Secrets of the Danube

SMUGGLER’S BYWAYS: Anyway, let’s start from the night between March 20 and 21, 1991. That was the time of sanctions, when our smugglers, in cooperation with the Romanian ones, shipped gasoline over to our side of the Danube and immediately sold it off, which was a highly lucrative business. That night, around 18 kilometers outside of Tekija, a boat was gliding down Djerdap’s ravine, whose silhouette wasn’t even discernable thanks to the high surrounding rocks, almost plunged into the river bank in order to make it more narrow, darker and deeper in that part. They say, over 100 meters. The man in the boat, Branislav Petrovic from Tekija carefully watched both banks. It appeared that all was clear: not a single car had passed the Danube highway for hours, nor did he see any headlights in the distance. However, the moment he steered the boat with its load towards our bank and was fifty meters away from the spot where he usually docked and unloaded his cargo, to his horror he noticed three vehicles moving from the direction of Donji Milanovac towards Kladovo, which stopped on the highway. Exactly on the spot where a tiny fifty or so meter long road leads all the way to the bank, almost indiscernible due to the high surrounding shrubs, better known as the “smuggler’s byway”, yet still wide enough to allow even large vehicles access to the river bank, over 30 meters deep there. 

“I thought the police had set an ambush for the smugglers, and I immediately looked over to the Romanian side to see other lights or signals, which would definitely mean that a joint action of our police and the Romanian army was underway, to stamp out gasoline smuggling”, says Branislav Petrovic. “Luckily, it was dark on the Romanian side. I turned the motor off and observed what was happening on the highway. Two smaller vehicles, a jeep and another, larger vehicle, stood on the highway, and a great white refrigerated truck was slowly turning and moving down the tiny road towards the Danube. It was a quiet night, I heard some people talking in a language I don’t know and saw that the refrigerated truck was speedily heading towards the end of the road, that is bank which is around one meter above the water level. Once it plunged into the Danube, it exploded so loudly that the entire Djerdap reverberated. The truck was slowly sinking and it disappeared into the depth after a few minutes. The jeep and the other vehicle hurriedly departed towards Donji Milanovac. Someone knew this terrain very well and exact spot where things can be sunk forever. When things quieted down, I hurried back to Tekija and tried to forget everything, guessing that something had happened which it is better to keep quiet about. If I had gone to the police and reported it, they would have definitely asked: And what were you doing on the river at night? Smuggling, huh? I could have even landed in jail. That’s why I kept quiet and didn’t tell anyone anything…”

Four days later, the NATO attack on Yugoslavia commenced, and early on the morning of April 5, a few kilometers upstream from Tekija, fishermen noticed that something, barely protruding from the water, was floating down the Danube, resembling a huge trunk tipped towards the bottom. They thought it was a vehicle which had fallen into the river, i.e. a traffic accident, and informed the police. However, as a rule, the current in this part of the Danube carries everything in the water over to our side of the river, so the “unidentified floating object” stopped close to Tekija. A police unit was immediately dispatched from Kladovo to file a report and diver Zivadin Djordjevic was engaged, who ascertained that it was a refrigerated truck of the Mercedes brand, without license plates. Allegedly, the truck had Progres Prizren written on it in red letters. “In order to pull the refrigerated truck out of the Danube, a car crane was used which pulled it to a meter and a half from the bank. An unpleasant smell started coming out of the truck then and at that moment it was noticed that out of one of the truck’s openings, two human legs were protruding”, says the republic MUP’s report. 

“DEPTH 1”?: Is that the same refrigerated truck which Branislav Petrovic saw in the night between March 20 and 21, 1999? “I’m not totally sure about that. If it is, then it remained where it sank for a while, but when the dam on the Danube was opened in order to empty the lake, the water could have uprooted it and carried it close to Tekija where it got stuck. Whoever did that, did it clumsily: he didn’t puncture the tires nor open the valves on the wheels. One shouldn’t forget that the refrigerated truck from inside was coated with a thick layer of styrofoam for thermo-isolation, which means that despite its weight a strong water current could have uprooted it from the bottom. Otherwise, from the spot where I watched it sink, under condition that it surfaced immediately, the water would have carried the refrigerated truck to Tekija in 6-7 hours, not after fifteen days. No, I cannot claim that it was the same refrigerated truck”, says Branislav Petrovic.

The naturally capricious people from this region unwillingly talk about the aforementioned event. Otherwise, a story is going around, especially in Donji Milanovac, i.e. the gas station, that in the night of March 20, 1999 from the direction of Belgrade heading towards Kladovo, two refrigerated trucks passed, accompanied by jeeps which returned after a few hours, without the refrigerated trucks. At the time, traffic was very light on the Danube highway, especially at night, and large refrigerated trucks were a true rarity. For days after the refrigerated truck full of bodies was pulled out, police boats circled the Danube. As though they were “looking for something”, claim the people from Tekija and Kladovo. Could that be action “Depth 1”?

