Scorpions

Police special forces in Cacak arrested Zoran Djordjevic (20) from Belgrade for involvement in two murders. Djordjevic was sentenced to seven years in prison earlier but escaped from jail. Unofficial sources said he is the prime suspect in the killing of Belgrade police inspector Dragan Radisic who was riddled with bullets fired from a Scorpion machine pistol on February 1. Radisic arrested Djordjevic who allegedly threatened revenge. Days after the arrest, no criminal proceedings were launched which shows that the police aren't 100% sure they got the right man.

Still later, on February 16, 16 year old D.T. tried to pick a woman's pocket and when two young men stopped him and gave chase he pulled out a Scorpion and riddled the bus and people waiting at the stop. One policeman was wounded along with two more people but the police managed to grab the teenager.

The police will most probably use this case to pressure legislators into lowering the age of criminal accountability but someone should answer a question first: where did the kids get the Scorpions?

 

Swedes

Only the families of the people kidnapped from a Belgrade-Bar train in Strpci on February 27, 1993 still remember the abduction. The kidnapped people have been listed as missing ever since. The Strpci case stopped being interesting to the caring regime media long ago who have better things to do now than remind people that 20 odd people were taken out of the train and most probably killed and that there is no sign of the abductors.

Those media are applauding the Serbian president as the champion of peace now and it would be impolite to recall that Slobodan Milosevic promised the families that he would do everything possible to find the truth. He said that in front of police minister Zoran Sokolovic who readily confirmed the promise and continued pretending he doesn't understand anything.

But there are some bored people in the world who care about things others care nothing about. Some 20 Swedes have spent months trying to find out what happened to about 25,000 people who are missing in the former Yugoslavia war and are diligently gathering evidence on every case. Their main motive is the fact that the families of the missing persons deserve to know the truth even if it is horrifying as it most often is.

This is their address for the people who have lost every hope of finding out what happened in Strpci, Sjeverin or other places:

The Yugoslavia Group (Petra Larsson), c/o Hansson, Lovinsgatan 8, 55312 Jonkoping, Sweden.

Maybe the authorities here like being reminded (or pressured) into doing their jobs and fulfilling their promises by foreigners.

 

Compromises and Promises

Antonio Cassese, the president of the International War Crimes tribunal in the Hague told Sarajevo-based Svijet weekly about relations between the tribunal and Zagreb. Croatia has agreed to open tribunal offices in Zagreb but still isn't implementing tribunal warrants. Asked when General Tihomir Vlaskic will be handed over to the tribunal Cassese said: "They suggested a compromise. We can try him in an open suit which our rules do not cover. But the Croatian government is very sensitive to anything that could hamper its entry into the EU. That is a very good form of pressure for us."

Cassese said his talks with FRY Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic was intense and difficult but very open. "We told each other what we think. I reminded him that the Dayton agreement obliges them to cooperate, that a lack of cooperation could cause the sanctions to be brought back, that the three men indicted for crimes in Vukovar, who now live in Belgrade, must be arrested and turned over to the tribunal. Milutinovic and his colleague from the justice ministry promised to cooperate."

Cassese added that the ministers he met in Belgrade told him important things about Karadzic and Mladic which he could not disclose yet.

 

Wanted Poster

IFOR has given its troops wanted posters with photographs and the basic information on indicted war criminals. The poster includes 17 photos and the names of another 34 people without photos. IFOR spokesman Lt. Colonel Mar Reiner said 10,000 posters had been handed out to the troops.

 

Bulatovic on Sljivancanin

Federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic told Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti that the FRY is prepared to cooperate with the Hague tribunal but only in gathering information, documents and similar. Asked about his ministry's stand on the indictments of three JNA officers who fought in Eastern Slavonia, Bulatovic said: "As for the three officers (one of who, Veselin Sljivancanin, is a professional Yugoslav Army officer), we will treat them as the law proscribes. If they are proved to be guilty of war crimes we will try them here in our courts," he said.

 

Defending the Prime Minister's Reputation

The Belgrade public prosecutor's office said it had raised charges against Telegraf weekly editor in chief Dragoljub Belic for publishing an article which mocks Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic and his government. Belic published the article in the January 24 issue of the weekly, committing the crime of damaging the reputation of the republic (at least according to a statement to Tanjug).

At the same time, several state owned dailies have launched an orchestrated campaign against Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic for a paid advertisement in Telegraf which included accusations against Marjanovic.

 

Kosta Mihajlovic Resigns

The Serbian president's economy advisor Kosta Mihajlovic handed his resignation to Slobodan Milosevic. VREME learned that the only reason for the resignation was alleged interference by National Bank (NBJ) Governor Dragoslav Avramovic in one of the issues linked to the debate on state succession (Mihajlovic chairs the succession commission). Avramovic wants to reach agreement with the Slovenian national bank governor on dividing part of the former Yugoslavia's property which would mean at least 100 million USD for the FRY. The resignation was withdrawn because Avramovic abandoned the idea.

 

Stepping Towards Hyperinflation

Three fourths of polled companies in Serbia expect speedier price rises in the coming three months reporters were told at the Belgrade economics institute last week.

A day earlier, a prediction was reported that February's inflation will reach 15% but that was denied by the federal statistics office. Informed sources said the prediction is probable based on weekly price hikes using state statistics methods that aren't made public. So the reports of speedier inflation leaked out of the statistics office and will probably be confirmed at the end of the month. That's not real news since Stojan Stamenkovic, an expert at the Economic Sciences Institute, said over a month ago that the republican and federal budgets would cause an annual price rise of around 500%.

 

A JUL Man in the Vatican

After a break of three years, the FRY and the Vatican restored diplomatic relations. The Vatican state secretariat informed the federal foreign ministry that Pope John Paul agreed to the appointment of Dojcilo Maslovaric as FRY ambassador. Maslovaric was foreign relations secretary to the Serbian government and a member of the JUL leadership.

 

Paper

Russian grand master Valeri Salov, one of the most prominent participants in the recent Vecernje Novosti chess tournament in Belgrade, was trapped in Belgrade's Moskva hotel because the organizers (city hall, Vecernje Novosti daily, and chess reporter and aspiring political figure Dimitrije Bjelica) simply didn't pay his hotel bill. Anywhere in the world, travel and hotel expenses are paid to grand masters and the best (including 11th ranked Salov) often get fees just to show up. Instead, Salov was kept in the hotel whose management is demanding payment for himself, his second and two other tournament participants, grand masters Bareyev and Lek who left Belgrade on time. The bill total close to 20,000 dinars. Salov was allowed to leave the hotel temporarily which he used to organize a press conference and explain that Bjelica gave him a paper saying he owed him 8,500 USD, that he got just 40% of his fee, how he missed his plane home to Spain and how he's going to let the whole world know about this.