Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression - Helsinki ...

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
headline. “A major man-hunt for Mladic.” The daily also underscored that the
US Under-Secretary Nicholas Burns a month ago sent a message to the Serb
authorities that “the fate of Serbia hinges on arrest of Ratko Mladic”.
According to Politika “it is obvious that the authorities took seriously that
message, for they doubled their efforts to find Mladic. Justice Minister Zoran
Stanković recently stated that he talked to Mladic's wife and son. Such a
pressure, both of direct and indirect nature, in 2005 produced some results, for
after similar contacts with their families, some Hague indictees surrendered
voluntarily. Politika went on to note that “the Serb authorities' attempts to
compel Mladic to agree to surrender-related negotiations have to date failed.
On the other hand sporadic police actions are considered futile and deceitful
exercises by the Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. In her talks
with Xavier Solana held yesterday she reiterated that she was sure that Mladic
was in Serbia under protection of part of the army and that the Belgrade
authorities were not doing enough to find and arrest him.“ 10
Media campaign, on the eve of the Chief Prosecutor's visit to Serbia
was stage-managed in such a way to demonstrate a serious intention of the
Serb authorities to arrest and hand-over Mladic. Sensation-minded weekly
Nedeljni telegraf was very active in that campaign. Namely, the weekly
heralded that by 1 May Mladic would be in The Hague. Such a plan was
allegedly disclosed to the weekly by a member of Kostunica's cabinet:”Handover
deadline is 1 May. As far as I know Mladic is not in Serbia. It was agreed
that an officer would travel to a European capital, which had offered him
refuge, to negotiate with Mladic in person the conditions of his surrender. If by
the said deadline Mladic is not handed over to The Hague Tribunal, our
negotiations with Europe on our European integrations shall be drastically
severed.” 11
Instead of the promised arrest of Mladic, the authorities interrogated
his accomplices, all of whom were former or active servicemen of both the FRY
army, and of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro. The former was attested to
by a controversial report of the Military-Security Agency (MSA), which, for
unknown reasons, was proclaimed a confidential one (allegedly because
Mladic has not yet been arrested) and verbally presented at the session of the
Supreme Defense Council of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro. According
to an official military and Supreme Defense Council communiqués the report
covered the 1997-2002 period during which Mladic was temporarily
accommodated in military facilities. At the time head of Chief of Staff was the
Hague Tribunal indictee, General Nebojša Pavković, and head of Military
Security was Aca Tomić, close collaborator of the then President of Serbia and
Montenegro, Vojislav Koštunica.
Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression
In view of intertwined competences and good-communication
between the aforementioned high officers and the Security Adviser to
President of Serbia and Montenegro, Rade Bulatović (currently Head of
Security-Information Agency of Serbia) President Koštunica, in his line of duty,
that is in his capacity of the Supreme Commander of the Army of Serbia and
Montenegro must have known that active servicemen were hiding and
protecting Mladic. Zoran Dragišić, a military analyst, maintains that till 2002
many knew where Mladic was: “Zoran Djindjić could not arrest Mladic,
because he was hiding in military facilities, and Kostunica was in charge of the
whole military sector. Informal groups, people who got rich in murky times, in
suspicious ways, people fearing Mladic as a potentially dangerous witness,
were interested in hiding him.” 12 It is noteworthy that the Serb media till the
end of 2002 mostly dealt with Mladic's accomplices, without even once
questioning the authorities' failure to locate and arrest him. Coverage of the
Hague Tribunal was very superficial, sporadic and riddled with alleged
scandals. Not a single mass medium in Serbia ever covered in depth the
content of the Hague indictments and the nature of war crimes listed in those
indictments.
In the secret report on involvement of the army in Mladic's hiding,
there was a mention of officers, Branislav Puhalo, former head of Mladic's
security team, who in 2006 was serving in the 46th Logistical brigade in
Topčider and retired colonel of the Serb-Montenegrin Army, Dragomir
Krstović. In 2005 he was appointed head of logistics in the Serb-Montenegrin
Army. In the campaign of Mladic's hiding he was tasked with finding secret
accommodation for The Hague indictee, securing his transport and rendering
of other services. Coordinator between the army of Republika Srpska and the
Serb-Montenegrin Army in Mladic hiding campaign was Colonel Jovo Djogo, a
former official of the Bureau of Republika Srpska in Belgrade. Instead of
embarking on the hunt for Mladic, the state bodies arrested his accomplices,
and presented to the general public outdated Military Security Agency report
up to the year 2002. That was a bid to convince the domestic and foreign public
of their resolve to arrest Mladic and hand him over to the Hague Tribunal.
Ljubodrag Stojadinović, Politika commentator, wrote that”nothing will happen
unless the state decides to overhaul its intelligence services and open up its
secret archives and files. The current situation demonstrates total absence of
civilian control over secret services, for, on the contrary, that task would have
been completed. “ 13
Action of arrest of Mladic's accomplices, and unveiling of their names,
was followed by statements of various officials. Thus the Defense Secretary of
the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Zoran Stanković, optimistically
10 Politika, 20 January 2006
11 Nedeljni telegraf, 25 January 2006
12 Politika, 31 January 2006
13 Danas, 31 January 2006
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