The Interrogation of Dusan Mihajlovic

On Monday, Sept. 3, the DOS Presidency held another emergency session and wasted time hurling accusations against Dusan Mihajlovic, the police minister, until some ungodly hour. Finally, they came to the conclusion that they need a "Rule Book on Fair Play", since they somehow managed to adopt an operation rule book at the previous session. Fair play is something that goes without saying and for which no regulations need to be adopted; it suffices if there are no blows beneath the belt, no kicking the opponent who is down, no lying and to keep one's word; every kid on the block knows that. The very circumstance that such regulations proved to be necessary - illustrate the way things stand more than adequately.

What was happening this last week that was of such importance? When everyone believed that the Gavrilovic affair was finished in the segment which refers to "information" which the deceased had allegedly handed over to the cabinet of Vojislav Kostunica and when everyone was supposed to turn to the question of who had and why killed Momir Gavrilovic, a shorthand report from the previous DOS Presidency session appeared. Velimir Ilic, the mayor of Cacak, came out with accusations against Dusan Mihajlovic and the police, as vague as the Democratic Party of Serbia's (DSS) accusations. Things like "his output is zero"; or "he didn't do a thing"; in any version "he should be replaced, after which DSS will return to the government" - as though DSS's departure from the government of Serbia is the greatest tragedy which has befallen us since October the fifth till today and as though without DSS in the government all of us will die in the worst agony.

THE ILIC FACTOR: When the DOS Presidency finally met, following an initiative of a few irritated presidents of a few member-parties, it turned out that once again it was a flat firework display, this time fired by Velja Ilic. Mr. Ilic announced on Aug. 28 how "he had worked on it a lot these days and found out where the problem lies": "according to his knowledge a certain State Security (DB) employee is putting up posters calling for a revolution; he came to the conclusion that (the deputy head of State Security of MUP Serbia) Zoran Mijatovic is a "scoundrel who should be hanged" (without any details why); that an unidentified policeman had killed a woman and hid all traces of it; and - as the most important - that his father in law was celebrating something a while ago, and some guns were fired (200-300 bullets from various firearms), and the police came to inquire who was shooting. Previously, Mr. Ilic complained how minister Mihajlovic didn't do a thing about his complaint that an assassination attempt against him was being prepared and so on and so forth: the same people are tailing him who used to tail him in Milosevic's government etc.
 
Dusan Mihajlovic reminded Velimir Ilic that in the meantime the man whom Mr. Ilic accused of "preparing an assassination" against him became his - Ilic's - business partner. It turned out that the person who was putting up the posters calling for a revolution had been arrested in the meantime. The cabinet of the State Security chief tells VREME that they don't know how to reply to the insult ("scoundrel") and that Mr. Mijatovic will decide what to do about it. Mr. Ilic didn't answer a repeated question of who was following him and did he write down the registration plate numbers of the "same cars which followed him under Milosevic", at the DOS presidency. Instead of that, he held a somewhat confused speech: that he "knows for sure that Dusko wouldn't do such a thing to me", but evil people who "became new members of certain parties and all returned to the fold" (without details as to who, into what parties and which fold); followed by "Dusko doesn't do that, I know for certain that he doesn't do that, I know that Dusko knows nothing about it, but someone is doing it". He then set up a very clever game, with a bit of Perisic, entangled it, let's have him knot and tie us up in an inextricable web"; and finally - "we went through so much together, were beaten up so many times, suffered so much pain and that's why I was revolted after these cases, I might have given some statements because I was angry"... So that's what happens when Velja Ilic gets mad and starts giving out statements colored with strong emotions: the entire DOS Presidency has to gather and slowly analyze the political-security situation.  

