Agony of the Regime and Its Victims

The report on security and the political situtation for the last week of April 2000 appears very dramatic and is merely increasing confusion.  New cases are closely following old ones.

On Tuesday, April 25, at 21:30 hours, in Jase Prodanovica Street in the center of Belgrade, Zika Petrovic, General Director of JAT was murdered.  On the previous day, in the Belgrade district of Cerak, in 10 Vinogradski Venac Street, plastic explosive was used to destroy the entrance to a building with considerable damage being done to several apartments.  The explosion is connected to the fact that Zoran Uskokovic Skole lives on the second floor of that building.  He was associated by some papers with the murder of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, but denied all connection before returning to the country, and repeated those denials when he came back.  On the very same day, in Strahinica Bana Street in Belgrade's Dortiol district, at 8 p.m. the car owned by Lawyer Dragojlovic was riddled with bullets, with the perpetrators having fled while the police proceeded to carry on its investigation.

On Monday, April 24, the trial of the members of the Serbian Liberation Army began in Nis before the Military Court there.  Their indictment is for having planned the assassination of the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic and the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, Nebojsa Pavkovic.  The accused deny this indictment, but one of them, Ivan Milanovic from Markes near Krusevac, admits to having discussed the fact that General Pavkovic is coming to the Ribarska Health Spa and that one of the accused, Boban Gajic, wanted to see the bridge which was supposed to be mined, but that the plans for this were ignored.

On Tuesday, April 25, in Belgrade, at the meeting between the regional public prosecutor with the community public prosecutor, Belgrade's public prosecutor Andrija Milutinovic claimed that as far as the case on the Lazarevac Highway and the attempted assassination of the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement in which his brother in law and two colleagues died, the case against two high officials of State Security has been thrown out of course because there was not basis for suspicion that the two committed this or any other criminal act, and that verbal terror is being carried out against members of the justice ministry, even though there was a drop in crime last year.  On his Wednesday press conference, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic notet the fact that the Director of JAT was murdered on the same day that the public prosecutor was trying to cover up the Lazarevac Highway case.

Let us return to the strangest of all cases - the murder of Zika Petrovic, the Director of Yugoslav Air Transport since 1992.  Zika Petrovic was a socialist director of medium-high rank who did not give opinions on political questions too much.  His appearances were only public at times like after Dayton when he was called upon to open new lines for JAT to different exotic destinations.

The operations of state companies during sanctions approached illegality, but since there is no transparent public control of state activities in place here, this area has remained a cause of endless guessing.  The renewal of the JAT fleet and questions of whether the Airbus planes should be purchased, or some other type of aircraft, were made elsewhere, and it is difficult to establish a chain of blackmail in this connection whose victim could have been Petrovic.

The story of the privatization of JAT as the source of conflict does not provide sufficient basis for suspicion leading to the motive for murder.  After many years of sanctions JAT is certainly in a difficult situation, but it is highly unlikely that any of the JAT employees has enough money to purchase a gun.  The conflict between JAT and Montenegro Airlines is already history.  Slobodan Cerovic, member of the JUL Directorate, already on Wednesday morning stated that the murder of Petrovic is not connected with any financial deals.  As a resident of Pozarevac, Petrovic was reputed for having close ties with the Milosevic Family and there were no indications that there were any conflicts with the Family.  Reports indicate that Petrovic was on good terms with the political circles in Pozarevac which includes the Minister of Police, Vlajko Stojiljkovic.  He had good connections in Pozarevac and was planning to renovate a house there.

Like many state officials, Petrovic was on the list of persons not permitted to travel to the countries of the European Union.  He was not the sort of businessman who had much in common with the late Zoran Todorovic Kundak, nor was he a member of the security forces like Radovan Stojicic Badza or Pavle Bulatovic, nor did he have Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan's background.  Why this murder is significant is that directors of big companies have not been targets of assassinations thus far.  The "nuveau rich" whose wealth was of unspecified origins were more likely targets of assassinations.

The late Director of JAT did not have any bodyguards and he clearly did not expect to be killed.  He was killed in front of his parent's home while he was exiting the JAT company car which he drove himself.  Experts describe this murder as a classic Belgrade "ambush."  Reports mention two assassins, but these are mere guesses, given that the context indicates that Petrovic was being followed.  It appears that the murder was carried out from automatic weapons with silencers (the Scorpion brand was mentioned), so that none of the neighbors could hear anything.  Someone stated that the sound of a plastic bottle being crushed was heard.  The assassins disappeared.  One and a half hour after Petrovic's murder, the body was taken away in an ambulance.  Chief of the Serbian State Security, Radomir Rade Markovic was on the spot, along with Branko Djuric, Chief of Belgrade Police and Police Colonel Milenko Ercic, Chief of the Crime Unit.  The police statement made during that night indicates that "this is without a doubt a terrorist act carried out against a high official of FR Yugoslavia."  The opinion that a terrorist act is at issue was reiterated by many government officials, including the Serbian Minister of Justice, Dragoljub Jankovic, who stated this in an interview for Radio B2-92.

Police expert Budimir Badovic notes that cases like this are frequently described as terrorist acts by government officials, even though they differ in one detail from classic acts of terrorism - terrorist acts are usually associated with a message.  The Italian Red Brigades, the French Action Direct and the German Bader Majhof also murdered important financial personalities, but they always left a message.  In this case neither the investigators or the reporters mentioned any message having been left.  Just like in financial affairs, time is necessary for an act to be summed up and connected into a logical whole.  In this particular case, beside the unclear motives, the fundamental question remains - does the government and its officials have any useful information about who has the infrastructure, the network and the installation for carrying out acts like this.  Are the people who have such resources at their disposal subject to efficient control.

The speed with which the case of the murder of the Director of Yugoslav Air Transport (JAT), Zika Petrovic is being commented on is, according to custom, far greater than the establishing of facts.  This merely means that this case will also not initiate a fundamental discussion on the condition our state is in and the efficiency of its institutions and their responsibly.  The black series of events in the last week of April 2000 indicates in a specific way the agony of a regime and its victims.