26 March 2003 Morning Edition

Breaking News

· Police arrest suspected murderer of Serbian leader (AFP)
· Djindjic sniper suspect arrested (CNN)
· Djindjic murder suspect arrested (BBC)
· 3RD ROUNDUP: In Djindjic death aftermath, sweeping moves by justice (dpa)
· Authorities: Alleged assassin of Serbian prime minister tied to (AP)
· UPDATE 4-Serbian police arrest suspected killer of Djindjic (Reuters)
· Serbia Arrests Man Suspected of Assassinating Prime Minister (NYT)
· Man held for murder of Serbian leader (Guardian)
· Political angle of assassination to be investigated (B92)

Regional News

Serbia Montenegro

· Serbian Government disbands the Red Berets (B92)
· NEWS FEATURE: Serbia's Red Berets - warriors and plain criminals (dpa)

Croatia

· Croatia ordered to deliver indictment to Bobetko (Beta)

Police arrest suspected murderer of Serbian leader

BELGRADE, March 25 (AFP) - The man suspected of murdering Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic has been arrested by police, his successor Zoran Zivkovic said Tuesday.
Zvezdan Jovanovic was suspected of "shooting at Zoran Djindjic" on March 12 in Belgrade. He was identified and detained on Monday, Zivkovic said. Jovanovic, 38, was until recently deputy commander of Serbian special police units (JSO). "Police have also found a weapon, a Heckler and Koch (rifle) presumed to have been used in shooting of Djindjic," he added.

Another JSO member suspected of being involved in the assassination was also arrested, while the unit's commander, Dusan Maricic, has been removed from his post and detained because of alleged links with a group accused of being behind the murder, Zivkovic said. Serbian authorities have blamed the so-called Zemun gang, led by former JSO commander Milorad Lukovic, for being behind Djindjic's murder. Lukovic and another main suspect Dusan Spasojevic are still at large. "This is not the end of investigation. It will be ended once all involved have been arrested and brought to justice," Zivkovic said. More than 1,000 people have been detained since the assassination, including the secret service chief under the regime of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic Jovica Stanisic, and a notorious paramilitary chief Franko Simatovic, known as Frenki. Before being ousted in the late 1990s by Milosevic, Stanisic and Simatovic, a "godfather" of JSO -- a notorious police paramilitary unit blamed for numerous attrocities during the wars in former Yugoslavia in 1990s -- were deeply involved in the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia.

The country is still under a state of emergency imposed after Djindjic's murder, allowing police to carry out arrests without warrants and to keep suspects in detention for up to 30 days without charge. Djindjic was killed by a single bullet in a government parking lot.
Although his death has been blamed on organized crime gangs, Serbian officials have hinted that hardline nationalists, angered by Djindjic's readiness to cooperate with international demands to punish those behind the atrocities committed during the Balkans wars, could also be behind his murder.

"There is a link between crime, war criminals, profiteers and war veterans," Nebojsa Covic, deputy prime minister, said earlier.

A pro-Western reformist, Djindjic, 50, had won his share of enemies for handing over Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He had also pledged to arrest war crimes suspects, believed to be hiding in Serbia, who still enjoy considerable support among hard-line nationalists.

Djindjic sniper suspect arrested

BELGRADE, Serbia (CNN) --Police have arrested a man they suspect was the sniper who killed Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the slain premier's successor said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said the suspect in custody was Zvezdan Jovanovic, a former deputy commander of an elite unit of police troops under former President Slobodan Milosevic. Zivkovic said police found the suspect and the rifle believed to be used in the killing at undisclosed site in Belgrade. Two others who were high-ranking officers of the same unit, called the Red Berets, were also arrested. More than 750 people, including Serbia's deputy public prosecutor, have been taken into custody since Djindjic, a pro-Western reformer, was assassinated in central Belgrade two weeks ago.
Authorities said the assassins belong to the Zemun Clan, a crime network named after a Belgrade neighborhood that controls drug trafficking and other organized crime.
Officials said the group has close links with those loyal to Milosevic, who is on trial for war crimes at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Police said three men armed with a sniper gun and two handguns carried out the attack from the second floor of a nearby building.

