Operation Turtle

Everything that was worth something was taken out of this country before the turn of the turtles came. In the past five years over 3,000 of them, valued at 400-500,000 DEM, were smuggled out of the FRY into Germany. Germany’s DPA news agency reported that this was the biggest smuggling operation for protected species of turtle and the main smuggler was a 32 years old man from Augsburg who was followed by Bavarian customs officers for two weeks before they arrested him early this month. He had seven suitcases containing 300 of the exotic animals which he brought in from Nis.

He sold his goods to a middleman in Munich from between 60 and 500 DEM per turtle. He paid 1.5 DEM each for them in Serbia with certificates. The final price in Germany stood as high as 4,000 DEM.

Catching turtles in Serbia is not easy unless you find their hatching grounds. Hunters have to go wading through marshes and walking through forests.

The environmental protection bureau can only appeal and issue warnings and the federal state is in charge of endangered species and their smuggling. The bureau only issues permits for the trafficking in 96 types of wild animals and plants. The FRY signed but hasn’t ratified a single environmental protection convention including the one on trade in endangered plants and animals (CITES) or the convention on protecting animal and plant life.

A polite customs official in Belgrade confirmed that plants and animals are endangered but when asked about the turtles he said: "Never mind the turtles, people were smuggled out of here. Not to mention the money, drugs and guns we confiscate every day."

Under international criteria, Serbia and Yugoslavia as part of the Balkans are the third biologically most diverse part of the world. Especially Mt. Sara and the Prokletija mountain range. Experts claim those areas include plants that are extinct or non-existent in the rest of the world. Yugoslavia is not a center for this kind of smuggling but it’s on the way. The main illegal markets in this part of the world are in Hungary, the Czech republic, Austria and Germany. Animals are taken from here and sold there.

Under a Serbian government regulation of 1992, 700 types of plants and animals are on the protected list. Who’s going to respect that in a country where President Lilic poses for cameras with an endangered fish on the end of his hook. Can you imagine German chancellor Kohl with a Serbian turtle in his hands. Impossible in Germany where the smuggler and buyer get the same treatment.

The turtle smuggler will stand trial for violating the German law on environmental protection and embargo on trade with Serbia. The least he’ll get is two years.

DPA said proceedings were underway against 15 buyers.

FRY federal bodies and customs officers have other things to do like stopping drug and arms smuggling.

 

 

The Lausevic Trial Revisited

In their appeal, Zarko Lausevic and defense lawyer Toma Fila insisted on violations of the law on criminal proceedings. Namely the disputed findings by two experts.

The Lausevic brothers will stand trial again a federal court ruled after accepting a request for protection of legality submitted by federal prosecutor Mica Jakovljevic at the proposal of Zarko Lausevic and his lawyer Toma Fila. That ruling annulled a ruling by the Montenegrin supreme court which sentenced Zarko to 13 and his brother Branimir to two years in prison for the killing of Dragor Pejovic, Radovan Vucinic and wounding of Andrija Kazic in Podgorica. A higher court in Podgorica sentenced Lausevic to the maximum of 15 years.

It’s unprecedented for a special appeal to be accepted, i.e. the proposal for protection of legality. But the situation changes quickly once the prosecutor accepts the defense proposal, raising the chances of a new trial.

What the request to the supreme court and its ruling actually says is allegedly not know even by Lausevic’s lawyer but it is certain that a number of laws were violated during the problematic trial which is understandable since the trial was held in specific circumstances and that the court was under constant, incomprehensible pressure from the families of the dead men who were demanding a life for a life. A white shirt was hung on one of the new headstones, a sign that blood was spilled and revenge is inevitable.

The public prosecutor in Podgorica described Lausevic as a bully and accused him of killing the two men for no reason but the court found that the Lausevic brothers drew their guns in self defense and Pejovic and Vucinic struck the first blows and that Lausevic was right to expect Kazic to attack him. Finally, the court ruled that self defense was exceeded and, since it didn’t sentence them to death, showed mercy by reducing the sentence from 15 to 13 years. The defense felt the court ruling was wrong.

Zarko Lausevic has been in Pozarevac jail since last September after the Montenegrin justice ministry allowed his transfer because his family lives in Belgrade.

If the sentence is abolished he could automatically be released. The Podgorica court will decide whether he’ll be released for the trial.

The federal court can order the trial held in another court outside the republic if it becomes obvious that the proceedings will be easier there. But that decision can only be taken by the chairman of the judges council in Podgorica and the federal prosecutor. Lausevic will submit that proposal to the prosecutor and Fila will submit his proposal for a trial in Serbia to the judges council in Podgorica.

 

VREME Reporter As a Guest Worker

VREME Reporter Perica Vucinic was offered to set up Altenative Informative Network's (AIM) desk for the Srpska Republic. This is his story

Things started smoothly. VREME editor in chief Dragoljub Zarkovic just asked if I needed references and gave me time off. I arrived in Banja Luka late in June to set up the Alternative Informative Network (AIM) desk for the Srpska Republic (RS). My home desk and the desk I was temporarily in know each other well and work together. AIM felt I was someone who could be called "an informed source" and that is about right. And the doors opened. It turned out there was an office waiting for me in the UNICEP building, that apartments are expensive because of all the foreign observers and controllers but that one is there waiting for me.

When I got up the stairs (the elevator was out of order) I was finally able to relax and start discussing personnel. The people I thought were good really were good but often included phrases like "mad Islamic warriors, Alija’s wild hordes, Jihad warriors" in their reports not to mention "Ustashi".

What else could I do but cancel the articles I asked for.

And what could I pay them with since the money was on its way and arriving late as usual. The apartment was waiting, the office was waiting. My only support was AIM’s Banja Luka correspondent Radmila Karlas. She reported on the rebellion at Banja Luka radio, interviewed the HDZ leader in the city and waited for money. When the money finally got to Sarajevo she got a lift with IFOR and took me along.

When I got out of the car in Sarajevo I felt tremendous pressure. I looked up at the surrounding hills and felt someone watching me. I thanked God I had refused to go to Mt. Trebevic to see Sarajevo from above during the war. If I had, that look would have been waiting for me and would have definitely throttled me.

Radmila wanted to go to the OSCE office but I was in a hurry to get to AIM and she won. Later, a meeting with AIM’s bureau chief Drazena Peranic and faith in her good intentions gradually relieved the pressure but not completely. Drazena suggested the Belgrade hotel for lunch. "Bosnia hotel," someone corrected her.

I spent the night with Adil Kulenovic and his long, calm story to the early hours until the rain fell. Luckily the Land Rover we came in didn’t leak and the sun came out by the time we reached Banja Luka. The money’s here but the apartment and office that were waiting for me were rented out. I have one journalist, the others changed their minds and left. I sent my only reporter to an inter-ethnic party meeting at the OSCE headquarters and followed her later on. Reporters flocked around Kenneth Scot, chairman of the temporary pre-election commission. The BK correspondent behind him, Beta’s reporter holding a tape recorder under his chin, Reuter TV taping. Only my reporter wasn’t there. She was carefully filling a plate with food nearby.

"You see how hard it is to be an editor," Zarkovic said when I saw him.

"Yes, but you’re an editor with tested journalists."

"Hm," he answered.

Editorially.

Perica Vucinic