The Army Is Washing Its Hands

As things seem to be now, the criminals, who have used the residents of Croatian village of Lovas for mine-sweeping, on October 18, 1991, will remain completely unpunished. It is a fact that members of the "Dusan Silni" (Dusan the Powerful) detachment (founded by the SNR - Serbian National Renewal, i.e. by Mr. Mirko Jovic), together with the members of the Territorial Defense unit from the above mentioned village, located in the vicinity of the Serbo-Croatian border, have forced some 80 civilians to sweep the mines, and that on that occasion 17 of them were killed (according to the official report, and several dozens as testified by eyewitnesses). It is also beyond any doubt that such deeds can be qualified as war crimes, i.e. crimes against humanity, as defined by the international law of war, that these acts are sanctioned by chapter XVI of the Yugoslav Penal Code, and that such acts against the civilian population are punished with the most severe penalties, including capital punishment. The trouble is that there is no one to prosecute the culprits. Those who would want to do it, cannot do it; those who could do it, don't even think about it.

The public was informed about this crime only recently, when our magazine published a facsimile of the dispatch sent from the Slavonian battlefield, on October 23, 1991, to the Command of the First Army District. The officer in charge, lieutenant colonel Milan Eremija, reported "certain activities and occurrences which negatively affect the morale of the division units". He mentioned "various different paramilitary formations from Serbia, from chetniks and the "Dusan Silni" detachment to all sorts of self-proclaimed volunteers, whose main objective was not to fight the enemy, but to pillage public property and harass the innocent Croatian population". Eremija wrote, word by word, the following: "On the occasion when 80 local residents of Croatian nationality were taken prisoner by the Territorial Defense of Lovas and the "Dusan Silni" detachment, the prisoners were physically tortured, and after that, four residents of the village of Lovas were killed. After the arrival of the "Valjevo" detachment to the village of Lovas, the imprisoned local residents were used for sweeping mine fields, and on that occasion 17 of them were killed."

The commander of the anti-sabotage detachment "Valjevo" explained that these people were no civilians, "but prisoners of war who were used in the area searching action" (which by all legal principles does not change the severity of the crime - there is a strict obligation to treat the prisoners in a humane way). He, the commander, personally reported the event, on the spot, to the officer in charge of the Federal Army, and everything else, as he considers, is within the competence of the Federal Army. The Army, however, does not even dream of accepting such an assessment. Our informal conversation at the Military Court in Belgrade has revealed the following facts. The case was not mentioned in the First Army District's operative report that arrived to the Military Prosecutor's Office. There was no reason to request some additional information based on the published report of lieutenant colonel Eremija, because the whole action was carried out by the "Dusan Silni" detachment, and the "Dusan Silni" is not under military jurisdiction. Eremija's Command could have brought criminal charges against the criminals who have killed all those people in their presence, but they did not, and even if they did, the prosecutor would have dismissed the charges, for - as we have said before - the Army and the "Jovic's boys" have nothing in common.

And what ever happened with the civilian courts? The legal system of the Republic of Croatia ceased to function there a long time ago. The Republic of Serbian Krajina, whose legal status is questionable, has set up certain courts of its own in Beli Manastir, Vukovar, Dalj, and for a while, there was some big talk about the re-establishment of law and order on these territories. Their colleagues from the military judiciary are, however, extremely skeptical about the possibility that these courts could press criminal charges against the perpetrators of the Lovas crime, among other things, because those who should be prosecuted are - armed. "Dusan the Powerful", it was explained to us, "is powerful indeed, it has several hundred men, and in order to arrest them, one must have twice as many men".

Amongst all controversial things in this case, the most controversial is the (non)existence of the Army's authority over volunteer formations. The Army was very pleased, though, to announce, last autumn, that different Serbian paramilitary formations were brought under command of the Federal Army. There is some concrete evidence confirming that unity. In December 1991, answering the question posed by a representative in the Parliament, concerning the cooperation between the Federal Army and captain Dragan's units in Krajina, the Serbian Minister of Defense, Marko Negovanovic, said the following: "The volunteers who are fighting on the territories of Serbian Krajina are integrated in territorial defense units, and they are under the unified command of the armed forces, and there are no major problems concerning that for the time being".

But when we put a question, at the Military Court, about the bringing of the volunteer detachments under the command, and consequently under the jurisdiction of the Army, an explanation followed that there were some partially legal and illegal formations which were appearing in the theater of operations "by someone's orders". In places where there are no Army units, "diverse formations" appear waging wars of their own.

The Helsinki Watch has dealt also with the human rights violations committed by the Federal Army and the Serbian volunteers. In a detailed analysis of the wrongdoing, the following can be found: "Serbian Government has provided military, economic and political support to the local rebels in Croatia... The Serbian Government has also closed its eyes to some things, and in some cases has sponsored the formation of at least three paramilitary groups from Serbia, which are acting in Croatia. It seems that the most brutal group is the one lead by Mr. Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party and the Serbian Chetnik Movement. The other two groups are lead by Mr. Zeljko Raznjatovic and Mr. Mirko Jovic..." And then the following: "We hold the Federal Army and the Federal Government responsible for leading these groups, because the Army has conducted operations in which it commanded over the irregular forces or acted in coordination with them. The Army has been directly or indirectly arming the local rebels, as well as those sent from Serbia, and has supplied them with uniforms and probably with intelligence information as well." Amongst other things, the "Beli Orlovi" (the White Eagles), another Mirko Jovic's paramilitary formation, were accused of massacring 43 Croatian civilians in Hum and Vocin, in December of 1991. In its letter addressed to Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and general Blagoje Adzic, this organization for the protection of human rights, requested an investigation of the reports about the killings after summary procedure, torturing of civilians and disarmed soldiers, and demanded punishment for those guilty of such crimes. It also requested that the Serbian military or paramilitary units should stop their attacks on civilians and civilian targets; an immediate and unconditional releasing of the civilians held as hostages and providing of a humane treatment for the prisoners of war. The cabinet of President Milosevic has sent them the following reply: 1) the places where the crimes, mentioned by the Helsinki Watch, have occurred are not located in Serbia, "therefore, the Republic is not competent for them"; 2) "the President of the Republic of Serbia has ordered the competent government agencies to investigate the abuses cited in your letter, and if any of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia has taken part in such crimes, he will be brought to justice".

The "competent agencies", mentioned by the Serbian President in his letter to the Helsinki Watch, will perhaps find out that the "Dusan Silni" consists of citizens of the Republic of Serbia, and will possibly "bring them to justice". Perhaps. In the mean time, a military lawyer, without apparent cynicism, says that with the arrival of the "blue helmets" to the territories where the lawlessness presently reigns, the legal system should be re-established with all necessary levels, and then the perpetrators of the said crimes could be prosecuted. The judge has overlooked the fact that the mission of the "blue helmets" does not include establishing of any system, and that applies to the legal system as well. Their task is to separate the warring sides.

And lastly, how can we expect the war crimes to be suppressed, when the representative of the Federal Army, which is still considered as the only legal and regular army on the territory from which the perpetrators of the Lovas crime come, says with the uttermost sincerity: "The Army could not have arrested those soldiers from the "Dusan Silni". It would have been as though it had arrested some kind of its own ally".