Also detained in the crackdown were two of Milosevic's former security chiefs and Svetlana Raznatovic, a popular folk singer who is the widow of murdered warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan. The Zemun Clan's alleged chiefs still remain at large -- Milorad "Legija" Lukovic, a paramilitary commander active in Milosevic's war campaigns, and clan members Dusan Spasojevic and Dejan Milenkovic. Djindjic played a key role in toppling Milosevic in 2000 and later handed over the ousted president to the U.N. war crimes tribunal. The assassinated premier had pledged to crack down on rampant organized crime and had angered Serbian nationalists by pledging to extradite all war crimes fugitives. Many Serbs still regard the fugitives as heroes. Zivkovic, Djindjic's close associate and a top official in the ruling Democratic Party, has pledged to press ahead with his predecessor's pro-Western reforms and crack down on organized crime.

Djindjic murder suspect arrested

Serbian police have arrested a senior special police officer on suspicion of assassinating Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

BBC NEWS

Mr Djindjic's successor as prime minister, Zoran Zivkovic, said the man was a deputy commander of the Unit for Special Operations (JSO), Zvezdan Jovanovic, aged 38. The JSO was disbanded on Tuesday by Serbian authorities and its former members have been ordered to hand in their arms, uniforms and official identity cards. "Police have identified the person who, there are good grounds to suspect, fired at late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic," he told a news conference.
"He was arrested yesterday and has been detained for further investigation."
Mr Djindjic was killed by a sniper's bullet outside government buildings in Belgrade on 12 March. Just hours after the killing, Serbian authorities blamed a criminal gang led by a former JSO commander Milorad Lukovic.

Murder weapon
Mr Zivkovic said the current JSO commander, Dusan Maricic, had been removed from his position and detained for further investigation. He also said police had found a German-made Heckler Koch G3 sniper rifle, which they believe to be the murder weapon. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and nearly 400 charged since the killing. Mr Lukovic and another chief suspect, Dusan Spasojevic, are still at large.
"This is not the end of the investigation. It will be ended once all involved have been arrested and brought to justice," said Mr Zivkovic. Under the state of emergency imposed after Mr Djindjic's killing, police are able to carry out arrests without warrants, and to keep suspects in detention for 30 days without charge. Police have said that the Djindjic hit squad consisted of three people dressed as workers, who took up position in a building opposite the government offices.

Atrocities
Mr Djindjic was killed by one shot to the chest as he got out of his car on crutches. Mr Zivkovic said the sniper suspects had links to the Zemun organised crime clan, which is led by Mr Lukovic. He said another man suspected of aiding the sniper, Sasa Pejakovic, had also been arrested. Serbian officials at first suggested that Mr Djindjic had been killed because he had declared war on organised crime. However, they have also noted that his readiness to send war crimes suspects including Slobodan Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal, angered hardline nationalists. The JSO has been blamed for numerous atrocities committed during the Balkan wars. Zvezdan Jovanovic was a member of the paramilitary unit during the wars of the 1990s.

3RD ROUNDUP: In Djindjic death aftermath, sweeping moves by justice

Belgrade (dpa) - Two weeks after the assassination of Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, the government moved to shut down the notorious special police operations unit and said the prime suspect and murder weapon had been found. The new prime minister, Zoran Zivkovic, announced that Zvezdan Jovanovic, the assistant commander of the unit that has been closed down - the socalled (JSO) or Red Berets, was arrested Monday. A second JSO officer, Sasa Pejakovic, was arrested under suspicion of direct involvement in the killing. The JSO commander, Dusan Maricic, was also sacked and arrested over alleged links to the crime family blamed for Djindjic's killing. Djindjic, who led the popular uprising that ousted former warlord and president Slobodan Milosivic, alienated many powerful interests because he pushed for a showdown with leaders of paramilitary and military forces in the Balkan wars, and with organized crime figures. There was also lingering bitterness over the dumping of Milosevic, now standing trial in The Hague for war crimes.
Djindjic was killed by a sniper on March 12, in the courtyard of the Serbian government seat. The shots were fired from a window 180 metres away. Officials Tuesday said they had also found the weapon used in the killing, a Heckler & Koch G3 found in Belgrade on Monday. The Serbian government asked JSO troops to return their weapons, uniforms and identification cards immediately. In the days after the assassination, the leaderless government immediately blamed the so-called Zemun clan, a Belgrade crime family headed by the former chief of the JSO, Milorad Lukovic, and proclaimed a state of emergency. Officials charged that the vestige of Milosevic's security apparatus carried out the killing, hoping they would topple the government and return cohorts to power.
But using broad emergency authority to investigate and detain, police took in nearly 3,700 people for questioning and ordered 1,075 to a 30-day detention, including 591 in Belgrade.

