Who Is Going To Get Whom?

Let us consider the political context of the abduction, along with some interesting coincidences. Is the abduction in some way connected with the Banja Luka uprisal, or the latest showdown between the Socialist Party of Serbia and Vojislav Seselj? It may be, and there should be no surprise if in near future somebody gets kicked out, arrested and charged for abducting Reljic and trying to overthrow Radovan Karadzic. The same person could also be accused of causing the U.N. sanctions and the last summer's drought...

So let's reconsider the facts:

During the abduction, Reljic was presented with something quite like a police I.D, although he had no chance to see it properly.

The vehicles used by the kidnappers were properly ``sanitized'' in a typical police fashion. There were no personal items like newspapers, pencils, cigarettes and other trinkets normally found in any car.

Reljic was picked up in broad daylight, in a busy downtown area (Vojislava Ilica Street) which is frequently patrolled by police. The transfer from an ordinary car to a closed pickup, which was the riskiest part of the operation because it could hardly be disguised as an ``ordinary'' arrest, took place at Topciderska Zvezda, in the middle of the well-secured Belgrade district reserved for high officials and foreign diplomats. The kidnappers were obviously self-confident and feared no interference of the regular police.

The ``investigating officers'' did not bother to cover their faces in order to avoid recognizing. It also shows a great deal of self-confidence.

The kidnappers were extremely well-informed about Reljic's past and present, and also about his friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Only the operatives of an intelligence service can have access to such datathere is no way that amateurs could gather so many information.

The kidnappers deliberately attempted to leave an impression that they belonged to the Yugoslav Army Intelligence. A man who brought sheets into Reljic's ``cell'' wore camouflage uniform with a rank (the uniform was probably not his, since it was several sizes too small). Also they said they worked for ``counter-intelligence service,'' which is a popular name for military intelligence.

VREME repeatedly wrote letters to the Serbian and Federal Ministries of Interior and Information, demanding official explanation of the abduction, or at least a comment. Only the Federal Ministry of Interior bothered to respond, saying that the Ministry ``have no information on the case, and is not in any way involved.'' They also said that Reljic's case is outside their jurisdiction, which is formally correct.

In its letter to the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, who most clearly has the jurisdiction over the case, VREME stressed that the unlawful confinement is a criminal act, and asked the Ministry to answer two simple questions: first, are there any information or hints implicating the involvement of the Ministry or any other institution in the case; second, VREME asked for an official opinion of the Ministry, since the statement made by Minister Milivoje Pavlovic implicated that it may be allowed to kidnap people if the victims are not journalists. The Ministry gave no answer. There must be something in that silence. The two police officers who came to talk to Reljic after he was released looked embarrassed. They asked a couple of questions and left, as if they felt that the whole thing is not in their line of work. Nobody else showed up to pick up information necessary for a serious investigation.

This kind of behaviour, or more precisely non-behaviour, seems to be in the framework of what Minister Pavlovic said. Were they trying to convey a message. Maybe the message is: ``Reljic disappeared and than reappeared. Somebody else may not reappear.'' We know too well how many Yugoslav citizens from Sandzak disappeared without ever reappearing, despite President Milosevic's alleged commitment to find them.

Let us now analyze the broader political framework of this case. For several months now, Dr. Vojislav Seselj has been waging a campaign against certain group of officers of the Yugoslav army. He has been particularly hard on two colonels: these are Col. Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, who heads the army intelligence, and Col. Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, who is a spokesman for the General Staff. Col. Stojadinovic has openly criticized Seselj on several occasions, so his case is clear. Col. Dimitrijevic recently took over his position from Gen. Nedeljko Boskovic, a well-known sympatizer of Seselj, and cut the flow of information between the Army and the Radicals. It may be interesting that Seselj repeatedly attacked the top brass of the Yugoslav army, and neither the Minister of Defence nor the Chief of Staff ever said a word.

During the Banja Luka rebellion (``September 93''), Dr. Seselj accused Col. Dimitrijevic of staging a coup d' tat against Bosnian Serb leadership. One of the consequences was the series of arrests of the officers within the Bosnian Serb army who came from Serbia and formerly belonged to the JNA. This happened despite the fact that the leadership of the rebellion did not include active officers. Among the arrested were all active officers (five) in charge of intelligence and security within the Banja Luka Corps...

Serbian Television recently showed a unit described as ``a police corps'' in Kosovo: they were equipped with mortars, helicopters with armor-piercing missiles, and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. This seems a bit odd, since air defense is supposed to be the job of the army. No one ever reported that the Albanian separatists in Kosovo had an air force anyway.

Several sources within Yugoslav Army told VREME that the military intelligence was in no way involved in the abduction of Reljic. They also pointed out at some of the aspects of the broader political context mentioned above. Some officers seem to think that one the abduction of Reljic was at least partly aimed at compromising the military, especially the service led by Col. Dimitrijevic. ``You are an intersection of many things,'' one of the kidnappers said to Reljic. At least some of the things discussed above may be included in that intersection.

Now this is all fine and interesting, but it can also mean that there is no more order in this country. If anyone can get away with abducting citizens because it is for some reasons politically convenient, then Yugoslavia is just one step away from Argentine between 1976 and 1973. There it started as a ``dirty war'' between the paramilitary death squads and the left-wing urban guerrillas. Some 10 to 30 thousand people disappeared, and were never found. Those who tended to ask questions about the missing persons also tended to disappear. ``He must have been involved in something'' was the usual phrase. The abduction of Dusan Reljic resulted in an Argentinean response``he must have been involved in something''by the Serbian Minister of Information.