The Night Shift

`They have some entrances and corridors here which I don't know about nor do I know where they lead. Who knows, there must be some secret underground passages. Several days before the incident, I came across a large group of men aged 2535 in the hall in front of the restaurant. They looked like bullies and were dressed in jeans, T shirts and tennis shoes. They reminded me of street bullies. It is hard to believe they were policemen. None of the MPs I talked with later had seen them enter. When I took the floor I said that special force members had no business being there, and after several other MPs intervened, they just disappeared.''

Bogoljub Pejcic claims that on the day of the incident with the Radicals no one had seen a similar ``group of citizens'' enter the Assembly building.

``It is interesting that some vehicles were seen parked close to the Serbian Presidency across the street from the Assembly. A lot of policemen were seen coming out of them. They entered the building while the corridors were empty. It is interesting that Assembly Speaker Dragan Tomic (who later took responsibility for the intervention), and Interior Minister Zoran Sokolovic claim that the Radical MPs were thrown out by members of the Assembly security. But, we know the security men, we see them at every session. We noticed that this new group which beat up the Radicals had come from somewhere else. None of the MPs believed the explanation that they were part of the night shift; how could they be part of the night shift, and is it possible that none of the deputies would not have seen any of them?''

Pejcic said that the ``phantom security'' men were recognized.

``The day after the incident, two policemen addressed me as a member of the Security Committee. They said that they had recognized three of their colleagues on TV, who had been standing at the door to the chamber and had kicked those Radical MPs who were trying to get back into the chamber. They are Milan Ristivojevic, Zoran Milojevic and Nikola Vuksanovic, members of the 2. unit of the 1. battalion of the Banovo Brdo (a part of Belgrade) special police brigade. I was told that this unit numbers around 500 men, that it was formed in late 1990, and that it had its first field experience on March 9, 1991. Its members call themselves an `antiopposition brigade'. I believe that the matter concerns some kind of an antiterrorist brigade; they view people in the opposition as terrorists. I've heard that when there are no opposition activities in Belgrade, then they send these men to the Bosnian front, where, I suppose, they learn martial skills or killing techniques, which they will then apply here. Borivoje Filipovic is the chief of the group that entered the Assembly building. Filipovic is currently on vacation, and his superior is Stojan Petkovic, while further up the hierarchy are Zivko Sljukic, Ivan Maksimovic, then Zekovic (I don't know his name) and finally Radovan Stojcic Badza, who boasts of being Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's man. That's why I think the whole action was carried out without the knowledge of Police Minister Sokolovic, who claims to be a politician and not a policeman.''