The draconian emergency powers also allowed the holding of suspects incommunicado. Some suspects were said to have exchanged testimonials for witness protection, a relative novelty in Serbia. Though dozens of known members of the Zemun clan were arrested, Lukovic and two other top leaders suspected of organizing and ordering the killing remained at large. Premier Zivkovic said the investigation would end ``when all those involved in the killing are brought to justice''. He did not answer questions. Apart from expanding police authority, the state of emergency limited basic civic rights, such as media and labour freedoms. On Tuesday, the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) voiced concern over ``certain restrictions'' of the emergency rules.
Serbia ``should be able to provide careful justification for every measure taken under the recently proclaimed state of emergency,'', HRW said in a letter to Zivkovic. ``The government claims and appears to be in control of the security situation,'' said Elizabeth Andersen, head of HRW in Europe and Central Asia. She urged the government to relax the measures. HRW particularly urged Serbian authorities to lift the ban on contact between detainees and their lawyers and families and limitations imposed on reporting.

Authorities: Alleged assassin of Serbian prime minister tied to

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ The man arrested for allegedly assassinating Serbia's pro-Western prime minister ran an elite police unit tied to organized crime and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, authorities said Tuesday. Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, who succeeded Zoran Djindjic after his March 12 ambush slaying, identified the suspect as Zvezdan Jovanovic, a deputy commander of the Unit for Special Operations used by the former Yugoslav president during the 1990s wars in Bosnia and Croatia. Jovanovic was arrested Monday.
The Serbian government later ordered the unit disbanded, saying its 300 members must return their weapons, uniforms and insignia within 30 days.
Police also detained Sasa Pejakovic on suspicion of aiding Jovanovic, Zivkovic said.
The prime minister said police uncovered a German-made sniper rifle suspected of being the murder weapon used to assassinate Djindjic as he left an armored car in front of his downtown Belgrade headquarters. The weapon was found buried in the Serbian capital.
Later Tuesday, a police statement said tests performed by ballistics experts indicated that Jovanovic ``undoubtedly'' fired the bullet that killed Djindjic. Jovanovic had ties to the Zemun Clan, an organized crime ring blamed by authorities for plotting and carrying out Djindjic's slaying, Zivkovic said.

``This is not the end of the investigation,'' he said. ``We are happy with what has been done, but we won't be satisfied until all those involved in this murder are arrested and tried.''

Milosevic's regime allowed crime figures to fight with notorious paramilitary units in the Balkan wars. After the conflicts, he gave them a free hand to join regular police forces linked to underworld figures running lucrative drug trafficking operations, authorities said.

Djindjic made enemies by declaring war on organized crime, which flourished in Serbia under Milosevic's rule. He also angered some Serbs by pledging to arrest war crimes suspects wanted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where Milosevic now is being tried.

Dusan Maricic, the current commander of the elite police unit _ considered the best-trained and best-armed in the republic _ was fired and detained, Zivkovic said.
A police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that some of the unit's members ``will be arrested, others dismissed or transferred to other police units.''
Jovanovic, 37, first joined Serbia's dreaded paramilitary forces in 1991. At the time, the unit was commanded by Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, who was slain in a Belgrade hotel in January 2000.

Jovanovic became a unit commander in 1995. He became a specialist in covert operations and was among the unit's top instructors, authorities said.

