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BELGRADE / THE HAGUE – Defense witness Stojan Novakovic stated today, at the Hague trial against Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic-Frenki, that Zeljko Raznatovic-Arkan’s guard is 1991-95. in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he fought within the Territorial Defense and under the command of the JNA or the armies of the Serbs there.
Novakovic, who was a logistics officer for the Serbian Voluntary Guard (SDG), claimed, was extremely close to Raznatovic, denied that the SDG had anything to do with the Serbian SDB, according to an indictment that Stanisic, 70, a former head of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) and Simatovic, 70, the main operative of the service, are accused of crimes against Croats and Muslims, and the Arkan Guard committed many of these crimes as a unit of the Serbian SDB.
Simatovic’s witness claimed, however, that “no one from the Guard was ever connected to the Serbian SDB. That was impossible, no one who had a connection to the SDB could be a member of the SDG.”
Raznatovic himself never received an order from the Serbian SDB to bring the SDGs to a battlefield, and the unit entered combat operations “under the command and in cooperation with the JNA or the armies of the Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK). or Republika Srpska (RS) “, stated Novakovic.
“The Serbian SDB had no influence on Zeljko, because he never asked anybody about anything,” said the witness.
According to Novakovic, the ODS came into action in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the invitation of the leaders of the Serbs there, and not at the order of the Serbian SDBs.
Novakovic also denied the allegation that the Serbian SDB armed Arkan’s guard, claiming that it was the JNA who did so.
As proof that the SDG was part of the RSK army, Simatovic’s defense attorney, Mihajlo Bakrac, presented a September 1991 order appointing Raznatovic as “commander of the TO center in Erdut” by then-Prime Minister Goran Hadzic. .
According to the witness, Raznatovic’s formation went to the battlefield in Eastern Slavonia in the summer of 1991 through Radmilo Bogdanovic, a MP tasked with assisting Serbs outside of Serbia, and General Tomislav Simovic, then Serbian Defense Minister. .
“General Simovic approved of our idea of going to defend the Serbs, but said that we must go to Eastern Slavonia with the approval of the JNA, that is, the Territorial Defense,” stated Novakovic, who attended the conversation.
According to the witness, Bogdanović, who was Serbian Minister of the Interior until the opposition demonstrations in March 1991, referred Arkan to General Simović.
After the conversation at the OT headquarters in Serbia, Raznatovic told the witness that he had received instructions to “report to the OT commander of Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem in Erdut, and the OT commander Radovan Stojicic-Badza.”
According to prosecutors, Stojicic was a senior official in the Serbian Interior Ministry at the time.
Novakovic testified that Raznatovic was “seriously injured” when Milorad Ulemek-Legija transferred from the SDG to the Serbian SDB in 1996, where he was admitted “to a competition”.
“Zeljko told me that Legija betrayed us,” the witness said.
When asked by Bakrac’s lawyer if he had ever met the second defendant, Simatovic, Novakovic described that as a “football coach” at Belgrade’s “Madera” cafe, “he would sit every night with Miljan Miljanic, Dr. Aco Obradovic and Milojko Pantic “.
“On one occasion, someone with longer and more garish hair passed by. He said goodbye to Milojko Pantic and introduced himself to us as Simatovic. When he left, Pantic told us it was Frankie from the SDB,” the witness said.
Novakovic will be questioned tomorrow by defense attorneys for the first defendant Jovica Stanisic.
(Kurir.rs/Beta)
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