Monday, January 29, 2001

By Gregory Piatt
Stars and Stripes

A poster distributed by the U.S. State Department shows persons publicly indicted for war crimes. Among them are the three most wanted: Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, and Ratko Mladic.

The following is a list of Serbs who live, work or have influence in towns in the U.S. sector in Bosnia that an International Crisis Group report claims should be charged with war crimes. All the following are allegations taken from the report, and the charges have not been proven in court. Those with asterisks are considered indictable by the Serbian Republic ministry of defense.

Bijeljina

Mirko Blagojevic: He led his paramilitary group Mirkovi cetnici in an attack and ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina. His group took part in the attack on Brcko. Now, he is a powerful member of the Serb Radical Party, which was not allowed to participate in April’s municipal and this month’s national election because the party wouldn’t remove Blagojevic and two other party officials.

Vojkan Djurkovic: He was a major in the late Arkan’s notorious paramilitary group, the Tigers, and head of the Commission for the Exchange of the Civilian Population in Bijeljina. The commission charged huge fees and forced civilians to hand over money, valuables and sign over property. During July and August 1994, he organized the forced expulsion of 6,000 people in Bijeljina. Djurkovic also took 1,100 military age men from concentration camps to dig ditches on the front lines. Today, he runs a detective agency.

Jovan Acimovic: As a member of the Serbian Republic’s special police he played a major role in the final wave of evictions of non-Serbs in Bijeljina just before the signing of the Dayton peace accords. Currently, he is a member of the Ugljevik municipal police.

Vlado Vrkes*: During two waves (1992, 1995) of brutal ethnic cleansing of Sansk Most in northwestern Bosnia, he was the deputy to the president of the Sanski Most Crisis staff and deputy to the president of the municipality. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed, deported or detained in concentration camps. There are at least seven mass graves that surround the city. He served as secretary of the national Serb Democratic Party and is considered to have command responsibility. According to the ICG, he is an influential figure in Bijeljina.

Bratunac and Srebrenica

Luka Bogdanovic: Commander of the Bratunac police in 1992 during the first wave of killings and ethnic cleansing in Bratunac. Currently, he’s a police officer in Zvornik.

Miroslav Deronjic*: In 1992, he was the head of the Bratunac wing of hard-line Serb Democratic Party, founded by former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, when he called in Serbian paramilitaries, who participated the murderous ethnic cleansing of Bratunac in 1992. He was named Karadzic’s commissar for Srebrenica in July 1995 and was with Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic and Gen. Radoslav Krstic during negotiations with Dutch peacekeepers and Muslims in the town. Today, he is a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly.

Zlatko Celanovic: He participated in ethnic cleansing in Bratunac by handling security in the town and oversaw the interrogation of captured non-Serbs. He was the secretary of the Bratunac Municipal Assembly until April.

Ljubisav Simic: He has denied the Srebrenica massacre of 7,000 people took place and served as the president of the Bratunac municipal assembly from 1992-95 and was one of the main organizers of ethnic cleansing in Bratunac. Today, he is still a member of the municipal assembly.

Miodrag Josipovic*: He was the chief of the guards during a massacre at an elementary school in Bratunac. He was commander of the Bratunac police from 1993 to 1995. Josipovic is closely connected to attempts to cover up the mass graves from Srebrenica and evidence from concentration camps at the end of the war. He reportedly organized the stoning of Srebrenica widows who came to the town to commemorate the massacre in May. He was certified by the OSCE in his current post of mayor of Bratunac.

Najdan Mladjenovic: Commanded a paramilitary unit in 1992 that carried out attacks on villages of Harance and Glogova, where dozens of civilians were killed and others deported to concentration camps. Today, he is the director of Kartonaza, a public company in Bratunac.

Miladin Simic: Local people say he took part of ethnic cleansing of villages surrounding Bratunac in 1992. He was removed as president of the Bratunac Municipal Assembly in 1999 by the Office of the High Representative. He remains an influential person in Bratunac politics, cooperating closely with Deronjic, Josipovic and others on the assembly. Simic heads an illegal paramilitary organization in Bratunac. He has connections with other paramilitary groups and they showed up in camouflage uniforms when Muslim refugees were returning to their homes in Bratunac earlier this year.