EYEWITNESSES AND TELEPHONES: Zivorad Lajtinovic from Tekija called Zika, like many other curious people, whether he wanted to or not, witnessed the opening up of the refrigerated truck from the Danube since the barn with his cattle is located only some ten or so meters from the spot where the refrigerated truck stopped. He was inclined to talk, but under one condition: “Give me five thousand marks, then I’ll talk.” Naturally, no “deal” was made, since Zika stuck to his demand. On April 6, 1999 both those who were supposed to and others who weren’t witnessed the opening up of the truck’s doors, secured with a chain and padlock. Starting with the policemen, judges, district attorney and citizens, to the passengers of a bus which appeared and was stopped. All in all, it is believed that around 200 people saw the horrific sight of dead bodies which didn’t bother the then ruling political and police officials, as would become apparent the next day, to proclaim the “refrigerated truck case” a state secret.

After the refrigerated truck was opened up, it was ascertained that the district attorney from Negotin was authorized for an eventual investigation, and the truck was closed up and the police station in Bor was informed, i.e. its chief Caslav Golubovic, a great friend of then acting president Milosevic and guardian of the president’s favorite holiday house and hunting grounds in Dubasnica. Golubovic, however, orders that the pulling out of the truck is to be suspended, so that consultations with then head of the public security department of Serbia general Vlastimir Djordjevic can be held, who then ordered that the outcome of the negotiations should be awaited. It seems as though, due to the refrigerated truck, chaos broke out amongst the police and government top officials, all the way up to Milosevic: Golubovic informs Djordjevic that “it isn’t possible to perform autopsies nor burials in the Kladovo area”, and Djordjevic subsequently orders: “Secure the spot, close off all information to the public and remove the refrigerated truck.” The next day, April 7, new instructions arrive from Belgrade: “Take the bodies out, prepare them for transport, and autopsies and burials will be performed elsewhere”. That was the culmination of police and state immorality, since both those issuing orders and their executors knew that identities wouldn’t be established, nor would autopsies and decent burials be performed, and that a classic Mafia recipe would ensue. Just like, for example, what happened last year in August when next to Golubac, three cemented bodies of young men were fished out of the Danube and driven somewhere, allegedly for autopsies, and following all the questions: who were those people, where are they from and who, judging by all circumstances, had buried them alive in cement and thrown into the Danube, the police uttered through clenched teeth: the investigation is ongoing. Not a single word more. That is why a justified suspicion exists that a lot more bodies were dumped into the Danube than is known. It would be more than advisable for the new top police officials, despite their heavy workloads, to question their former (and sometimes even current) colleagues: truly, what did happen with the bodies of those three men fished out of the Danube? Or is that another “Depth” with its own ordinal number. 

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICERS (UOF’s): Following chief Djordjevic’s orders, Caslav Golubovic commanded that the “business”, that is removal of the bodies from the refrigerated truck and their subsequent loading on to another truck, must be performed in the night. The truck (an open FAP) was borrowed from the Komunalac company from Kladovo whose employees, together with the policemen, managed to load only some twenty or so bodies until dawn, due to general exhaustion. Namely, because of the inaccessible terrain from the riverbank to the truck parked next to the highway, on the mountainous road which leads to Petrovo Village, the dead bodies were carried through a large drainage pipe under the highway which made extremely tiring work. Each employee received 2000 dinars from the police strongbox in Bor.  

“Orders arrived from MUP that the first truck with the bodies should leave Tekija and head for Belgrade all the way up to the tollbooth at Bubanj Potok, and the driver would receive additional instructions over his mobile phone… The truck was driven by official police driver Ljubinko Ursuljanovic, escorted by a traffic police patrol. In Bubanj Potok, the truck driver received instructions over his mobile phone from MUP to carry on driving down the highway to the JP gas station Zmaj in the direction of Novi Sad”, stated MUP Serbia’s acting deputy head of the Department for Fighting Organized Crime, captain Dragan Karleusa at a press conference. Hardly anyone, especially the people from Tekija and vicinity, believe in this version of how the bodies were driven away. “Who would be crazy enough to drive corpses in an open truck to Belgrade and further, as though it was hay”, voice the locals their doubts. “How come no one saw the truck on the highway, and we all knew that the bodies were being loaded onto the Komunalac truck from Kladovo? As far as we know, the bodies were immediately driven towards Petrovo Village. And you should ask around why there.” However, we’ll leave that for later. The greatest perplexity was raised by the following sentence from the aforementioned republic MUP report: “On the Novi Sad highway, the truck (with the corpses, author’s note) was stopped and handed over to unidentified officers following their demand.” It isn’t stated who those people were. Special units, policemen, state security officers, traffic policemen, people in combat uniforms, highway patrol? Who? Or did an unidentified group of criminals seize the load and return the truck later? What is captain Karleusa talking about? Does he want to say that the team for investigating the “truck case” had lost all trails? Something isn’t right here or maybe the complete explanation was left for the next press conference?