Independent B-92 television showed video footage Tuesday of Milosevic shaking hands with Jovanovic in 1995 during a visit by the ex-president to the special unit. The same footage was screened last month at the tribunal as evidence of Milosevic's ties to the unit, which is accused of committing wartime atrocities.

The unit _ which has tanks, armored transport and a helicopter gunship in its armament _ staged a rebellion against Djindjic's government in November 2001, saying it no longer wanted to help arrest Serbian war crimes suspects.

The move was considered by government officials at the time as an aborted coup attempt.
Since Djindjic's assassination, authorities have imposed a state of emergency and launched a major hunt for leading crime figures and their associates in the judiciary, police and other state services. More than 1,000 suspects have been arrested.
But police said prime suspects remained at large, including Milorad Lukovic, the former top commander of the police unit and the alleged leader of the Zemun Clan believed to have masterminded the slaying.

The ferocity and scope of the authorities' crackdown drew a warning Tuesday from U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, which said in a letter to Zivkovic that certain restrictions imposed after the assassination ``may not be justified under international law.''

UPDATE 4-Serbian police arrest suspected killer of Djindjic
(Adds government disbands special police unit in para 2, 5)

By Fredrik Dahl
BELGRADE, March 25 (Reuters) - Serbian police arrested Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's suspected assassin, a senior member of a battle-hardened special police unit set up during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, the government said on Tuesday. The government also decided to disband the Unit for Special Operations (JSO), a crack division that fought in the Balkan wars of the 1990s under then Yugoslav leader Milosevic, now standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The arrest and the unit's disbandment were the most dramatic developments yet in the massive hunt for the crime bosses held responsible for the March 12 killing of the reformist leader, which sparked fears of renewed instability in the Balkans.

New Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, an ally of Djindjic, identified the suspect as Zvezdan Jovanovic and said he was a deputy commander of the JSO, based near the northern town of Kula and believed to number a few hundred members. The government said after an extraordinary session it had ordered JSO personnel to hand in their arms and uniforms. It has previously named former JSO commander Milorad Lukovic, also known as Legija, as one of the crime gang leaders believed to have planned the assassination. He and other alleged ringleaders remain at large. Djindjic, who played a key role in the ouster of Milosevic in 2000 and enraged nationalists by sending him to The Hague the following year to stand trial, was shot dead by a sniper outside the main government building in Belgrade.

Djindjic fought to transform the impoverished republic from an international pariah to a Western-style democracy, and vowed to clamp down on the organised crime that flourished during Milosevic's turbulent decade in power. The government swiftly accused a powerful criminal group linked to Milosevic-era state security officials and led by Legija and others of organising the killing in a bid to spread chaos in Serbia.

BREAKTHROUGH
Catching the assassin would be a major breakthrough for the authorities, who launched a sweeping crackdown on crime after Djindjic's murder almost two weeks ago. ``Police have identified the person whom they have the well-founded suspicion fired at late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic,'' Zivkovic said in a brief statement. ``He was arrested yesterday and has been detained for further investigation,'' said Zivkovic, who took office last week.
He said another JSO member had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder and its commander had been removed from his position and detained because of connections with the crime group behind the killing, known as the Zemun gang. Zivkovic also said police had found what they believed was the murder weapon, a Heckler Koch G3 sniper rifle.

``The investigation does not end here. We are satisfied with it, but it will be concluded only after all those involved in the murder have been arrested and brought before justice,'' Zivkovic said.

The JSO mounted a week of protests in late 2001 including blocking roads with armoured cars, complaining they had been manipulated into arresting two Serb war crimes suspects.
The government declared a state of emergency after Djindjic's assassination, giving police extra powers to hold people and raid houses, and the police have since detained more than 1,000 people in their war on organised crime. (Additional reporting by Julijana Mojsilovic and Beti Bilandzic)

Serbia Arrests Man Suspected of Assassinating Prime Minister

By DANIEL SIMPSON – New York Times

BELGRADE, Serbia, March 25 — Serbia's new leader said today that the police had arrested a man suspected of assassinating Zoran Djindjic, the reform-minded former prime minister who was shot to death earlier this month.