Novak Stjepanovic: One of the organizers of ethnic cleansing in Bratunac and Srebrenica and Sase. In 1992 it was reported that he participated in the enslavement and detention of dozens of civilians. Stjepanovic is the current president of the local Serb Radical Party in Srebrenica.

Brcko

Djordje Ristanic: In 1992-93, he was president of Brcko and the head of the Brcko Crisis Staff when Serbian forces bombarded Muslim and Croat neighborhoods and executed a reign of terror in which property was taken or destroyed, non-Serbs were executed or rounded up and put in concentration camps. Ristanic was appointed in March by former Brcko Administrator Robert Farrand to the District’s Interim Council.

Nadeljko Rasulo*: He was superior authority in Sanski Most during the war as the president of the Sanski Most Crisis staff and the president of the municipality where two brutal waves of ethnic cleansing occurred. During the war, he signed documents organizing the deportation of non-Serbs, ethnic cleansing and usurpation of property. Many of those documents were captured when Sanski Most fell in 1995. According to the ICG, he plays an influential role in Brcko.

Doboj

Milan Ninkovic*: Human Rights Watch named Ninkovic in 1996 as one of the five principal organizers of ethnic cleansing in the Doboj area, where concentration and rape camps were set up. As the president of the local Serb Democratic Party and municipal council, Ninkovic announced on Radio Doboj in 1993 that all Muslims should be killed and that the city should remain a Serb city. As one of Doboj’s influential people, he still is the local president of the Democratic Party. The OSCE has banned him from running for office because of obstructing the implementation of Dayton. He has been prohibited from attending municipal council meetings. Now, he is the director of the publicly owned Technogas company and a leader of an illegal paramilitary group.

Andrija Bjelosevic*: Paramilitary organizations reported to Bjelosevic when he served as a regional chief of police and acting commander of the Center for Security Services in Doboj from 1991-93. Troops took orders from him and he told them to kill Muslims, Human Rights Watch reported. He works as an adviser on police and security matters for to the Serb Republic’s interior minister.

Vlado Djurdjevic: Human Rights Watch said he was involved in the organization of Doboj’s ethnic cleansing campaign when he replaced Bjelosevic as regional police chief in 1993. He remained as police chief until 1998. He is now the director of the Doboj Invest.

Drago Ljubicic: As president of the Doboj municipal assembly, he formed military units in 1991 before the war in Bosnia broke out. He took part in the occupation and ethnic cleansing of six surrounding villages. Ljubicic ran the municipal government throughout the war and was considered to have command responsibility over concentration camps in the area, where inmates were murdered, starved, beaten, tortured and used as human shields on the front line. Today, he is the director of customs in Doboj.

Han Pijesak

Bogdan Todorovic: One of the founders of the Han Pijesak Serb Democratic Party, he led the local Serbian crisis staff and municipal war presidency at the time Han Pijesak was ethnically cleansed. During the ethnic cleansing, 94 non-Serbs were murdered and a detention facility was set up where men were killed and women and children were raped. Currently, he is the director of Radio Han Pijesak.

Goran Kanostravac: Commander of the police during the ethnic cleansing. Today, he is a member of the Bijeljina police.

Dusan Gasevic: He was a member of the local Serbian crisis staff at the time Han Pijesak was ethnically cleansed. Currently, he is the speaker of the municipal council.

Ratko Mladic: He was the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serb Army. Along with former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb president Karadzic, Mladic is one of the big three war criminals that the U.S. government put a $5 million bounty on. He conducted the massacre in Srebrenica where 7,000 people were murdered. Now, he reportedly lives in Belgrade, but has a weekend house in Han Pijesak that he visits from time to time.

Teslic

Savo Knezevic*: A Human Rights Watch report named him the wartime president of the Teslic Serb Democratic Party, member of the Bosnian Serb parliament during the war, an Orthodox priest and one of the principal organizers of ethnic cleansing in Teslic. Currently, he is an Orthodox priest.

Nikola Peresic: Serving as the president of the Teslic Crisis Staff and president of the municipality, he was one of the principal organizers of the ethnic cleansing and an organizer of a paramilitary group. Peresic is no longer in politics, but today is still influential in Teslic.

