A GREAT SHIFT

Milosevic Meeting Demands of the Hague Tribunal Halfway

AIM Belgrade, March 13, 1996

A dramatic shift occurred in the attitude of official Belgrade towards the Hague Tribunal. The International Tribunal for war crimes, the investigators of which were not even permitted to enter Serbia until now, last week suddenly got even more than they could have expected. In a talk with an American delegation headed by John Cornbloom, President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, not only made a firm promise to enable opening of the office of the Tribunal in Belgrade, but also promised extradition of two soldiers of the army of Bosnian Serbs who might not only be convicted of war crimes, but might also prove to be important witnesses.

It has already become evident that this is a sign of much more than false promises. Indeed, Graham Blewitt, Assistant of the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor Richard Goldstone, landed at Belgrade airport on Monday accompanied by Deyan Mihov previously appointed to be in charge of the Belgrade office of the Tribunal, and two investigators. The very next day, on Tuesday, Mr. Blewitt's team was enabled to talk with the two arrested soldiers. Especially for the occasion, Drazen Erdemovic (25) and his friend Radoslav Kremenovic (29) were brought from Novi Sad jail to Belgrade.

These two were arrested in Vojvodina on March 2, just when they had intended to go to the Hague and testify at the Tribunal for war crimes. It is important to to mention that they are by no means just "casual witnesses". Drazen Erdemovic admitted that he himself had killed about seventy unarmed prisoners in the operation around Srebrenica. Nevertheless, his wish to accuse his superiors was stronger than fear for his own destiny.

Animosity between Erdemovic and Kremenovic on the one and two of their superiors on the other side lies at the foundation of this attempt. The immediate superior of the two young men, lieutenant Milorad Pelemis and the commander of the unit the two belonged to, colonel Pero Salapura, constantly maltreated the two eventual defectors according to their statements. When Pelemis threw Erdemovic out of the apartment in Bijeljina he had been given during the war, they decided to speak up. Erdemovic went to his friend Kremenovic in Becej where these two decided to take vengeance on their tormenters.

They concluded that the most efficient way to do it would be to report them to the Hague Tribunal and testify against them. Since they did not know how to get in touch with the Tribunal, they phoned the information service and asked for the phone number of the American Embassy. Then they phoned the Embassy and said that they were soldiers of the army of Bosnian Serbs who have important data to offer and therefore wish to talk to a diplomat and a journalist. The operator did not take them very seriously: he said he did not know which diplomat to refer them to, and as concerning a journalist, he advised them to call someone from the list of media which have correspondents in Belgrade.

The list of phone numbers he gave them was in alphabetical order, so ABC television network happened to be the first. A girl answered at the office of ABC, and when Erdemovic and Kremenovic explained what it was all about, she answered that at the moment there was no reporter at the office and that she would talk to the headquarters in New York.

The two stated their conditions: they would give interviews if they would be enabled to get to the Hague. Then the two turncoats gave their Becej home phone number and patiently waited. It seems that the New York office was not quite convinced that their story was authentic, since they sent Vanesa Vasic Janekovic, a press journalist of the War Report.

In the meantime, the associate of the ABC office informed her friend, a correspondent of Le Figaro about the story, who also decided to write a story about the two soldiers. When all these actors finally gathered in Belgrade, they phoned Kremenovic and then in two cars started on their way to Becej. Public appearance of the group, however, did not end with this. After the interview, they all went to a near-by castle-restaurant in order to celebrate the successfully completed job.

Erdemovic and Kremenovic were told that ABC headquarters had contacted the Hague Tribunal and were assured that the two men could be transported to the Netherlands if they took refuge in one of the embassies. They stayed for a long time in the restaurant, and therefore decide to postpone the operation for the next day. In order to provide them with a means of transportation, the journalist of Le Figaro gave them the keys of his car, and they agreed to meet the next morning at the same place. When they failed to show up, he went to Kremenovic's house where he learnt that his interlocutors had been arrested at five o'clock that morning.

Miss Vasic Janekovic was on her way to the Belgrade airport at the time, planning to fly to London. She was carrying casettes with recordings of the interviews made in Becej. However, she was taken into custody at the airport and the material was taken away from her. She had not made copies because she did not know how to do it with the camera she had been given.

When the Hague was informed about the destiny of potential witnesses, they demanded their extradition. The official Belgrade did not give an outright answer, but issued a bleak statement instead. The role in the event of foreign journalists was not mentioned at all, nor the indirect contact the arrested two men had had with the Tribunal. On the contrary, the impression was that Erdemovic, or Kremenovic, was arrested for, as the statement said, "founded suspicion" that he had "participated in mass liquidations of civilian population around Srebrenica. In the presence of his council of the defence, the defendent confessed that he had committed the act he was accused of." In the end of the statement, the public prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia said that the Hague Tribunal "was informed about preliminary results of the investigation.

The Tribunal, however, did not wish to accept this manner of cooperation. Great diplomatic pressure was exerted on the official Belgrade, which bore fruit last week when the investigators were permitted to come to Serbia. Their mere arrival would not have meant much, the important thing is that on Tuesday they were enabled to see the witnesses - the suspects. John Chatack, American assistant Secretary of State for human rights, who had come to Belgrade with Cornbloom delegation, helped them to achieve this.

The effects of the change in Milosevic's attitude to the Tribunal still remain to be seen. For the time being, namely, it is impossible to assess where Erdemovic's and Kremenovic's testimonies could lead. One of the indications of the direction the future investigation could take is the statement of Kremenovic's father given to Nasa Borba on Monday. He described his son as a soldier by profession and said that he was an "active officer" obviously implying that his job was in the Army of Yugoslavia.

(AIM) Dragan Cicic