Zoran Zivkovic, the new prime minister, identified the suspect as Zvezdan Jovanovic, the deputy commander of an elite special police unit formed by former President Slobodan Milosevic. The unit remains operational and has close links to criminal networks. Mr. Djindjic was shot twice in the chest by a sniper outside his office on March 12.

The men accused of ordering Mr. Jovanovic to pull the trigger remain at large, but the police have questioned more than 3,500 suspects from the Serbian underworld since Mr. Djindjic was assassinated. More than 1,000 individuals remain in custody, including senior members of Mr. Milosevic's security apparatus who know most about his connections to paramilitary formations during the Balkan wars of the 1990's.

The investigation, conducted under a state of emergency that gives wide powers of arrest and restricts news media freedoms, has raised hopes that the government may finally be making progress in weeding out Milosevic-era holdovers from the security forces and other positions of power.

The arrest of an assassination suspect may not count for much in that broader battle, but it is nonetheless significant after a decade of unsolved high-profile murders in Serbia.
"This is not the end of the investigation," said Mr. Zivkovic, a close ally of Mr. Djindjic who is eager to demonstrate his credentials as a reformer. "We are happy with what has been done, but we won't be satisfied until all those involved in this murder are arrested and tried."

Many international observers are relieved to see the vacuum left by Mr. Djindjic, who centralized power around himself, being filled by a concerted government crackdown on the alliances of war criminals and underworld gangs that have long held sway here.

But there is also criticism of the methods being used. In a letter to Mr. Zivkovic released today, Human Rights Watch, an organization based in New York, urged the government to be more restrained, both in its actions and its language. Threats from the interior minister, Dusan Mihajlovic, to "liquidate everybody who resists the police" were a source of concern, Human Rights Watch said, as was a ban on reporting about the reasons for the introduction of the state of emergency. "Even in these difficult times — maybe even especially now — the authorities must uphold human rights and the rule of law," said Elizabeth Andersen, the director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. A senior figure in Mr. Zivkovic's Democratic Party said the rebuke was unwarranted. "No one should worry that during the state of emergency there could be an unacceptable suspension of human rights," said Boris Tadic, who is also the defense minister of the union between Serbia and its coastal neighbor, Montenegro.

"Had we not declared it after Djindjic's assassination, we would have been considered completely abnormal," he said.

"The state of emergency will last one month, possibly two. It cannot last forever."

Man held for murder of Serbian leader

Ian Traynor in Zagreb

Wednesday March 26, 2003

The Guardian

Serbian police have arrested the suspected assassin of Zoran Djindjic, the pro-western prime minister who was killed two weeks ago, his successor said yesterday. Zoran Zivkovic named the suspect as Zvezdan Jovanovic, 38, a Kosovan Serb and the deputy commander of the Red Berets, a notorious paramilitary unit used by the Serbian regime to perpetrate atrocities and conduct ethnic cleansing in the wars in former Yugoslavia of the 1990s. Under state of emergency rules introduced after the Djindjic assassination, more than 3,000 people, mostly from the underworld, have been detained. The Serbian media are being muzzled, the judiciary is being purged, and the head of the country's constitutional court has been summarily sacked.
Opposition parties are warning that civil liberties are being eroded and international human rights and media watchdogs are voicing concern at the actions of the Zivkovic government.
Serbian officials say more than 1,000 of those detained are expected to be charged.
Mr Zivkovic's government is particularly anxious about the prospect of the Red Berets causing trouble. The paramilitary unit is highly trained and well armed, created by Slobodan Milosevic for his wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. It is closely associated with prominent mafia bosses. The paramilitaries are being confined to barracks, police are patrolling the roads to Kula - where the unit is based - and air force jets have been overflying the Red Berets' compound. Serbian police sources told the Associated Press news agency in Belgrade that the unit was to be dissolved, but the government is clearly worried that its members could stage an armed revolt. The unit, which has tanks, armoured transport and a helicopter gunship in its armament, staged a rebellion against Djindjic's government in November 2001, saying it no longer wanted to take part in the arrest of Serbian war crimes suspects. At the time, the move - which included the blocking of a Belgrade bridge - was considered by officials as an aborted coup attempt.
The key figure behind the Djindjic assassination is said to be Milorad Lukovic, alias Legija, a former Red Berets commander who heads the Zemun Clan, Serbia's most formidable organised crime ring.