Milan Stankovic*: He became the most powerful military figure in the Teslic-Doboj region in 1991 while serving as an officer in the Yugoslav Army. In 1992, he carried out the shelling and attack of Doboj aimed at driving out the non-Serb population. After the Doboj attack, his forces shelled and attacked six villages that surrounded Doboj to drive out the non-Serb populations. Currently, he works for security forces in Serbia, but a local media report suggested he still may be in Doboj.

Mirko Slavulja: He was Stankovic’s security officer and obstructed the investigation of a Serbian paramilitary group that committed violent acts against non-Serbs and Serbs. Now, he is the chief of police in Doboj and is on the list submitted to the U.N. Mission in Bosnia of employees of the Serb Republic Interior Ministry.

Vlasenica

Rajko Dukic*: Along with Karadzic, he was one of the founding members of the Serb Democratic Party and served as the first president of the party’s executive committee for all of Bosnia. He participated in the ethnic cleansing with Karadzic. At the beginning of the war, he helped orchestrate the massive illegal transfer of funds from Bosnian banks in to the accounts to support the Bosnian Serb Army. As president of the Democratic Party’s Crisis Staff for all of Bosnia and coordinator of a Serb autonomous region that includes Vlasenica, he bears command responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of more than 15,000 non-Serbs in the Vlasenica area. According to witness testimony during a war crimes trial in The Hague, Dukic was a close associate of Dragan Nikolic, the commander of the nearby Susica concentration camp. As the director of Boksit, a publicly owned bauxite mine and largest employer in the area, he is the area’s most politically and economically powerful person.

Goran Viskovic: He was commander of the Vlaseenica special police unit that carried out ethnic cleansing in Vlasenica. He took part in torture, rape and execution of prisoners at the Susica concentration camp. Today, refugees returning to their homes can find Viskovic working at the municipal court as a security guard.

Milenko Stanic: During the war, he held positions of significant authority as mayor of the municipality and member of the local Serb Democratic Crisis staff. He was in the chain of command that planned, ordered and carried out the ethnic cleansing in Vlasenica. He serves as director of the Serb Republic’s telephone company, but keeps a low profile.

Rade Bjelanovic: As the former Serb chief of police in the self-proclaimed Serb municipality of Milici, located on the territory of the Vlasenica municipality, he commanded forces that murdered 80 Muslims in Zaklopac. He organized the destruction and ethnic cleansing of 10 villages in the Milici area of Vlasenica. The former director of Boksit, a publicly-owned bauxite mine, now lives in the Milici area.

Zvornik

Dragan Spasojevic: He was the highest-ranking local member of the Serb Democratic party and head of the police station in Zvornik. He also held a command position in the local Serb Crisis Staff. Spasojevic was involved in the disappearance of 750 unarmed prisoners who were being sent to a local concentration camp. Right after the war, he served as the customs administration in Zvornik, a primary point of entry from Serbia of black market goods and commodities distributed by companies owned by Karadzic and recently arrested Momcilo Krajisnik, the former member of Bosnia’s postwar tripartite presidency. One of the richest people in the Serb Republic, he is now a member of the Zvornik Municipal Assembly. He has begun building a shopping center on the private property of Muslims in direct defiance of the High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch’s decision of reallocation of illegally expropriated private property. The Office of the High Representative rents office space in a building owned by Spasojevic.

Branko Grujic: As wartime president of the local Serb Democratic Party, head of the crisis staff, president of the municipality during the war and a leader in the Territorial Defense, he armed the local population and invited paramilitary leaders to come to Zvornik and protect Serbs. He visited the local concentration camps regularly during the war. Today, he still exercises considerable political influence as a prominent local businessman.

Dragomir Vasic*: He allegedly participated in organizing the 1992 ethnic cleansing in Zvornik, including the transfer of Muslims to concentration camps and the disappearance of 750 unarmed prisoners who were being sent to a local concentration camp. He served as the chief of police in Zvornik from 1993 to 1998 and played a role in the Srebrenica massacre. In 1996, his police force dynamited returnees’ homes in Mahala and then took part in a tense stand off with U.S. peacekeepers protecting the returnees. The international community removed him for his post as police chief in 1998. He currently serves on the Zvornik Municipal Assembly.

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