Serbian Government was ‘Blind’ to Security Unit’s Deadly Threat

Looking back almost 20 years later, veteran journalist Milos Vasic told BIRN in an interview that the incident should have been recognised at the time as the "next step" in a chain of events that ultimately led to the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on March 12, 2003.

On the same day as the mutiny, Milorad 'Legija' Ulemek, the commander of the Special Operations Unit, had been due to testify in court about the attempted murder two years earlier of opposition party leader Vuk Draskovic, allegedly by Special Operations Unit and State Security operatives.

"I interpreted that as a threat [to the authorities]," Vasic said.

But the response to the mutiny from the coalition government led by Djindjic was weak, he argued.

"I know for sure that elements of the military police and the 63rd Parachute Brigade were deployed in the area and ready to disarm and break up the 'gang'", he said, but the government opposed the intervention.

Asked whether it was possible that members of the government did not understand what kind of problem the Special Operations Unit represented, Vasic responded that they failed to see reality.

"Everyone was blind," he said. "At one point, I asked Ceda [Cedomir] Jovanovic [then a key ally of Djindjic]: 'Why didn't you break up the gang immediately, after the rebellion? You simply abolish the unit, disarm its members and send them away to their houses.'

"And Ceda tells me this: 'We all thought, maybe we will need them for something.' And I think that Ceda was right - he was telling the truth."

Jovanovic later said that it was "indisputable" that the mutiny was "a prelude to destabilise the country, which resulted directly in the murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic".

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