Mr Legija's whereabouts is unknown, but Mr Zivkovic announced yesterday that his successor as Red Berets' commander, Dusan Maricic, had also been detained. Mr Zivkovic also said police had dug up a Heckler & Koch rifle in a Belgrade suburb and believed it was the weapon used to fire the single shot that killed Djindjic. Mr Jovanovic, the alleged assassin, joined the Red Berets in 1995 after taking part in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. He rose to become the deputy head of the unit and one of its most capable trainers. Djindjic enraged nationalists by sending Mr Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague. He had also vowed to crack down on the organised crime that flourished during Mr Milosevic's rule.

· A Serbian ultra-nationalist and former ally of Mr Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, pleaded not guilty at the Hague yesterday to charges that paramilitaries under his control murdered and tortured non-Serbs during the Balkan wars.

Mr Seselj, 48, entered his plea at the Yugoslav tribunal a month after surrendering to the UN court, vowing to make a circus of proceedings he says are biased against Serbs.

Political angle of assassination to be investigated | 20:27 | B92

BELGRADE -- Tuesday – The green light has been given to an initiative of the Serbian Parliament’s Security Committee to form a group to investigate the “political background” of PM Djindjic’s assassination.

The initiative was met with approval today by the governing coalition of the Serbian Parliament and Bojan Pajtic, head of the MP caucus of DOS Serbian Reforms, told media that “no one who is innocent or who thinks differently need worry”.

Insisting that there was no reason to fear that this initiative would be abused in the parliament, Pajtic continued: "If anyone from any party has committed any crimes, i.e. took part in organizing the assassination of the Prime Minister or in some other business linked with organized crime, he should definitely answer, regardless of his political affiliation".

Commenting on action already undertaken by Serbian authorities, Pajtic said: "Everyone knows how many people have been detained. There are several hundred more people who will be detained over the next few days and there practically won't be any serious crimes in Serbia that won't be resolved and we will definitely not release anyone without establishing his or her responsibility".

Serbian Government disbands the Red Berets | B92

BELGRADE/KULA -- Tuesday – The Serbian Government have decided to disband the infamous Special Operations Unit – the “Red Berets” – at today’s government session.

The decision will be immediately enforced and a government statement said: "Members of the Special Operations Unit have been ordered to return their weapons, equipment, uniforms, insignia, official ids, and all other official equipment. The Gendarmerie has now been assigned with the task of securing the premises used by the Special Operations Unit".

According to B92’s correspondent, a convoy of vehicles carrying heavily armed troops and Serbian Government members drove into the Special Operations complex in Kula at 6.30 this evening.

Who were the Red Berets?

Serbia’s Red Beret Special Operations Unit was formed in 1991 amidst the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

According to former member Franko “Frenki” Simatovic, arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of PM Djindjic, the unit “served to protect national security in conditions when the Serbian citizen’s existence was jeopardised throughout its ethnic territory”.

The then President Slobodan Milosevic ordered the forming of the unit because of a perceived imbalance of forces in the former Yugoslav federation before the wars broke out.

The unit was comprised of State Security operatives, members of the Special Police Anti-terrorist unit and those recruited from the Belgrade underworld who had previously done work for the police.

NEWS FEATURE: Serbia's Red Berets - warriors and plain criminals

By: Rade Maroevic

Belgrade (dpa) - The scenes of scared residents fleeing from the sight of red beret-wearing warriors have definitely passed in Serbia after the government decided Tuesday to disband the controversial unit over its role in the assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic on March 12. The Serbian Special Operation Unit (JSO), or Red Berets, was disbanded after police revealed the latest in a series of evidence linking the unit with the most powerful criminal gang in the Balkans, which has been blamed for Djindjic's assassination.

