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The murder which has shaken the Serbian government
The Serbian political scene was again shaken on Friday, August 3, with the late afternoon murder of Momir Gavrilovic. Gavrilovic was the former deputy chief of the State Intelligence Service in Belgrade, though he left that post in 1999. This would have been yet another classical murder in the last ten years in Belgrade, had the daily newspaper Blic hadn’t reported several days later that Gavrilovic had been killed only hours after leaving the cabinet of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. Allegedly, he had handed over evidence to Kostunica’s cabinet about the connections between the new Serbian and Yugoslavian governments with the underground.
The Conflict Between Djindjic and Kostunica
According to the article in the Belgrade paper, as well as to sources well informed in the relations between the government and the mafia, Gavrilovic was murdered because he gave evidence to Kostunica’s cabinet concerning the corruption of the government, primarily due to their connections with the "Surcin Group", the criminal-business group which has supported the building of a cigarette factory in Surcin near Belgrade. This all is connected with the massive business of the illegal smuggling of cigarettes in SR Yugoslavia, which the Yugoslav paper has been writing about for weeks. The entire affair was launched after Nacional uncovered the connection between Stanko Subotic Cane, one of the greatest mafia bosses which the Balkan has ever known, and Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic and Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic.
It is precisely the possibility that Gavrilovic spoke to Kostunica’s advisors about the connection with Zoran Djindjic and the mafia which created an unbelievable split in the political scene. That it, the differences has been evident for some time in the efforts by President Kostunica on the one hand and Premier Djindjic on the other. That difference was maximally shown in the recent extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague. Kostunica claimed that he had no knowledge at all of the extradition. Since the entire action of Milosevic’s extradition was led by the Serbian police, it is obvious that Djindjic knew exactly what was going on. If some had suspected at that time there was a lack on unity in the post-Milosevic government in Serbia and Yugoslavia, then the extradition of Milosevic showed that there was no room for doubt. The newest allegations, triggered by the murder of Gavrilovic, are only the continuation in the conflict between Kostunica and Djindjic, and it has not been excluded that Gavrilovic was perhaps intentionally sacrificed in order to prove the truthfulness, or rather the untruthfulness, of those allegations.
In assessing that the murder of Momir Gavrilovic and the allegations of the connections with the Surcin mafia could have long reaching consequences of the entire Serbian government, and not only for Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, Deputy PremierZarko Korac and Justice Minister Vladan Batic held a press conference. They called for Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to state his position on the connections between the murder of Gavrilovic with the criminal activities of he new government (which is obviously a synonym of the Serbian government). They even announced that the newspaper Blic would have to reveal who their source of information was. If it could not be proved that the government was involved in the murder, then the person who leaked the information to the journalists would go to jail –meaning one of Kostunica’s advisors who leaked the story of the Surcin Group to the public.
The Surcin Group, a never defined group of criminals from the Belgrade suburb, is otherwise very well known for automobile theft, many of which even ended up as the official vehicles of certain Yugoslav officials. Several years ago, when a few members of the Surcin Group were arrested, numerous weapons and stolen automobiles were found in their possession. However, of all the individuals arrested, only one was ever charged – kick-boxer Zoran Sijan, who at that time was also the leader of the Surcin group. In the meantime, Sijan was murdered, and all the others from the group were released, most never to be heard from again. The Surcin group has continued doing its job and has not been in conflict with other such groups.
Cigarette Smuggling
In addition to all their other criminal activities, the Surcin Group derived their greatest profits from cigarette smuggling. All this also brought the group significant political influence, which was lucidly shown in the trial of one of the group’s members. When Milovan Brkic, editor of the weekly publication Srpska Rec, began to speak up at the trial about how the Surcin group members, who allegedly even have their own jail, had lit his genitals on fire, the accused began to yell at Brkic before a full court, saying that he was sorry that he hadn’t cut Brkic’s genitals off and forced him to swallow them, and that he would do it now. Terrified, Brkic asked for all that to be recorded in the court’s transcripts. The defendant responded by asking the court, "Did anyone in the courtroom hear what I said?" No one, not even the judge, dared to confirm that they had heard the threats, and the entire dialogue and the threats were not recorded in the transcripts, nor was the accused ever convicted. Furthermore, according to some claims, the Surcin mafia was even supplying the Belgrade police with stolen vehicles, and some even warned of the fact that Ljubisa Buha Cume, head of the Surcin group, has the same last name as the head of the Belgrade Police, Bosko Buha, which could be a familial connection.
