An Ambush With The Blessing Of The Authorities

This time the people from Studio B acted more cautiously: the robbery of 236,000 dollar's worth of tv equipment in the night between December 18-19, 1992 had made them doubt a state ruled by law and safe roads. On Tuesday, January 12, 1993 somewhere around noon, the van transporting a radio repeater for Studio B's FM radio sector (valued at 24,000 DM) was supposed to cross the Hungarian-Yugoslav border at Subotica. At three o'clock in the afternoon the van passed customs; Austrian citizen driver Helmut Pusnik and escort Milan Savcic were waiting for Studio B director Dragan Kojadinovic. Kojadinovic arrived at 16:00, only to be told that the border police had retained Pusnik's and Savcic's passports "until some things were cleared up."

Chief of border police Zec told Kojadinovic that he must check the van's ownership papers, as it was registered in Graz (Austria): "just five minutes," and they were free to go. The "five minutes" dragged on for six hours.

"Then I started thinking: either I'm becoming paranoid, or something stinks here," Kojadinovic told VREME. He decided to telephone his friend Captain Dragan (Vasiljkovic), explained the situation and told him of his suspicions, and also asked him to inform Interior Minister Zoran Sokolovic and deputy and former Foreign Minister Radmilo Bogdanovic. Captain Dragan said he would do so, and told Kojadinovic to stay where he was and wait for him. Kojadinovic also called Studio B's radio program and said live that the equipment was being detained. "When they heard me (20:40) talking to Captain Dragan, Pusnik and Savcic got their passports without further delay," said Kojadinovic, "the police demanded that we leave immediately." "Checking the van's papers" suddenly became unimportant. Kojadinovic and the others from Studio B said they were not going anywhere without Captain Dragan, which was not to the liking of the police. "They ordered us to move the vehicles (a van and car) from the border crossing. We did, and sat in a nearby cafe to wait for Captain Dragan. Then a policeman showed up and told us that we had ten minutes to finish our coffee, and were to leave immediately." Dragan Kojadinovic and his party say that there were a lot of police around. People who work at the border crossing say they don't remember ever seeing so many policemen there. The Studio B team sat in the car at the parking lot and waited for Captain Dragan. "We watched the traffic and noticed two cars - an Audi 80 and a red BMW 300 which passed us twice. We suddenly became aware that there were no police around, they had all disappeared."

"Then a car approached us from the front," said Kojadinovic. "We thought it was Captain Dragan and the men started waving. I got out of the car and went towards him. The man who was coming towards me pulled a gun to my head and ordered me to kneel beside our car. He wasn't rough with me. The other attackers were rough and one of our men was hit across the face. I noticed that it was the same red BMW 300 and that black plastic was taped over the registration plates." While the men from Studio B were kneeling beside the car, breaking of glass was heard: the attackers had thrown at least one Molotov cocktail at the van. They took our car keys and started withdrawing towards the BMW. Someone saw fire under the van and yelled: "Run it'll explode." This upset the situation and the attackers, obviously confused and in a hurry to get away as soon as possible, got into the BMW and left. The people from Studio B started putting out the fire and called the police.

Accusations of working with criminals were made. Kojadinovic called Studio B and spoke live in the program, recounting the attack. The police conducted an investigation and took down names of witnesses without much enthusiasm. "As soon as Captain Dragan showed up a little later, the police suddenly became more polite. We left Palic for Belgrade and arrived safely at 4 a.m.," said Kojadinovic.

Captain Dragan adds that Dragan Kojadinovic had done well to call the Studio B program twice from Subotica, reporting on the fate of the transport. Driving towards Subotica we heard over Studio B what was happening and arrived at certain conclusions," said Captain Dragan. At his insistence, they started for Belgrade immediately without waiting for day to break, "while they were still confused and before they managed to organize."

This is how it has come about that Studio B (and other independent media) have gained experience from which to draw lessons.

Threats to Studio B (and Radio B-92 and other independent media) are more frequent and increasingly insolent: Vojislav Seselj (Serbian Radical Party leader) has publicly promised that he will "take them over" (it's not enough that he has the whole of Serbian Radio-Television). He accuses whosoever he wishes of "treason" and "espionage," and anonymous telephone calls announce "taking over," "taking possession" and other worse things.

What can independent media (and other citizens in this state) do to protect themselves from terrorism, if the police are not interested in doing their job? To self-organize and arm? To turn to the Captain Dragans of this world? Captain Dragan is the first to caution that both approaches are wrong: taking justice into our hands leads where terrorists wish - to lawlessness and the law of force, the only argument of Seselj and his protectors. "I don't understand what else they want," says Kojadinovic. "They rule, they pass the laws they wish, and now even such laws are not enough, and they have to resort to terrorism."

The fact that someone's moveable property worth 236,000 dollars has been hijacked (not to mention other things) does not seem to bother anyone - except those honest people who realize that new rules are being introduced, rules which Blaise Pascal summed up as: "Justice without force is contemptible; force without justice is loathsome."

This leads to what Captain Dragan calls "lebanonization": every one has his own armed gang. Whoever has more armed followers, will be a greater patriot and Serb - and the other way round...

Captain Dragan: "A Disgrace For The Police"

About nine o'clock in the evening (January 12) my friend called, I repeat, my personal friend Dragan Kojadinovic and explained the situation. I got as many men together as I could, and we started off for Subotica. On the way we heard of the attack on Studio B.

I think this is a great disgrace for the police. I do not wish to believe that the Interior Ministry is officially involved; individuals are, and they will have to answer. It would be a great misfortune and disgrace if the people lost faith in the police because of such things. One segment of the corrupt police is involved, and in this sense it was intelligent of Dragan Kojadinovic to ask for help from friends. But, it is unfortunate that we have been brought into a situation in which a radio-television station director has to ask for help from armed friends...

I have cautioned on several occasions, and Studio B does so constantly, of the danger from the lebanonization of this society. I am against the existence of armed formations, with the exception of the army and police in a society. This is why the police must be purged of such individuals and it must be totally depoliticized. If people begin to feel that they are in danger from the police - and they are innocent - they have to defend themselves somehow... It is necessary to intervene sometimes, and I did so in this case. I think I helped the police that way. But, I do not want to be the keeper of law and order here - there are others who are supposed to do that, and let them do so. I don't have armed formations, nor do I command armed men. If I had wanted to, I could have had the strongest armed formation here; but, I am popular precisely because I am against armed formations and terrorism.