Posted on 02/24/2003 8:18:10 AM PST by vooch
The story of Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias Captain Dragan, is a very simple one: he went twice to Krajina, first time in April 1991 when he was under the command of the Krajina Police; in August he was expelled by Babic.
The second time he went there after the Croats attacked UNPA zones (Miljevac Plateau), in a car with two other men and they put themselves at the disposal of the Krajina Army, because he 'couldn't calmly walk about the Belgrade streets while all that was happening'. His mission both times was to help train volunteers and to participate in combat missions with his unit, deeply behind the enemy lines but few times also in direct battles (e.g. taking over of Glina). His motives: a Serb patriot living in Australia and with a considerable military expertise, not on strategic but on tactical level, wanting to help.
He denied the slander of the Army Intelligence General Vasiljevic against his State Intelligence (SB) rivals, that he was brought by the SB: 'he either lies, or he's absolutely incompetent' and 'there was such a fantastic, open animosity between the Army and the State Service' that he noticed. Nobody invited nor sent him there, only one Sasa Medakovic helped his arrival, a local guy who lived, worked and got killed in Krajina.
His training camp in Golubic near Knin was his sole responsibility, nobody but him was in charge. He was appointed there by Milan Martic, with the consent of Babic. He gave a short evaluation of both men: Babic 'never woke up before 2-3 p.m., his word meant nothing; his nickname was Titic=Little Tito; he opposed both peace plans. Martic was 'an honourable man, a man as good as his word'. He explained that 'personal vanity with the Serbs could be an important issue, capable of exceeding national interests'.
He put things in proportion, both numerically (his unit numbered 21 men, called kninja, the name a fusion of 'Knin' and 'Ninja'; the volunteers from Serbia 'could have been counted with the fingers of one hand') and historically (local Serbs were genuinely afraid of the resurrection of the Fascism in CRO: '50 years is not ancient history, some people were still alive and could tell').
His unit avoided local Croat civilians: 'I had extremely sparse contacts with the Croat civilians, being aware they would not be overjoyed to meet an armed Serb'; 'extraordinary protective measures were being taken toward local Croatian families, the investigators must have these data from the UNPROFOR'. He personally arrested some Serb suspects for alleged crimes: 'there were some incidents', 'the general attitude was - arrest and put to trial, which I did within my zone of responsibility'; 'they were members of the local TO, I was reported of a crime, I never saw no corpses, I disarmed these men, locked them away and gave the key to Martic, no follow-up because I left for Belgrade soon'. He wanted to 'help the Tribunal who was never in Krajina' and speaking from his own 12-year experience of working with victims, he clarified 'it was almost impossible to send an order to commit crimes, because in the chain of command there would always be a normal person who would stop it'. More probable was the opposite direction and in order to investigate 'it is more important to start from the victim than from the top.' He denied any knowledge of any crimes ordered by the Krajina authorities.
He gave an eye-witness account for the benefit of the judges: 'Since I've lived in the West, in Serbia and in Krajina, I can understand how difficult it is for this other side to understand the reappearance of that Ustasa vampire, for those villagers living sometimes on the upper floor of their houses with their sheep below, waking up one morning not as a constituent people anymore, but as a helpless minority again threatened with slaughter and expulsion'.
He did not change his testimony during the cross-examination, he merely clarified gross misinterpretations made by the Prosecution and the media.
He was a political opponent to Milosevic, he avoided meeting him in public, 'we met by chance once entering the Military Academy Hospital when we exchanged courtesy salutations and the second time when we met here, at this theatre show. He denied any knowledge of orders coming from Milosevic to perpetrate any crimes, 'if I had such knowledge, as your political opponent I would have done everything to expose you and to remove you from office'.
During that infamous celebration that was videoed he left earlier to avoid staying at lunch with Milosevic. He even became a member of Draskovic's SPO and his 'frame of mind was always that of the opposition'; the same sentiment that he nurtures 'for those pawns that are currently in power.'
He was and is a personal friend of Frenki Simatovic, who went to Krajina few times hiding it from his superiors, trying to help, and organizing much later the Captain's Fund to receive 20 computers (that was all the 'Security Service of Serbia involvement'). Contrary to allegations, Frenki was never a Milosevic man, 'truly, it was impossible to connect the two of you in any way; he was a professional, an anti-terrorist agent'. The Captain was never a member nor a hireling to the Service, except one fee of 2,200 dinars that he received for supervision of an exercise and they subsequently talked about the possibility of hiring him, which didn't come true. He never received any orders from them. When he was forced by Babic to leave, he left his unit saying 'you should listen to what Frenki has to say', meaning listen to his explanation of the sudden departure, and not to his command. Few of his people went to Serbia with him, some were subsequently admitted to the JSO ('I personally asked Frenki to admit them, to keep them from the street, and they had valuable skills; but there were no more than 15 people; I believe the Tribunal is under impression this is an army that's being discussed').
