Throwing Out the Colonel

The statement from a supreme defence council session on February 2 was almost identical to previous statements: The council discussed issues in its jurisdiction (if it had discussed someone else's jurisdiction there would have been no statement. It turned out that one of those issues was Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, head of the Yugoslav Army General Staff Information Service. He was dismissed from the post on February 2 (as he told Beta news agency on February 8) and was informed of the decision on February 7, a long time in his job. He was replaced by Major General Slavko Krivosija, former chief of the military cabinet of the president of the republic (promoted in September 1993), late of the military schools center in Sarajevo.

Colonel Stojadinovic said he "wasn't informed of the reasons for his dismissal, but probably there were suspicions that he gave independent weekly VREME information on Lt. Colonel Bora Ivanovic". Stojadinovic is guessing at the reasons and saying he didn't hand over the information. And he's right: Colonel Stojadinovic is completely innocent in that regard.

The young communications engineer was a Major in the then federal national defence secretariat's information service in July 1991 when he first went public at the end of the infamous war in Slovenia.. He went on air on Radio Belgrade to criticize the propaganda of the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA), voicing a modern and flexible stand that was drastically different to the tight, dogmatic, ancient communist approach of the defence secretariat's political board. Early in 1992, at the time of the great purges of JNA generals, Stojadinovic was appointed head of the service and promoted to Lt. colonel; he also became known as a commentator in the JNA weekly Narodna Armija (later renamed Vojska) and Politika daily, a man whose articles were read carefully as the voice of what Stojadinovic called the "army intelligentsia": young, educated, loyal professionals.

From that point of view, Stojadinovic's comments were a reliable reflection of what was once called "ideological movements" in the army. There was no more inspired or devoted interpreter of the purge of the generals in 1992: he interpreted the "natural, but somewhat stimulated change of generations" as late in the name of the "Yugoslav and army public" mentioning, among other things, the "ethnic hemafroditism" of some generals.

Stojadinovic joined in tearing down the Tito personality cult soon after the extreme Serb nationalists; defending the social and material position of the officer corps and fighting for the affirmation of the "army intelligentsia". Despite the fact that he followed up every purge with applause and additional arguments which were often right, Stojadinovic made many enemies.

He saw the retirement of Blagoje Adzic, Zivota Panic, the semi-presidency, Dobica Cosic, Milan Panic and a large number of generals. Stojadinovic managed to be the first to renounce Zivota Panic and he managed to argue with Vojislav Seselj in the nick of time. It was a risky step; it seems Stojadinovic knew Seselj's coalition with the socialists was about to fall apart.

1994 saw him as a full colonel, attending the school of national defence where future generals are trained. He also managed to get his service turned into a general staff service; which a general has to head at some point. Everything was turning out fine, until February.

Why was Stojadinovic actually dismissed? It seems to him because the supreme defence council thinks he gave VREME information about Bora Ivanovic, but that's probably not the reason.

Some more precise and more probable indications came from the colonel himself in an interview on Radio B 92 on February 8. As much as his letter to NIN was a political declaration (and political suicide which the colonel never did although he took some risks), the interview is more informative. Stojadinovic first explained that his polemics with the W.W.II (communist) veterans organization was not important: "that accusation was construed later and Vukovic was the instrument". He also mentioned another possibility; the accusations that he gave VREME information about general Bora Ivanovic bringing president Lilic into an impossible, scandalous, situation but said he didn't want anything to do with the "cloning of mediocrities".

Stojadinovic also mentioned a third possible reason: his responsibility for parts of sound material used in the Camera Recalls program on Serbia's state TV. "That was material aired publicly and we recommended them," he said and added that he was told indirectly that the sound recordings were compromising "Serbian Socialist Party politicians".

Informed sources said the material included a conversation never released before: Radmilo Bogdanovic talking to former chief of staff Blagoje Adzic. "I know reliably that the initiative for my dismissal did not come from the army but from politicians," Stojadinovic said. It's indicative that that part of the serial was not included in the reruns. Something like that would be enough to dismiss a service chief especially if someone was just waiting for an opportunity. Namely, Stojadinovic's enemies include the old KOS (counter intelligence service) team and many others.

Two scenarios are possible: he was sacrificed over the Ivanovic scandal which compromised Lilic or he was blamed for releasing the tapes which compromised other SPS figures.

Colonel Stojadinovic has no illusions about his letter to his supreme commander: "My existence isn't endangered, I'll always get a job somewhere. I did a difficult job for little money."

Stojadinovic followed his own advice to the generals in 1992: he isn't "surprised that he left in this way". Maybe that means he learned his lesson in advance.