Mutiny in Serbia: How a State Security Unit’s Rebellion Went Unpunished

"The commander ordered that the Communication Centre will no longer receive calls," said a note entered at 5.10pm on November 9, 2001 in the daily log of the Communication Centre in Kula, the headquarters of Serbia's State Security Special Operations Unit, the JSO.

By that time, the situation at the JSO headquarters was tense: commander Dusan 'Gumar' Maricic gathered his assistants together and told them that he had decided that the unit was going into "protest" mode and ordered all its officers to return to Kula in northern Serbia, and to remain there. JSO members abandoned their duties as bodyguards for officials or as security staff at official buildings and went back to their HQ.

This was the beginning of what soon became known as the JSO mutiny, which saw the unit blocking main roads in two cities in Serbia, demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic, and urging the adoption of new legislation to regulate Serbia's dealings with the UN war crimes court in The Hague.

Slobodan Milosevic's regime had been ousted in a mass uprising the previous year, and the new government led by Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic had started to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal, angering nationalists in the country. Milosevic had already been detained and sent to stand trial. The JSO said it had decided to take action because it had been forced to arrest two brothers who were wanted for war crimes by the UN court.

The mutiny continued from November 9 until November 17, and ended with the resignations of State Security chief Goran Petrovic and his deputy Zoran Mijatovic. Interior Minister Mihajlovic also offered to quit but his resignation was rejected by the government. The JSO was moved out of the State Security Service's control.

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