Turning a Blind Eye

If official statistics are to be believed, the rate of crime in Serbia is dropping. According to data published at the end of 1993, the total number of crimes has decreased. This was confirmed by the new/old Interior Minister Zoran Sokolovic at the end of a recent session of the Serbian Assembly: "We will soon announce the balance for 1993. The figures speak for themselves. They say that we can talk of a decrease in crime and the more efficient resolving of all criminal cases, even the most difficult ones".

But, before frightened citizens start believing that the streets are safe once again, it would be good to recall that police statistics, i.e., the part meant for the public, cover all types of crimes under one heading. The rate of crime is really dropping, if we consider the period of rampant hyperinflation when no one was robbing empty kiosks or shops. The structure of the crimes has changed, so that it would be necessary to see how many serious crimes (murder, robbery, etc.) had been committed last year, and how many had been solved. Apart from this, statistics do not show a true picture of the situation, especially with regard to organized crime.

Namely, none of the spectacular murders committed in the last few years have been solved: no one knows who gunned down Branislav Matic Beli in front of his house in the suburb of Vozdovac; or who killed Aleksandar Knezevic Knele in Belgrade's Hyatt Hotel; or Zorz Stankovic in front of the "Merkator" shopping center in New Belgrade - even though there were a lot of witnesses; the identity of two men wearing overalls, who killed Radojica Nikcevic, has never been established.

There are many such examples, but it will be enough to analyze the above mentioned cases. All the victims were members of the Belgrade mafia elite (Stankovic, Knezevic), had financial power (Stankovic, Matic, especially Nikcevic), were connected with political circles (Matic, Nikcevic), had friends among Serbia's and Yugoslavia's power-brokers (Knezevic, Nikcevic), links with the state security ("I don't know whose state security I'm working for, the Serbian, Montenegrin or the Federal," said Nikcevic once when drunk), and finally, that often mentioned expression "organized crime", or the syndicate. In short, money, politics, the secret police and countless stories of joint operations with the representatives of the authority.

The Police, therefore, are not resolving the "big" cases which come under "taboo" categories, but brag with their discovery of perpetrators of classic murders - for e.g. 13-year-old M.G. who killed her father while he was sleeping, or crimes for gain (the murder of a three-member family) in Kragujevac. With all due respect for the efforts made by police operatives, there is an impression that it not too difficult to solve "amateur" murders made out of passion or for gain. The attractive cases are covered by silence, and it is becoming heavier as time goes by. Calling on statistics can be dangerous and unreliable, because figures never illustrate reality when speaking of organized crime, which, as experts of the Belgrade Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research claim, are visible to the naked eye here.

It is interesting that Minister Sokolovic made his claim on the drop in crime just after a session in the Assembly at which he had not spoken a word, even though he had often be called to give a reply. Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) deputy Slavoljub Filipovic said in the Assembly, that "police not belonging to our state are arresting foreign citizens in the center of Belgrade, the mafia have bought the police who are pretending dumbness and turning a blind eye in the face of hundreds of tank trucks of fuel, thousands of trucks full of cigarettes, while racketeers are operating unhindered, in spite of a police force of 100,000 men". "The arrest of two ministers has opened up such possibilities, that it could happen that a good part of the Government moves from Nemanjina St. (Serbian Government building) to Bacvanska St. (the Central jail), said Dragan Todorovic, a Serbian Radical Party (SRS) deputy.

With regard to the accused ministers Sava Vlajkovic and Velimir Mihajlovic, and their confessions prior to proceedings, it is interesting to note that the two men gave an identical description of former Serbian PM Radoman Bozovic's involvement in the theft and division of foreign currency. The Belgrade district public prosecutor claims that the police checked the ministers' statements and concluded that Bozovic was clean.

Speaking of the purchase of armored vehicles and other technology for the Ministry of the Interior, deputy Velimir Ilic said that he had witnessed the powerlessness of a police patrol in Zlatibor, when they couldn't intervene while thieves were breaking into a cottage, because a policeman's shoes fell apart. Ilic recommended that Sokolovic "go back where he belongs, and since he came from an agricultural cooperative, to return there and be its director, because that was all he was capable of."

"What kind of a state is it in which those who rob and trick several hundred thousand of our citizens can walk around freely, and have bodyguards, in order that, God forbid, some tricked citizen might not look at them unkindly. I am afraid that the state and crime are so intertwined, that it would be very difficult to untangle them", said Veselin Jankovic.

Deputy Bora Milic Mutavdzic said that the mining complex Bor produced gold and copper and that it didn't have any unsold stocks, which proved that a market for such products existed. The only problem was that there was no money. Mutavdzic wanted to know on whose bank accounts had money from Bor copper and gold sales ended.

"After two days in police custody, all such prisoners, i.e. persons who had not been sentenced, requested and received medical aid', said SPO deputy Borivoje Borovic, reminding the deputies that prisoners in custody were beaten up in jail and cited patients' hospital cards in the Central jail.

President of the Sports Association "Crvena Zvezda" Milivoje Stamatovic said that the Association's board members belonged to all political parties. SPO deputy Aleksandar Cotric said: "That is true, its just that the president of Crvena Zvezda's Boxing Club is also President of the Party of Serb Unity, i.e., Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, a criminal and war criminal. Another member of the Crvena Zvezda board is Serbia's police eminence grise Radmilo Bogdanovic..." (It should be mentioned that the public prosecutor is under obligation to check Cotric's allegations.) Cotric also accused the mandator Mirko Marjanovic, who, he claims, as director of "Progres" secured for himself and his friends commissions in trade deals with foreign firms. "Could Mr. Marjanovic tell us something more about publicly made claims that his property is estimated at 40 million dollars, and that a villa is being built for him in Dedinje (exclusive Belgrade residential area), said Cotric. "Marjanovic claims that Sokolovic is responsible for the successful functioning of the Serbian Ministry of Interior, and that he is re-appointing him Minister of Police for this reason, even though a police force with Sokolovic at its head, protects criminals".

Cotric substantiated his claim with an official report from the Municipality of Loznica on the persistent silence of the Serbian police with regard to data on who sold "Golf" cars stolen from the car park in Vogosca, a Sarajevo suburb. The cars were sold to influential customers in Loznica and their friends for 5,000 DEM/car. These same cars were offered at 8,000 DEM to buyers in Belgrade, together with forged papers. It is not known if the police questioned the sellers among whom were members of a well organized and officially unrecognized paramilitary formation stationed in Erdut (Serb-held area in East Croatia) and in Belgrade, according to need. Well informed cynics claim that the feeble involvement of the police in the "Golf" scandal is linked to respectable customers, and the apprehension of the police that they might upset the privileged bosses of the underworld, and shed light on the role played by some Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina leaders in the whole affair.

Sokolovic did not react to the accusations, apart from saying briefly in the Assembly hall after being re-elected: "Those are not correct facts", (quoted by the Belgrade daily "Politika on March 19). What the minister thought and why he kept quiet in the Assembly, will remain his secret. What matters is that his position as head of the Serbian Police is not in jeopardy, and that the new Serbian PM Mirko Marjanovic spoke positively of his achievements. All this aside, the initiation of a new minister into the secrets of the service would be time-consuming, and in spite of malicious comments that someone else is really at the head of the police (Radmilo Bogdanovic), we must wait for Sokolovic to forget what he has to, and for a new post to be found for him.