Departure of the Most Faithful Friend

On Tuesday, February 6th, around 8 p.m., on the location of Lepen (8 km from Knjazevac) Zoran Sokolovic, the former federal minister of internal affairs was found dead. Sokolovic was found in his orchard, in a Lada Niva vehicle, with a head wound inflicted by firearms and with a gun in his hand; they say the vehicle was locked. A team of criminal technicians was sent from Belgrade that same night to conduct an investigation. It is expected that the ballistics report and test of the paraffin glove will confirm the assumption that it was suicide. That is how the life of one of the more interesting personalities of Milosevic´s regime came to an end.

Zoran Sokolovic appeared on the Serbian political scene as a significant factor during the campaign and preparation for the historic Eight Session of the Central Committee (CK) of the Communist League of Serbia. This member from Zajecar, with a carefully preserved and incorrigible local dialect was one of the CK secretaries then, in charge of eastern Serbia. That is how he distinguished himself in the wake of the outcome of that Eight Session, when Milosevic ousted Ivan Stambolic and his team from the political scene. The method is remembered in the history of Serbia´s political life for its maliciousness: Milosevic and his team fabricated hundreds of “telegrams of support” then and organized an unprecedented media campaign. In the last communist parliament of Serbia, Zoran Sokolovic became the speaker, only to – following the crisis of March 1991, when he had to sacrifice Radmilo Bogdanovic – have Milosevic appoint him as minister of internal affairs (MUP) of Serbia. Sokolovic remained in that position in a disciplined manner until the beginning of 1997, when he was transferred and appointed federal minister of internal affairs. During his mandate as head of MUP, the Serbian police was turned into an army of civil war, it was engulfed in deep-rooted corruption, it became entangled with organized crime and was generally ruined.  During his mandate, the Serbian police waged war in Croatia and in Bosnia; during his mandate dozens of unresolved murders occurred, ending with the assassination of his very own deputy, general Stojicic. The policemen say that Sokolovic didn´t overly interfere with the activities of his sector; MUP was operationally led by Badza Stojicic in the Public and Jovica Stanisic in the State Security Services; Sokolovic guaranteed Milosevic general control over the Service and once a year justified MUP´s budget in parliament. The heads of the Public and State Security Services operationally communicated with Milosevic directly, bypassing the minister. 

Sokolovic, as the policemen say, wasn´t overly happy as head of MUP, and sometime he didn´t even hide it. Probably due to this Milosevic appoints him federal minister of internal affairs in 1997. However, there are indications that as part of the campaign against Milo Djukanovic, the federal police was supposed to be reorganized, strengthened and generally revitalized following its practical marginalization in 1992. Vlajko Stojiljkovic becomes the Serbian minister, another member of the east Serbian team. It turned out that nothing would come of the federal police, leaving Sokolovic to wait out the end of Milosevic´s regime in a peaceful manner and without any important business. During his mandate in the federal MUP he hardly ever appeared in public. Zoran Andjelkovic Baki says he mostly spent his time planting his orchard in Lepen, close to Knjazevac. Some newspapers say that he was seriously ill which is cited as a possible reason for his suicide. However, Baki Andjelkovic used this opportunity to proclaim Zoran Sokolovic a victim of “revenge” of the new government: like, he was so worried about the witch-hunt his party friends were subjected to that he finally killed himself. Whatever the case, at least Zoran Sokolovic won´t have to appear in front of the various truth committees where he would definitely have something to say. He has gone to his last and most important interrogation, which awaits us all.