A Third Attempt at Revenge

One of the things most of the public has longed for since June 1991, when the war and breakup of former Yugoslavia began, finally came true last week. They wanted someone tried for "treason and cowardice" to make the breakup of the state and its army easier to accept.

A Belgrade court sentenced General Vladimir Trifunovic to 11 years in prison for undermining the military and defence capabilities of the country. The same court that sentenced the former Varazdin crops commander also sentenced his chief-of-staff, colonel Sreten Raduski, to seven years and mechanized brigade commander, colonel Berislav Popov, to six years along with colonel Vladimir Davidovic to a year and six months and lieutenant-colonel Milos Lukic to a year in jail.

The trial had a clear political dimension from the start.

Poet and former parliamentary deputy Brana Crncevic (a prominent member of the Socialist Party of Serbia) demanded the trial of the man who "ruined the authority of the army". Former Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) chief-of-staff, General Blagoje Adzic, openly confessed at the trial that the decision to prosecute Trifunovic was taken by the general staff, not the military prosecutor, with the explanation "let him prove he's innocent in court".

Military court judge colonel Milos Saljic was the first to prosecute the case in 1992. He freed the defendants and left his post soon afterwards when he was transferred to administration. Captain Djordje Dozet also freed the Varazdin corps officers in 1993 and he's no longer a military lawyer either. Before he left his post, Dozet approached the army prosecutor in the general staff to demand raising charges against members of former Yugoslavia's presidency whose decisions seriously affected events in Slovenia and Croatia. Dozet received some proof that the presidency members had committed crimes during his trial of Trifunovic.

As far as I know, the army prosecutor never responded to the demand, but he did start the Varazdin process for a third time. The court martial was presided over by colonel Radmoir Gojovic and it finally found Trifunovic guilty. Gojovic's job was made so much easier by expert witnesses who changed their testimony after the second trial. They told the second court martial that the Varazdin corps officers faced an impossible situation in which they could resist attacks for just a few days (despite the opinion voiced by former federal defence secretary general Veljko Kadijevic who said they could have fought until the Vance plan was adopted in January 1992). In the meantime, the experts discovered that Trifunovic could have organized a decisive defence.

The moral dimension of the court martial was pointed out by Adzic. He admitted that there was no point to the trial and that the Varazdin corps officers could only have gotten themselves killed since they would not have gotten any help. Only uninformed people could ask why the decimated units could not break out of the blockade.

General Trifunovic has already been tried for his part in the war by Croatia, which sentenced him to 15 years for war crimes. He could be the only man in history to stand trial and get sentenced in two different (but so similar) states for the same thing in different contexts. Like thousands of other JNA officers who honorably served their people, he lost everything in this war - a state, property and above all his family. His son, daughter and grandchildren live in the other state where he's a war criminal and they, in turn, were expelled from their apartment. His wife, who stayed with him in probably the bleakest hotel in the world (Belgrade's Bristol hotel) over the past few years, left for Germany where her sister will help her earn some money just to survive.

Most of Trifunovic's officers face similar situations. Colonel Popov has also been sentenced to 15 years by Croatia and Slovenia has issued a warrant for his arrest. During the trial, Popov described the situation: "I'm on trial because I'm still alive. I could have sacrificed myself for someone else's benefit just to prove I'm a member of the "heavenly people". I didn't agree with that."

The sentences handed out to the Varazdin corps officers can't avoid a number of intonations, especially about the bias of the court.

Before and after the Varazdin episode, JNA generals (some of them testified against Trifunovic) handed equipment, ammunition dumps and entire republics to the other side and no one accused them of anything or attempted to put them in jail for years because they "tried to save lives which are much more important than weapons".

The Varazdin corps officers had another choice. They could have turned Varazdin into another Vukovar and perhaps draw the favor of nationalists.