There were no units from Serbia in Krajina. There were 4 people from the Security Service of Serbia in all who ever visited Krajina, each of them no more than once or twice, the task being 'intelligence data gathering', anything more was practically impossible 'having Babic as the opponent.'
The relationship between his unit and all Krajina forces on one side and the JNA on the other was 'almost hostile'. "We had provided no info to them. They were between the two sides [Croats and Serbs] and we didn't know what their reaction would be. They kept the two sides apart even more scrupulously than the UNPROFOR." When asked about the Croatian attacks against the JNA, the Captain said: "They only fought back; if I were in their place, I would have done it much more ferociously; I believe the JNA didn't fought back enough."
When he arrived in Krajina, the clashes were going on for almost a year and there were more than enough weapons to go around: 'Territorial Defence depots, stealing from the JNA, what the UNPROFOR left for the Croats, and we captured in battles more than we needed.' There were more weapons coming from Krajina to Belgrade than the other way around.
The only thing coming were some hunting rifles through private channels. Re heavy weaponry, the Captain recalled 'one trophy 50 mm cannon from WW2 that a local Serb has been keeping through all these years in battle condition; perhaps somebody should ask why.' There was financial help from Serbia, of course, but no weapons, he only received 'one piece as a gift, a pistol CZ-99 [a great Magnum-type handgun, popular also in the US, made by Zastava].
Captain Dragan's sole purpose in the courtroom was to tell his angle of the story and to berate and spit on 'this institution' along the way: when he was asked about one wounded Arkan's man who stopped receiving help from his Fund because he started to receive support from the Belgrade municipality (oh, the crime!), the Captain sneered that 'the Law on basic rights of all the war invalids was adopted, it was in all the newspapers, I don't see any significant discovery here'.
He taught the judges that 'a Secret Service operates secretly, if it were a public service it would be called a Public Service'. He informed them 'my unit was public, we had a headquarters, a flag, I don't see a point in these questions'. He ridiculed the Greater Serbia notion as 'propaganda, a sheer stupidity or else a jest or a comedy', which could be considered as true 'only by a malicious man' and he pointed out that during that infamous celebration of the 'secret' video, with the Serbian Security and the Serbian President, 'a Yugoslav anthem was being played'.
He wondered at the sheer waste of time and effort here: 'I can't believe that so many educated and serious people seriously consider the presence of 4 Security people in Krajina as being significant, there were thousands of European observers there' .
He explained his disdain and loss of patience with the proceedings in The Hague: 'I've been here for 2 weeks already, perhaps I'm a bit on the edge of my nerves already, but this is all so over-exaggerated, that it seems there's no further purpose for my taking part in it'.
Why was he summoned as the witness to the Prosecution in the first place is baffling. Maybe they just wanted to introduce as 'evidence' those ample records of his 'Captain Dragan Fund', existing for more than 12 years and with over 300,000 donors (private persons as well as State bodies): 11 CDs with some 67,000 files of those helped financially, families of wounded and killed. Yes, that must be it, they want to further 'prove' where all these men fought using the certificates signed by their commanders and to prosecute them, perhaps.
The liberal HumWarrior edifice of lies continues to crumble.
VRN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/850585/posts?page=1
yes, Milosevic hasn't had a turn a bat yet and the prosecution case has crumbled like a cheap suit. So far only Prosecution witnesses have been called in the last 14 months and so far all we have had is shocking, new relevations supporting Milosevic.
The defense gets its turn at bat starting in May/June.
No wonder Seselji wanted to go to the ICTY, it is turning into the best form of PR possible for a Politician.
bump!
It is also worth mentioning that Captain Dragan is opposed politically to Slobo. With all the lies ICTY presented at Slobo's trial, they've managed to piss off every Serb patriot, regardless of it's political affinity.
LOL, I hear (from BETA) that prosecution refused to pay Captain Dragan's return ticket to Beograd.
I would sign up for PPV to watch Sheshelj in the ICTY trial. Talk about ruining "comedy channel"!!!?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.