To any careful reader Mr. Ilic's statements, as they were jotted down in shorthand and published in Danas daily, and this whole new affair appears, to say the least, unclear, if not also an affront against elementary intelligence. As if we haven't had enough of DSS's screams and obstinacy in the Gavrilovic affair, now we have to listen to this too: who "tangled and tied whom in a web" as though DOS is a kindergarten, all of them oh so naive that anyone can put one over them. What's more likely is that something completely different is at work here. Here's why: in the midst of this story Slobodan Vuksanovic, vice president of the Movement for a Democratic Serbia appeared, first claiming that he is being threatened because he is close to Kostunica, followed by that "the whole government of Serbia should be replaced, and not just Dusan Mihajlovic". It's interesting to note that the president of his party, general Momcilo Perisic, didn't say anything about it on Monday evening at the DOS Presidency. DSS didn't waste any time either: gently synchronized with Vuksanovic and Ilic, Dragan Marsicanin announced on Monday that a "new government of Serbia should be formed, although that lies in the realm of political theory", since the other DOS parties aren't ready for it. And then he says: "Five DOS leaders, in a  substantiated manner, listed the names of some MUP and State Security employees who are protecting the criminals. To say that there was no word of it at the meeting means to run away from one's responsibility."    

VREME's source and one of DOS's leaders who was present at that meeting says, however, that he doesn't know what it's all about, since no one named any names of MUP and DB officials who are protecting criminals, and least of all "five DOS leaders". It seems as though the baton of the attacks against the government and MUP has simply changed hands: where DSS left off, Velja Ilic carries on - with equal success, as it seems, but also with the support of DSS and others who see a chance for themselves in that story. As though some future pre-election coalitions are already discernible, and those who find their feet on time - will have made it. And then on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 4, Velja Ilic decided - just like DSS before him - that he no longer wants to play and on top of that that he doesn't want to be a deputy prime minister as long as Dusan Mihajlovic remains minister. He says they are making fun of him and that his threats weren't taken seriously; "there'll be some new governments", concluded Velja Ilic.

FASCINATION, PARALYSIS, QUESTIONS: Why that political game is being played out over the Ministry of Internal Affairs and minister Mihajlovic can partially be interpreted by the Serbian politicians' traditional fascination with the police. That is a relic from Nusic's times, carried on by priest Korosec, Krcun, Rankovic and Milosevic. However, that's only one part of the story - to do with mentality. There are other elements as well: DSS and their newly acquired allies can't forgive the majority of DOS members, especially Mihajlovic and Batic, for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic and his extradition to The Hague, as well as for opening up the case of the mass graves, refrigerated trucks and other unpleasant details. Anyway, the people from DSS openly said that on a number of occasions: encouraged by what they somewhat rashly see as a dramatic increase of their membership, they allowed themselves, from their dizzy height to, for example, write off the kidnapping of Ivan Stambolic as an "inter-communist" clash, connected, I suppose, with what Kostunica and Mira Markovic call the "lifting of the heads of the defeated powers from the Eight Session". The nervousness with which Kostunica allows himself to attack Predrag Koraksic, followed by Danas daily, is a troubling fact unto itself; just so he won't forget himself - Slobodan Milosevic never allowed himself such a thing.

All of that has brought about a paralysis within DOS in certain strategic issues. Following your reporter's question - why is everything so late concerning the promised reforms, clean-up and reorganization of State Security and the top police officials - one of DOS's leaders says that it seems impossible to resolve "personnel issues" and based on his impression, Dusan Mihajlovic sees that as the main reason of the slowed down reforms in his department. In other words, everyone would like to get their people into the Right Places, i.e. the top levels of the secret service, which the Gavrilovic affair gave certain indications of. If that's the way things stand - and it seems as though it is - then DOS is tripping over its own feet, anticipating some future elections which will show who will end up crying.

