Top Secret Hatred

The criteria are, of course, primarily of an ethnic nature, but there are also some "ethical" ones: the "bad" Serbs are being separated from the "good" Serbs. Information about the number of people forced to leave the army due to this differentiation" is not available, but those familiar with the situation speak about "thousands". Jovan Buturovic, a former judge of the Supreme military court and currently an attorney defending many of the "purged", talks about the methods being used to carry out the unheard-of persecution in the Yugoslav army. "I don't know how many active officers and civilians working for the army have been forced to leave over the past year, but I am sure that this number is higher than it was over the past 40 years", said Buturovic. "The punishment is usually the loss of rank or sacking, but frequently both. The instruments of these persecutions are most often military disciplinary courts. The victims are frequently experts - officers or civilians. A good example is the Military-technical Institute in Belgrade which many experts who were politically unsuitable, had to leave. Naturally, they are persecuted by those who are their professional inferiors. Similar things are also happening at the Military Medical Academy. This is a form of cleansing". "Other forms are various systematizations and reorganizations. Prominent experts are transferred to lower positions and eliminated from managerial jobs. The so called orders for regulating the situation in the service are used for this kind of purge. These are legally undefined acts, there is even no mention of the right to appeal. Instead, the undesirables are usually told that it is best for them to be silent and to say nothing to anyone". "The third method is to erase the names of officers and others from the payroll. A commander simply comes to the accounting department and says that so-and-so should not be given his salary and - that's that. An undesirable person can also get the following kind of explanation from his superior: I don't want to see you anymore." "You want examples? They can't all be enumerated". "A Serbian colonel who was the captain of a warship in Split was taken off the payroll on September 1st 1991. It was only afterwards that proceedings were instituted against him before the military disciplinary court, although the law specifically says that during disciplinary proceedings and a suspension, an officer has the lowest salary in his rank. The proceedings before the military disciplinary court lasted for over a year. After that he got the minimal wage for the previous months. At this inflation rate, in concrete terms this means that for three salaries he could buy - one newspaper". Behind all this lies the fact that his wife is Croatian and that his family had stayed in Split. "Two citizens of Serbia, one Slovak major and a Croatian lieutenant, fought in this war on the Yugoslav side. When they came back they were suspended under some dubious order and left without salaries. They received written information about their suspension much later - by mail." There were no grounds for suspension because no proceedings were being conducted against them. "In general, the most tragic fates are those of Moslems, Croats and Slovenes who had opted for Yugoslavia. They could have had everything if they had turned to the other side. They opted, however, for Yugoslavia, and when they completed their task - they were thrown away like old rags." "There is a poignant story of a high-ranking officer of Slovenian nationality. He was serving in Belgrade when the fuss with the Slovenians began. He was transferred to a high position in Ljubljana. He had three sons, one of whom had been killed earlier in a traffic accident. When the Yugoslav People's Army withdrew from Slovenia and he returned to Belgrade, his family stayed in Slovenia. One son had a job, but his wife and the youngest child were treated like social outcasts. The child could not be enrolled into a school and they were without money. The wife often came to Belgrade via Hungary. He didn't have an apartment and lived in a hotel. In a moment of distress, while she was with him in Belgrade, the wife shot the boy. The verdict was that she had to be placed under observation in a health institution. The husband was written off along with the first group of generals who were forced to leave, although he was not the kind of person to be written off. He got a one-room apartment, but still hasn't managed to move in." "There is more. A Moslem captain was in Slovenia from the first day of his active military service. He was married to a Slovenian woman and they had two children. He took part in all the operations in this war - on the side of the Yugoslav People's Army, of course. He was Yugoslav-oriented, he proved to be extremely good, he received the highest grades. He did not want to stay in Slovenia, he did not want to become a member of Alija's army although this was offered to him in Slovenia. However, his wife stayed there. He had to get divorced and missed the children. During his latest visit to his family he could not return in time because his passport had been taken away. He used tricks to get his travel document from the Slovenian interior ministry and arrived in Belgrade via Italy. He has been taken to the military disciplinary court for being absent from his unit without permission. He could lose his rank, and rank is the only thing he has left." "A Serbian officer, married to a Moslem woman took part in the war and was captured in Croatia. Later on he was exchanged. His family was in Petrinja, but he managed to bring them here - an unemployed wife and two children. He received an official decision on the cessation of his active military service 'because of the special needs of the service and the interests of the Yugoslav Army.' Oh yes, there is such an article in the Law on serving in the armed forces. It says 'the service of army personnel can be terminated on the decision of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when this is required by the service's special needs and the interests of the armed forces'. Today, such decisions are signed by Dobrica Cosic. Earlier on, this article of the Law was rarely applied, but it has often been resorted to lately, especially in those cases where there were no grounds for taking someone to a military disciplinary court, as was the case with the above mentioned Serb married to a Moslem woman. The man has 20 years of service and with the loss of his job he will also lose his profession, because his profession is a specific one linked to the army." The files on all the mentioned cases are with disciplinary and military courts, as well as with other military organs which make decisions in this regard. Who starts off these persecutions? Buturovic explains: unit commanders send their proposals which are gone through by the Personnel department, where assistant chief of staff, general Domazetovic, has the final say. What now when Domazetovic has been removed? Showdowns are carried out primarily for career reasons. Patriotism is being cashed in through advancements, apartments... There are various forms of abuse. The start of the mass purge is linked to the reactivation of general Nedeljko Boskovic and his taking over of the intelligence-security sector last May. The entire team that came with him is the result of a negative selection of personnel, which has been carried out in the army in the most systematic way. It is clear that in all the cases mentioned and in many of the unmentioned ones, there is a flagrant violation of all possible principles of equality and the equality of citizens contained not only in international documents ratified by Yugoslavia (the 1948 Declaration on human rights, the International pact on civil and political rights...), but also in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which specifically guarantees the citizens' equality regardless of sex, race, religion, nationality, confession and political affiliations. This, however, for the moment, does not disturb anyone too much. With regard to this, Buturovic cites yet another example. The service of a Croatian lieutenant-colonel, a citizen of Serbia, employed at the Center of high military schools, ceased after 32 years. His job was not terminated, but he was declared redundent. He never saw the order by which he lost his job, because the officer in charge did not want to give it to him. Why? The decision, signed by Dobrica Cosic, is allegedly - highly confidential.