Mira Markovic on D1

JOURNEY AND RETURN: On January 14th, a high official of Azerbaijan, Nourz Mamedov, denied the version, according to which the wife of the former President left for Baku, the capital of that country (in order to attend her grandson’s birthday). He stressed that ‘his country had no contacts with representatives of the former Yugoslav regime’. Yet, he failed to deny that Marko Milosevic, son of the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Mirjana Markovic had settled in that country with his family. Citing the sources in the Yugoslav Embassy in Moscow, foreign media broadcast the information that Mira Markovic was ‘in possession of a reservation for another, unknown destination’. President of the Yugoslav Left, Ljubisa Ristic, tried to elucidate some details about the return of her superior – ‘she will be back on Monday to attend the session of the party’s Central Committee’. Since it has not happened, JUL official Goran Matic announced that ‘she will be back this week’. Another question, which is frequently asked nowadays, is how come that Mirjana Markovic was permitted to leave the country in the first place. However, the fact is that she has not yet been charged for anything (at least not officially) and she is not yet wanted by any foreign or domestic institution. The Federal Internal Affairs Minister, Zoran Zivkovic, concluded that issue on Saturday. He said that ‘as MP, Mirjana Markovic has a right on a diplomatic passport, so there is no reason to make fuss about that’ and that, ‘as far as he knows’, no restrictions have yet been placed on her freedom of movement. The only official ban related to her freedom of movement is imposed by the European Union (the frequently altered list of names of people close to the previous regime, which are not permitted to enter the territory of EU, also includes her name), though it is highly unlikely that she would even attempt to hit the road in that direction.

TREATMENT: The only certain thing (which is the least investigated detail) is that Slobodan Milosevic’s wife enjoyed a special treatment at Belgrade Airport. The media claim that she arrived at the airport by car through a special entrance, together with her two bodyguards, they moved to a special VIP room, and they were the last passengers to get on the plane. By another version of the event, she has not even entered the airport building, whereas the others claim that she arrived at the boarding platform through a corridor reserved for medical staff and disabled passengers. Officially, nobody knows anything about this case at Belgrade Airport – all members of the staff addressed us to the manager ‘the only one who is authorised for giving statements’, but ‘the manager is at a meeting and it is complicated to reach him by phone’. We received the same answers from the authorised at the airport police department, but we managed to find out, off the record, that the version closest to the truth was that given by the media: Mrs. Markovic’s car and the car that followed it came directly through D1 exit, and she, together with several protectors, boarded the ‘Aeroflot’ plane and accommodated themselves in the business class.

What exactly is D1? The only member of Belgrade Airport staff to whom we had a chance to talk said that D1 was ‘the exit to a platform reserved for small planes’, while other sources maintain that it is about the ‘operative exit which used to be used by the highest state officials, and which is used today for the transport of goods and for the escort of high foreign delegations’.  D1 leads directly to the platform and it is interesting that it is theoretically available to anyone: the passenger only has to put forward a request to the airport, which is supposed to ask for an adequate permission from the Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs, and if the permission is approved, the only thing to be done is to pay for that ‘special service’ (it is not known how much). As an illustration, the employed cite Milan Panic as someone who used D1. The passageway itself does not give impression of being particularly protected: there is a fence and a guard’s house, which accommodates two members of the airport security staff. Your reporter can confirm that after the documentation control and registration of licence plates, several private vehicles and trucks passed through this very exit in both directions (the licence plates numbers remain unidentified and the chief of the airport security claimed that ‘the airport had nothing to do with that’.) The only particular feature of D1 passageway is the location itself – it is the only passageway that cannot be seen from the airport building. Furthermore, even the traditionally well-informed taxi drivers claim that they ‘had seen nothing unusual that day’.

What followed the arrival at the boarding platform is a much greater mystery. Quoting the sources in the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, Belgrade daily newspapers published that ‘Mirjana Markovic skipped all controls and nobody checked upon her documentation’. Asked to comment on that statement, Zoran Zivkovic said that, ‘even if that story is accurate, then the Republic Ministry should be accountable for such actions, since they had undertaken such jurisdictions on themselves some years ago’, whereas the co-minister of the Republic Internal Affairs, Slobodan Tomovic, answered that he ‘does not know why Zivkovic transfers the accountability to the Republic’. However, in similar cases, VIPs are required to go through passport control, either on the plane or before boarding – in this case, no one could verify whether something of the kind has been done or not. Sources close to VREME assert that passport control can only be avoided by going through official police premises at the airport or through a ‘privileged entrance reserved for honored guests’. Since the staff members claim that the ‘privileged entrance’ has not been opened on January 12th, the first version is more likely.

In any case, the role of police cannot be denied – the airport security is directly subordinate to their orders and ‘has to obey whatever is required from them’, and without the authorisation of police superiors, no passageway towards the boarding platform can be used. Taking into account the aforementioned statements given by Zoran Zivkovic and Slobodan Tomovic, as well as the colonel of the Republic police, Vladan Colic, who says for VREME that Belgrade Airport belongs to the jurisdiction of the city and that Belgrade police is obliged to elucidate what has actually happened’, it remains to be discovered which police is really accountable.

FRIENDSHIP AND STATE SECURITY: If we recall that, after October 5th, when Marko Milosevic was leaving the country, he was escorted by chief-of-staff of the State Security Service, Rade Markovic himself, some things become clearer. There are some data from Rade Markovic’s biography which support the thesis that the State Security is involved in this incident: our sources quote that he had begun his career as inspector of criminal and sexual transgressions at the airport, and that he continued as chief-of-staff of the airport police department. The friendship between the future State Security chief and the future President and his family originated around that time: the story has it that they became very close and that Markovic taught Milosevic Junior how to use a gun at the airport of Lisicji Jarak. Apart from the Milosevics, Markovic was on ‘very friendly terms’ with the entire leadership of Belgrade Airport, which altogether elucidates the overall mystery, explaining the denial of responsibility.

The fact is that Marko Milosevic, Mirjana Markovic and the former director of ‘Politika’ company, Hadzi Dragan Antic left the country unnoticed. It can be interpreted as corroboration of the thesis that ‘Belgrade Airport is still controlled by Milosevic’s police officers (‘Spiegel’, January 7th 2001). The final affirmation of responsibility of those officers and their possible replacement cannot be expected before the constitution of the Serbian Government, which is constantly being postponed. Protagonists of the new government must not overlook the fact that there are so many of those who are likely to flee the country and who have a great deal of reasons to do so. On the other hand, one of the pre-election promises was that there would be no privileges for anyone. Someone who leaves the country by evading passport and customs controls and, above all, escorted by the State Security boss, certainly enjoys some privileges – it is not tolerable in any country of the world and after any political changes.