While that paralysis is ongoing and is maintained by DSS's efforts and - amongst others - the ambitions of jolly Velja Ilic and the confused Sloba Vuksanovic (mentioning just the two of them), a whole bunch of a lot more important issues is left to rot in the September sun. Let's just mention those from the police department:

- Until today, MUP Serbia consists of two totally separate "entities" (as the expression goes), as removed from each other as Milosevic and Jovica Stanisic had separated them then intentionally and with good reasons: Public and State Security. Those two agencies live separately, their only contact being MUP's staff meetings, i.e. meetings of the heads of the "departments". That's why Public Security had to do all research on the late Momir Gavrilovic on its own, since State Security didn't deem it necessary to share its information about its former employee with their colleagues, all in the hope that the details would never be found out;

- Until today MUP is functioning with interim personnel solutions at the very top, awaiting a political decision to be made on reforms of the entire "security-intelligence community" (a modern term for it). A deep vertical analysis of the key officials' past hasn't been made; even for those where justified doubt exists that they at least suspected or knew, if not had official information on a number of serious criminal acts which originated from the deepest depths of the Service itself. For example: the criminal act of buying and holding narcotics in large amounts (600 kg of pure heroin) with the intention of selling them, by authorized officials of MUP Serbia's State Security department, totally undisputed as far as criminality goes, was lost somewhere in the very same "twilight zone" where the investigation on the Ibarska highway was lost; not to mention some other spectacular assassinations. Now everyone is pointing the finger
at the judiciary and all of a sudden everyone is a great "legalist": they don't have evidence which would be admissible in court, although they do have "indications and intelligence reports";

- The question of the future of State Security hasn't even been addressed yet, despite thus far given promises. Will DOS and when - while it still can!, until the locusts eat them up - do something about it? That that service is necessary is more than clear; now maybe more than before, taking into account the drastic increase of the number of obvious enemies of Serbia's young democracy. While inside State Security an uncertain number of various Ulemek/Lukovic and other similar candidates for serious interrogations are still hanging on, stories about reforms are a demagogy. Comprehending that no political will exists yet, the old/new team is consolidating its positions, flirting with the future winners in the war for Serbia's heritage and protecting its position. Until recently, the former officials of the Service were afraid the inspection and shake up of its operations would delve down into the depths, to the very agents themselves, and as far back in time as the Eight session; they seem to have considerably cheered up now.

- One name is conspicuously absent from all the discussions on the Service: the name of Jovica Stanisic, under whose mandate almost everything occurred - from the transformation of the Service into the subversive-paramilitary-financial corporation, to a number of the most interesting assassinations. Was some kind of deal made there?

- The social and professional status of the policemen and other MUP employees (including DB) remains unchanged. The dialogue of the Independent Police Syndicate and MUP is paralyzed with intolerance; that's a waste of precious time, because a syndicate organization of the policemen is a process which is unavoidable and - anyhow - obligatory if we want to become a part of Europe. Beside that, police syndicates also play a very important role as a strictly expert professional organization, in the sense of promoting the police  vocation, relations with the public and citizenship and - what is of crucial importance - the depolitization of that public service.

All those questions remain unresolved and are ripening (not to say decaying into an explosive substance) while in the quiet August and September nights DOS's leaders are dealing with stupidities, unrealistic ambitions and petty intrigues against their colleagues and brothers by Christ. Marsicanin does and doesn't want to; he does and doesn't know; he would and wouldn't; the spitting image of Voja Kostunica: the only thing he wants is a new government. The other DOS leaders are desperate for fair play, like Jeremiah in the desert. While no one is even asking who would and how manage the police better than Dusan Mihajlovic, nor has anyone thus far even offered a better candidate, not even a program, idea or project. As though Sloba's MUP seems perfectly all right to everyone, as long as they can lay their hands on it. They'll strike some sort of deal with Jovica and Legija and Crni and Sreten and Rade Markovic, in due time - as soon as they seize and position themselves in Krcun's seat, may Krcun bless their souls.

And while they are dealing with this, Dusan Mihajlovic's time for radical changes is passing, since no "political deal" seems possible over it. Those famous five months of Rade Markovic's service seem not to have been sufficient warning for the conceited lords; if things carry on this way, the regrouped and consolidated remains of the former Service will soon become a stronger political factor than DOS.