Minister Tastes Gunpowder

**Police Business

With everything that has happened in Belgrade recently it would come as no big surprise if the investigation showed that police played a key role in both planning and carrying out the spectacular assassinations of the past several years.

AIM Belgrade, February 19, 2001

Serbian Vice Premier and Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic is not certain whether he was the target of an assassination attempt or whether he just happened to be caught in the middle of a showdown between members of two rival gangs. In downtown Belgrade on Feb. 16 at about 1 a.m., the minister's government Audi A8, stopped at a red light in the middle lane at a downtown intersection. Next to them, in the righthand lane, a BMW in which Sasa Milic, 21, and Marko Markovic, 20, had already come to a halt. At that moment another vehicle, a Mercedes, in which Milojica Djurisic, 41, Vladimir Macesic, 31, and Aleksandar Veljovic, 21, were riding, approached the two vehicles from behind, and stopped in the middle of the intersection blocking the way. According to what Minister Mihajlovic and police investigator Dragan Pantic said at a press conference, Djurisic came out of the car with a gun in his hand.

As soon as he realized what was happening, the minister's driver stepped on the gas pedal and ran the red light, driving around the Mercedes. At that moment another Mercedes which Mihajlovic's escort was riding in reached the intersection. Djurisic fired in their direction, and they returned fire... When the smoke dispersed, no one was injured, but the men from the Mercedes and the BMW were also gone. Thanks to two uniformed police who were on a regular patrol near the site of the incident and wrote down the license plates of the vehicles involved, the five suspects were soon apprehended.

Could it be that members of organized crime, acting in cahoots with a part of the former police and state leadership, have declared war on the new authorities? Supporters of this theory say this was the third such attack in less than one month. The first incident happened on Jan. 28, when an unknown assailant shot at Dragan Jaksic, the driver of the new State Security Service head, Goran Petrovic, and wounded him. On Feb,. 6, a sports utility vehicle belonging to Cedomir Jovanovic, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) whip in the Serbian Legislature, was destroyed by fire under still unclarified circumstances. Finally, the minister of the interior found himself in the middle of a street shootout. According to Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, state officials are receiving various threats. Mihajlovic also confirmed he had gotten anonymous threats. This intimidation of the new authorities might be aimed at achieving two goals. The first is to force them to abandon investigation of ostensibly professional assassinations that have been shaking Serbia in the past decade and the otherwise wondrous underworld of corruption and criminal deals. The other -- to warn them not to take too seriously their promises of the need for the rule of law in the country and for establishing a clear distinction between criminals and the police.

Despite the new authorities' pompous announcements that they would once and for all do away with organized crime, nothing has changed. The best confirmation of this was the murder of Milutin Stepanovic, 31, also known as Krizman, and his bodyguard, Gradimir Plakalovic, 36, that happened the same night as the incident involving Minister Mihajlovic. The vehicle the two murdered underworld figures – Krizman was allegedly involved in the oil and drug "business" -- were riding in was approached by another car. The shots that killed them were fired through the window of the other vehicle by a hitman armed with an automatic weapon, and that was it... A swift, efficient crime, the classical Belgrade style hit.

This assassination, coupled with numerous other similar murders, shows the degree to which crime has seeped into every nook and cranny of society and of general insecurity. Maybe Petrovic's driver, Jaksic, was just a victim of a failed car theft attempt; maybe Jovanovic's car had a fault that resulted in a fire; maybe Mihajlovic accidentally found himself in a tight stop and narrowly averted death at the hands of a jumpy mobster. According to some reports Milic and Markovic were in fact following and harassing Djurisic's girlfriend while she was riding in a cab, and she called him by mobile telephone to come and help her. But after the series of unclarified professional hits of the past decade no one is willing to accept the word "accidental" as a valid explanation. Mihajlovic also expressed some doubt -- at the press conference he said he was not expecting someone to immediately admit he was planning to assassinate the interior minister.

The answer to the question of what is actually going on is therefore sought in the changes that have affected the underworld as well, that is, in the big campaign of clearing the ground: many ties of long standing are being broken, attempts at establishing new ones are under way, as well as at giving a new form to old deals, and so on. Given that links between the police leadership and political and criminal bosses were one of the pillars of the former regime, it should not be expected that these structures will give up without offering any resistance. And no words should be wasted in describing their ruthlessness and readiness to use any means at hand.

One thing is certain -- policemen or people close to the police were to be found on both sides. True, Djurisic is the owner of a casino in the Excelsior Hotel, but he was accompanied by a young police novice, Veljkovic, and a former police inspector, Macesic, sacked from the force for serving as a bodyguard to underworld figures. Milic, the driver of the BMW, is the son of a body shop owner who worked for the police. The entire case somehow recalls the murder of Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic. After the former most prominent Serbian para-military leader was gunned down on Jan. 15, 2000, in the Intercontinental Hotel, the police apprehended three suspects, two of whom were on the force, whereas one of the men killed during the attack on Arkan was a senior official of the federal police.

Mihajlovic is also well aware that the struggle against organized crime should begin with radical changes inside the police. After the recent events in Belgrade it will come as no big surprise if the investigation shows that the police participated in all the spectacular assassinations of past years -- both as organizers and executors. The attitude of the force during the events of Oct. 5 last year, should not serve as an excuse for exculpating those who are guilty. Neither should this be the case with people involved in shady deals who offered assistance to certain DOS leaders, so that they could continue with some other type of criminal activity. Until matters are truly put in order, all claims of a struggle against crime will sound the same as the ones so often made by officials of the former regime.

Philip Schwarm

(AIM)