Terrorism and State

Why Dodik Was Not at Mauzer's Funeral?

AIM Banja Luka, 13 June, 2000

Ljubisa Savic alias Mauzer, leader of the Democratic Party, war commander of the Panther Guards and former head of police administration of the ministry of internal affairs of Republika Srpska, was cleverly, professionally and brutally killed in Banja Luka.

Less than six months after the public of Republika Srpska had calmed down of the shock caused by planted explosives under the car of the owner of Nezavisne novine Zeljko Kopanja, a new terrorist act completely unveiled the seamy side of the community we live in, confirming that in this state only the criminals are powerful, that the politicians are just a screen or a shield for them, and that the citizens are nothing but hostages and their merchandise to bargain with each other.

In the first statements after he had come out of shock the crippled Zeljko Kopanja said: "If the police fails to reveal the perpetrators of this crime, it is not the question whether there will be any more assassinations, but only who will be the next".

The next was Ljubisa Savic Mauzer. Zeljko Kopanja was right like many others who had then stated similar things. But there was nobody to listen to them. Or perhaps simply did not wish to.

The epoch of terrorism in B&H as the last phase of dishonour and evil had in fact started on 7 July 1998, when in the early morning hours the vehicle of by now late Mauzer exploded. At the time Mauzer was the head of police administration of the ministry of internal affairs of RS; it was the time when it was believed that anti-corruption revolution and democratic changes were taking place here and that a happy ending was possible. Especially Savic himself believed that. He believed that it was possible to draw a line under the war years of high crime rate, that it was possible to bring to justice persons who had made a great wealth on the blood of the people, to draw a line between good and evil, justice and injustice, and put the police and institutions of the state back in the service of the people, as it in normal societies it is supposed to be. The problem was that crime was strong and had a goal, while those who had opened the hunting season against criminals, time will show, did not take it too seriously.

Who actually was serious became clear when just a week after the attempt on Mauzer's life - in Pale in the presence of his wife Srdjan Knezevic was riddled with bullets. Knezevic was deputy head of the state security centre of Serb Sarajevo, the young man who dared arrest Cicko Bjelica, cashier of the former ruling clique from Pale, on whose behalf Momcilo Krajisnik in person intervened to free him from the cell for interrogation in the police. Srdjan Knezevic also took seriously and personally the struggle against crime and that is why he was killed.

If there had been speculations that Mauzer had had many personal deals and unsettled accounts, and so the attempt on his life was not observed as a matter of principles and of the state, Srdjan Knezevic had been pure of such calculations. He had been an ordinary, honourable and courageous young man. Knezevic's death marked the end of the crackdown with crime, which the public became aware of a few months later. The desperate attempt of Mauzer and a group of policemen and inspectors loyal to him to bring the investigation on these two terrorist acts to the end by using equally desperate measures was in fact a swan song in the effort to put an end to the forces of evil. When Mauzer was dismissed from the police, and September elections completed, only journalists kept reminding of crime.

That is when assassination of police officer of B&H Federation Jozo Leotar occurred, as a testimony that Republika Srpska and B&H Federation are a system of connected vessels in the state called Bosnia, where habits and manners are in fact identical. That is why nobody is surprised that assassins of Jozo Leotar have never been found.

When Zeljko Kopanja's vehicle exploded, still nobody believed that assassinations were a regular phenomenon here. But nobody expected the police to find the perpetrators either. And, of course, it did not. It is a question whether it had seriously looked for them at all.

Did the story that Zeljko Kopanja was threatened with death before the attempt on his life, that he had sought protection, mean anything to anyone and to whom. Mauzer was also threatened before this final terrible act, they let him listen to a clock ticking over the phone as a criminal symbol of time running out. Did Mauzer address the police? Even if he had, what would have changed? Savic tried to protect himself the best he could. He was protected by his friends, too, but crime was stronger and better organised. He was killed brutally, in front of witnesses, downtown, and the killers got away. Should one believe that they will ever be found?

Why this whole story? Why repeating all these developments, so much exploited by the media? Because the public expects and deserves answers who the perpetrators are and who ordered the mentioned crimes which have never been clarified. And what sort of a society have we become if criminals are killing public figures - policemen, journalists - unpunished, and then simply merge with the masses, peacefully living among us. With what number will this black list end on which only Zeljko Kopanja has by some miracle survived? In a tide of terrorism like in Serbia or by legalising the underground as an acceptable way of living?

Milorad Dodik did not come to Mauzer's funeral because it was estimated that it was not safe for him. Of all the shocking stories, this one might the most shocking one, because it is a confession of impotence. While Kopanja has been and still is one of the leading persons of Dodik's propaganda, the prime minister's first journalist, Mauzer was one of Dodik's strongholds from the shadow, in the domain of security. of course, which was Savic's specialty. One of the well informed Savic's friends, convinced that Mauzer's murder is just an introduction into the hot summer that lies ahead, said, anonymously, of course, that with the murder of Mauzer the road towards Dodik was opened!? For whom? How? Why? For the sake of one's own safety hardly anyone would like to know answers to such questions. But what remained unclear after the attempt on Kopanja's life will be completely revealed in the investigation of the murder of Ljubisa Savic Mauzer. And this is the true power of Milorad Dodik.

Everybody in RS, and elsewhere, knows that Zeljko Kopanja is Dodik's personal friend whose newspaper has during all these years offered support without reservation to the prime minister, criticising (even without any reason) all those who even thought of damaging his position. In such state of relations inertness of Dodik's cabinet is quite incomprehensible when clarification of the attempt on Kopanja's life is concerned and taking the perpetrators to court, or at least raising charges against them. Except for the public accusation that this was done by forces which are sitting in Loznica, in neighbouring Serbia on the bank of the Drina, the rumours have stopped. The minister of MUP was not discharged, there were no expected personnel changes and pressure in the police. Except for the fact that Scotland Yard towed for expert opinion the demolished vehicle which belonged to the government of RS and which was used by Kopanja, the case was treated like any attack on an ordinary mortal. Somewhat intensified security measures provided usually for ministers who are not threatened by anything and a little more money for Nezavisne novine was about all. But it was not logical. Nowhere in the world a case of such proportions would end in this way.

If the story of Mauzer's friends is correct that for fear for his own safety the prime minister did not dare show up in Bijeljina at the funeral of his friend and loyal political supporter in a perfectly peaceful village with almost four thousand people among whom there were many other political and public figures, the situation is even more serious than the very fact that one of the most influential and powerful people of Semberija was killed. This means that things are no longer funny here and we should all be worried. If a man who has so comfortably spent the people's, donated and borrowed money on personal affairs of his chosen associates and of course his own and was doing it without any scruples, shamelessly, who defended criminal businessmen from his own ranks, convinced that nobody in RS was fit to check his affairs and his budget, and in it enjoyed support and protections of the most powerful countries of the world, has suddenly become frightened, it means that the situation here is much darker than in Serbia which is at this moment the legitimate country of darkness. It means that there is in fact no adequate police protection here, nor any safety and protection measures.

The story about the death of Ljubisa Savic Mauzer may after all yield positive results. Perhaps the prime minister who will retain a significant quantity of power even after next elections will finally realise that a part of his inexhaustible energy should have been spent on establishing institutions of the state, capable police, expert judiciary, uncorrupt border services. If not for the sake of ordinary citizen, for his own safety. As it is, the story about terrorists sent by Slobodan Milosevic to cause chaos here makes the impression of trite ordinary nonsense. Not because Slobodan Milosevic does not have the aspirations or capabilities to do it, but because such things in a state which has fit state institutions is not a serious problem.

Radmila Zigic

(AIM)