hand man, former secret police chief Jovica Stanisic, has been arrested and brought to The Hague. Speculation is rife that he will give evidence against his former boss in return for a lighter sentence. With evidence now firmly linking Milosevic to murders, rapes, ethnic cleansing and the bombardment of Sarajevo, it is hard to see how he can escape a life sentence. For prosecutors, the sense of relief is palpable. Since his war crimes trial opened in February last year, they have presented evidence detailing atrocities in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s - but none linking these crimes directly to Milosevic. 'You can understand an upbeat feeling in the light of what's happened,' said Richard Goldstone, former Hague chief prosecutor and now head of South Africa's Constitutional Court. A key part of the breakthrough came as a result of the assassination two months ago of Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's reformist Prime Minister. That shooting was organised by Milosevic loyalists left in place when he was removed from office in elections in October 2000. The apparent coup attempt provoked a round-up of hardline warlords, gangsters and secret policemen. These included Stanisic, and also Milosevic's most trusted military commander, Franko Simatovic, former boss of his praetorian guard, the Red Berets. The round-up also smashed the ring of Milosevic loyalists who had intimidated witnesses. The breakthrough is just in time. Prosecutors have only two more months to complete their case. Milosevic's trial is now the longest war crimes trial in history. Despite more than 100 witnesses and thousands of hours of phone intercepts and TV recordings, not a scrap of evidence showed Milosevic ordering crimes that left more than 200,000 dead in the Balkans. A picture emerged of him running his regime like a Mafia don, working through a handful of confidants who were given verbal orders that left no paper trail. 'Nobody gives an order to go and murder somebody and puts it in writing,' Goldstone told The Observer . 'It's all done with nods and winks.' The trial hit more snags with frequent bouts of sickness from 62-year-old Milosevic, suffering from the strain of refusing to use defence lawyers in a court he does not recognise. Colds, flu and high blood pressure have seen two months of trial time lost.
But many share Milosevic's sense of victimhood, insisting he should not be jailed for the crimes of others. Nothing less than direct evidence is likely to change their minds. Now, it seems, this has arrived. For Bosnian journalist and leading war crimes commentator Emir Suljagic, this evidence means the search is over: 'This isn't the smoking gun. It's a howitzer.'