SPECIAL POLICE FORCES CENTER: “On April 7, 1999 the truck was hoisted out of the Danube and positioned on to a so-called cargo train. During the night, the remaining corpses were transferred on to another truck which MUP sent to the scene. After the loading, the corpses were driven in the direction of Belgrade, and the empty refrigerated truck was driven by a cargo train to the shooting range in Petrovo Village, in the vicinity of Kladovo, where it was burned and blown to pieces with explosives” claims MUP’s report which captain Karleusa read. What does “in the direction of Belgrade” mean? And what happened then: who subsequently took them over and where did they drive them? Because, if even the current police top officials don’t know, they shouldn’t have informed us of what has by now become common knowledge. The main question is – where are the corpses? The public didn’t receive that answer. As though something is being hidden even now. The part with the “burned and blown to bits refrigerated truck at the shooting range in Petrovo Village” is a lot clearer, even though only that was mentioned in the report. Namely, at that time, on the remote slopes of Miroc, in Petrovo Village, one of the centers of the special operations police units was located, headed by Frenk Simatovic who used to come in his jeep often. His proteges probably didn’t lack gas and explosives to burn and blow a truck to pieces. It remains a question whether they also took part in the “Depth 2” action as the “truck case” was dubbed by former police minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic and general Vlastimir Djordjevic, who proclaimed the discovery and removal of the corpses a state secret.

No one could answer with certainty whether a center for special state security forces still exists in Petrovo Village. “Although we haven’t seen Frenki pass by in his jeep for quite some time, we believe some of them are still up in the mountain. Anyway, why don’t you go and check”, suggest the Tekija locals.

Otherwise, Petrovo Village isn’t a village at all, but a national park, and it would be difficult to reach the special police base with a normal car. The dirt road is barely usable and often disappeared under water torrents, and it is totally understandable why special units drove around exclusively in jeeps. On that day, May 23, around noon, Petrovo Village, 15 kilometers uphill from the Danube highway, was covered with fog, without a living soul. Two or three deserted weekend cottages along the road and a single old man with sheep.

“I don’t know a thing, can’t you see I’m minding my sheep. How should I know if there’s anyone where you’re heading. I’m off after my sheep”, was the suspicious response of the old shepherd as he made off for the forest. However, even from afar one got the impression that the special police force base was empty, even though a black, decent looking car was parked in front of the building, without registration plates, and a bit further up another larger vehicle had a camouflage cover. As far as could be seen from the gates and fence, the center was empty.  

“See, one gets a clear view from here as to how many cliffs, gorges and remote ravines there are here in the mountains, even caves where corpses could be hidden and buried”, says our driver and guide who would rather not have his name mentioned in the paper. “That’s why I believe the bodies from the truck are buried somewhere around here, and not driven I don’t know where, all the way to Vojvodina, hundreds of kilometers from Tekija. If they truly did that, then it was major stupidity.”

WHY EVERYONE KEPT QUIET: “The MUP working group investigated even the cause of the described event (“Depth 2” action) and came to the discovery that in March 1999 in the cabinet of Slobodan Milosevic, then president of FRY, a meeting was held which, beside Milosevic, Vlajko Stojiljkovic, then interior minister, general Vlastimir Djordjevic, Radomir Markovic, then acting head of the State Security service and others attended”, states the Serbian MUP report. Who are those “others”? Didn’t they also take part in hiding the crime victims? Why are the names of those people withheld? Is it because some of them, possibly, are handling responsible police tasks even today? That too remains, for now, a mystery. During that meeting, Milosevic ordered Vlajko Stojiljkovic to take all necessary measures in order to cover up all traces which could point to existing evidence of committed crimes. Stojiljkovic, following the traditional – difficult tasks should be delegated maxim, commanded Vlastimir Djordjevic and Dragan Ilic to take care of it, or simply put, to excavate the killed civilians in Kosovo and to remove the corpses, so that the prosecutors of The Hague tribunal couldn’t discover them. How successful they were, time will tell, and the public shall soon be informed about the results of Serbian MUP’s working group, as police minister Dusan Mihajlovic promises.

By the way, practically the entire Negotin region knew about the discovered truckload of corpses, especially the police, district attorney’s office and judicial bodies. And everyone kept quiet about it for over six months, while no one from the new government, especially the police, knew about it. That’s difficult to believe. It appears as though the current Serbian MUP was forced to react only when the local paper Timocki Crime Review from Zajecar published the truth about the truck full of corpses on May 1 of this year. As is now seen, the investigation hasn’t advanced much further from what has been made public. Apart from the meeting and deal of the former police officials and Slobodan Milosevic’s command. Naturally, if valid court admissible evidence exists for such claims.