``The All-Star fighting team'' or ``Milosevic's Praetorian Guard'' was Serbia's most elite and ruthless combat unit under former president Slobodan Milosevic and during the decade of the bloody Balkan wars, when it was believed to be involved in series of war crimes, including the killing of dozens of ethnic Albanians in the Kosovo village of Cuska in May 1999.

The 1,000-strong force was founded in 1991, by Milosevic's spymaster, Jovica Stanisic, as Belgrade's strongmen decided to use the network of secret agents to wage wars in Croatia and Bosnia. The unit originally consisted mostly of former convicts who were promised reduced sentences and special privileges, or soccer fans and people who wanted to protect Serbs from the Croatian regime. An elite, highly disciplined commando formation was established to command a wide range of paramilitary groups active on the battlefields at the time and oversee special operations, a former member of the unit told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Unlike other fighting units in Serbia - the Red Berets, which originally had about 100 men - were equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and communications gear, including U.S.-made armoured Humvees, Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships and a ``Grizzly'' personnel carrier captured from Canadian peacekeepers in Bosnia. To lead the unit, Stanisic chose his most trusted aide, Franko Simatovic Frenki, a career intelligence officer formerly in charge of hunting Western and KGB spies in Belgrade.

Soon they were known as ``Frenki's Boys'' and were identified only by their Red Berets. The force kept close contact with notorious warlords like Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan and his paramilitary unit, the ``Tigers''. The ``Tigers'' were incorporated into JSO in 1994.

After the Bosnian war, the Red Berets stepped out of the shadow and received an official name, the Special Operations Unit, but stayed out of the official chain of command as Stanisic defined their role as a ``iron fist'' of Milosevic's regime.

The Belgraders were among the first to witness their rage as the unit's members, dressed in plainclothes and armed with baseball bats, stormed the streets of the capital, severely beating demonstrators during numerous opposition rallies in the late 1990s.
But in 1998, ethnic Albanian rebels begun the war for independence in Kosovo, and the Red Berets were deployed to the province to crush the rebellion as the top combat unit ordered to attack guerrilla strongholds.

The unit is also believed to be involved in the unusual operation of destroying war crimes evidence by escorting deliveries of Albanian corpses to gravesites in other parts of Serbia.

The Red Berets' operations in Kosovo were commanded by Milorad Ulemek, or Lukovic, nicknamed ``The Legionnaire'', reflecting his previous career in the French Foreign Legion.

``The Legionnaire'' appeared in headlines in October 2000 when he refused to use his unit to suppress a public uprising that led to Milosevic's fall from power.

This event led to numerous media reports about Ulemek's friendly relations with the country's new leadership as the unit managed to avoid the first tide in the new government's dismantling of Milosevic's regime virtually intact.

The rumours of their involvement in organized crime, the drug trade, money laundering, unsolved murders and kidnappings were finally confirmed only after skilled a sharpshooter killed reformist premier Zoran Djindjic in the centre of Belgrade.
The massive manhunt and overwhelming investigation that followed the assassination led to the end of the Red Berets. The Serbian government immediately blamed Ulemek for masterminding the killing to try to protect his business interests and avoid eventual extradition to the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.
Several top brass in the Red Berets - including its commander Dusan Maricic, deputy commander Zvezdan Jovanovic and another JSO member, Sasa Pejakovic - were arrested under suspicion of direct involvement in the killing.
So were founders of the unit - Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic.
``The Legionnaire'', and his ``partner in crime'' - Serbia's most influential mafia boss, Dusan Spasojevic, are, however, still on the run.

Croatia ordered to deliver indictment to Bobetko | Beta

THE HAGUE -- Tuesday -- The Hague Tribunal has ordered the Croatian Government to deliver the indictment against former Croatian Army Chief of Staff General Janko Bobetko. Under orders of judge Carmel Agius, Croatia has 15 days to confirm that the indictment has been personally delivered to Bobetko, or his lawyer, after which time the order for his arrest and extradition will be formally suspended due to the general’s ill health. Bobetko has been indicted for the murders of over 100 Serb civilians, plundering of Serb property and expulsion of Serbs during the Croatian offensive in Medacki dzep in the autumn of 1933, when he was the Croatian Army chief of staff.