Go To Kosovo

It started with an ultimatum from the Contact Group on March 9: one of the things FRY President Slobodan Milosevic had to do within 10 days was withdraw Serbian special forces police from Kosovo. At virtually the last moment (March 19), he informed the French and German foreign ministers, Hubert Vedrine and Klaus Kinkel, that those special forces were withdrawing to their bases and explained to them that Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was in charge of those units. That concession is not small, given that Milosevic’s trust in the internal affairs ministry (MUP) and its police forces is limitless. But while the MUP was saying that there were no more of its special forces in Kosovo, US State Secretary Madeleine Albright claimed that those units were digging in. Earlier, the EU included all the Serbian MUP chiefs on a list of people it would not admit into its member countries.

The most interesting thing is that the list includes Franko Simatovic Frenki, reported to be the commander of the special forces. His name was linked to almost all secret and special Serbian MUP missions in the fighting in former Yugoslavia. That also seems to be the key to understanding the international community’s attitude towards the police special forces.

Officially, they are called special anti-terrorist units (SAJ) in the MUP. They are reported to have a total of some 500 men in three groups. They train in centers across Serbia: Pasuljanske Livade (shooting), Paklenik on Mt. Goc (simulated combat in urban environments) etc. They are armed with the same weapons that similar units across the world carry. That includes a variety of sidearms and automatic weapons, laser and night vision scopes and such. For a man to get into the SAJ he has to be a Yugoslav citizen of under 25 with his military service completed and never convicted, at least according to an ad in Politika daily. Traditionally, SAJ members are active athletes, especially in martial arts. Service in the SAJ ends at 35. Every year on security forces day (May 13) they show off their skills in public at a traditional police happening at Belgrade’s Ada Ciganlija.
The SAJ is also known for its involvement in last winter’s protests in Belgrade. That was when a group of men in plain clothes started beating up people right in front of a police cordon. Videos taken there showed that one of them was SAJ commander (based in Batajnica near Belgrade) Zoran Simovic Tutinac and at least three of his men. Tutinac denied that his men were involved in the press but he did say that maybe someone else used his men. His public appearance did the SAJ a lot of damage.

The SAJ should not be confused with police special purpose units (JPNP), although both are under the command of police general Obrad Stevanovic, head of the uniformed police department. JPNP personnel are actually ordinary policemen who go through tougher training. There are about 7,000 of them, but their numbers can be raised at any time by taking men from the regular force. When JPNP units go to Kosovo their tours last about a month with a 30% higher salary and a better chance of promotion later. Also, their weaponry includes 20mm anti-aircraft guns and 120mm mortars, which are not considered standard police arms issue anywhere in the world.

Both the SAJ and JPNP can count on the help of the Red Berets in some situations. Red Beret units are most often formed from men with official ID cards, experienced in combat and most often employed by security companies as well as employs of the Serbian state security department in the MUP.

The SAJ, in its present form, was set up by the late police General Radovan Stojcic Badza. He and his men became famous in 1989 when they broke up the ethnic Albanian protest at the Stari Trg mine when Kosovo’s autonomy was revoked. There is some irony: their withdrawal is one of the conditions Milosevic has to meet to avoid sanctions.
After Kosovo, those men went to Croatia and Bosnia. Badza served as commander of the territorial defense units in Eastern Slavonia.

Long ago, Vojislav Seselj claimed that Frenki Simatovic was in command of the missile batteries in the Krajina and that he didn’t allow them to be fired at Zagreb and Osijek under Milosevic’s orders. In any case, there are traces of the Serbian police special forces across the Serb lands.

Milosevic must have been very pleased by the operations of those special forces units. Badza became the first police colonel-general and aide for public security to the internal affairs minister. The men under his command became the most influential in the MUP. But, the way he was killed in a Belgrade restaurant shows the real situation in the state and its police. There have been rumors for a long time that members of the police special forces own some of the best restaurants and have both legal and illegal business deals.

The whole fuss over these police formations can only score more points for the regime at home: remember that the protesters last winter shouted Go to Kosovo at the police.
New clashes near Decani in Kosovo make the story of the successful police operation in Drenica and the withdrawal of the special forces pointless. In any case who can say whether the SAJ members became traffic or regular police overnight.