The Night Of The Long Ears

The Belgrade radio said last Tuesday that the head of Serbia’s secuerity service had been sacked, without actually mentioning Jovica Stanisic’s name. The regime made a futile attempt to disclose this discretely by saying that several assistant interior ministers had been appointed, one of them being Rade Markovic. Only in the last sequence of the news did the speaker say that Radomir Markovic is the new chief of the Serbian security service. Two and a half hours later, the Serbian televsion said in its prime time news broadcast that Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president, had received the chiefs of police and the security service, to thank them for their efforts and relieve Jovica Stanisic of his duties.

Reporters of the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti spoke with Stanisic the same evening. He toled them that he had been offered a number of “loser’s prize” positions, but added that he turned down all of them. Stanisic declined to reveal the details concerning his dismissal. “I will say all that I have to say in an official statement,” Stanisic said.
The statement was delivered to the editors of the Belgrade dailies the next day. Its contents, however, were rather disappointing as they failed to reveal a scandal expected when news of Stanisic’s dismissal broke. Instead of revealing what “has been done to him”, Stanisic gave the newspapers his curriculum vitae as head of the secret service and reiterated his loyalty to the Serbian president in times of “shady political and historic developments”.

“I want to believe that the security service will also do its job professionally in the future, as the threat to our national security still continues”, Stanisic said in his farewell address. Stanisic wants to believe because he probably has certain reservations about his successors. Nevertheless, he is trying hard to keep his faith.

A dismissal of this kind would have been quite uninteresting in many countries, but not in Serbia. Stanisic was a very influent person in Serbia, even more influent than his former rank suggests. The nature of his dismissal has prompted many local “experts” to come up with a wide variety of theories, ranging from his personal resignation to claims that it could have “something to do with Serbia’s obligations to the Hague Tribunal for war crimes”.

A “reliable source” said moments after Stanisic’s dismissal that it was actually a prelude to major reshuffling within the Socialist Party of Serbia. However, reshuffling was not discussed at the session of the SPS executive board on Tuesday and Wednesday, although it was on the agenda. All this doesn’t mean that Stanisic’s dismissal won’t have long-term consequences.

The daily Guardian saw Stanisic as the second most powerful man in Serbia for many years, while the Time called him the “secret source of Milosevic’s power”. Stanisic has been credited with many things that happened here in the last decade. Some believe that he personally put together and then took apart the entire Serbian opposition, and that he was the only person who dared say no to Milosevic. He exercized this right more than once in the past two years. It is no secret that Stanisic demanded the recognition of the election results during the 1996-97 winter protests in Serbia. He refused to go to war with the Montenegrin leadership, while the Associated Press news agency says that he opposed “the massive use of force to curb ethnic Albanian separatism” and advocated slightly “more subtle” methods.

His allegedly close ties with Zoran Djindjic, the leader of the Democratic Party, played a crucial role in the disintegration of Coalition Zajedno. Stanisic was the first head of the secret service who posed on television, when he “released” the hostages in Bosnia, and who wasn’t afraid to walk into “opposition” bars. All those who had the opportunity of socializing with him described the man as a total professional and a patriot - in that order.

It is very clear who will benefit from Stanisic’s dismissal. The JUL and the Radicals will benefit the most, as Stanisic has been a thorn in the eye for them for quite a long time. The JUL ranking officials complained a number of times that Stanisic’s cabinet failed to deliver the wanted list of “traitors, their networks and financial status”, disloyal reporters and other individuals “ratting on their own country”. Seselj has never forgiven him for clamping down on the Radicals in the fall of 1993. Both the JUL and the radicals are eager to lay their hands on Stanisic’s files, which allegedly contain “all there is to know about everybody”.

The representatives of the so-called liberal national option within the SPS will feel that they have lost an ally, because they are now in the JUL and Radical stranglehold, unable to protect themselves as the leading political party in Serbia.

There are two precedents for this kind of “reshuffling” in the former Yugoslavia. One is the case of Aleksandar Rankovic, “honourably retired” by Tito in return for eternal silence, which the latter never breached. The other is Josip Manolic, who rebelled and even tried to rip apart the ruling party in Croatia. In the end he was forced to repent and humbly return to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). In both cases, the rulers outlived the heads of their secret services. We will see whether Stanisic has more to offer.

Jovica Stanisic’ Statement

I’ve been the head of the security service for seven years, from 1991 to 1998, uner shady historic and political circumstances. During my command, the security service acted in full accord with its legal and constitutional authorities. It was supervised by the Supreme Court of Serbia at all times.

Therefore, the service related its work primarily to the post of Serbia’s president. I want to believe that it’s work will continue to rest on the principles I respected and served, for the future too holds many threats to our national security.