New Chapter in the Affair
On Thursday evening, six days after the murder, Vojislav Kostunica finally addressed the public. He confirmed all of the speculations about the events of August 3, as well as returning a blow to the Serbian government. "It is correct that the late Gavrilovic was in my cabinet on Friday morning and that he spoke with my advisors. Momir Gavrilovic came to my office, not for the first time, because was concerned about the level of criminalization in society. He wished to warn about the penetration of organized crime in economic life, about the strength and vastness of the activities of individual members of the group, and about that which he as a police officer he believed to be the insufficient responsibility and mistakes by the government and the appropriate organs. He spoke of corruption," said Kostunica, and added, "We cannot close our eyes to crime nor can we attribute this to be the legacy of the former government. The number of unresolved murders and kidnappings has not decreased. On the contrary, there are now more cases than ever. This country has to stop that, if it wants to survive."
Kostunica added that he did not wish to believe that Gavrilovic was murdered in order to frighten all those who would wish to use their knowledge for the better good of the country – and this murder was intended to do just that. In so doing, he opened up a new chapter in the affair, announcing that he was beginning a war against the corruption of the new government. Those with the most to fear are members of the new government, whose leader Zoran Djindjic has become increasingly unpopular in the society due to his connections with the mafia. In addition to the recent claims of his connections to mafia boss Stanko Subotic Cane, whose plane Djindjic has used to officially travel abroad as Milo Djukanovic has, Belgrade’s newspaper has claimed that Djindjic’s bodyguards are known drug dealers, and were recently hired by the federal police ministry.
However, Djindjic’s connection with Stanko Subotic Cane was not only a friendly one, and the airplanes were not just borrowed without any service in return. Stanko Subotic Cane is the main smuggler of British American Tobacco (BAT) cigarettes in Europe. BAT has investment ambitions in Yugoslavia, primarily they wanted to build a cigarette factory in Kragujevac in order to legalize their smuggling activities. Recently there have been rumors that the factory is to be built somewhere in the middle of the Vojvodina region. Uncovering just how the government is connected with the Surcin Group, which is also involved in the smuggling business, is a very dangerous game, particularly in Serbia, and especially if the main players of such a game are the likes of Zoran Djindjic, Stanko Subotic Cane and Milo Djukanovic.
Vladimir Popovic Beba
One other man is well known from Djindjic’s circle: Vladimir Popovic, nickname Beba. This is the man who worked for three months as the head of the Serbian government press office, and who allegedly became very rich smuggling oil during the time of sanctions against Yugoslavia. Journalists who met him describe him as a "dark type, an old gangster of the fine kind and a dangerous mobster." Journalist circles in Belgrade still talk of how he threatened journalists that he would close down their newspapers if he saw one article published which mentioned his name. It was Djindjic who brought Beba to the government office, because he had exceptional trust in him.
Djindjic’s flirting with the mafia does not end here. From several sources, Nacional has received confirmation that Djindjic’s close friend Dragoljub Markovic, owner of the company ‘Krmivopromet’, received 50 million DEM worth in Yugoslav dinars from the first mission of the Yugoslav National Bank. Markovic was then permitted to use half that money to buy German marks at a price of 6 dinars to the mark, even though at that time, the price was around 30 dinars on the currency black market. In reselling those marks, Markovic quickly paid back his "loan" to the National Bank. He [Markovic] used a portion of the remaining money to build an enormous house for Zoran Djindjic, on Belgrade Street in Novi Banovci. Even a portion of the Serbian press wrote about this, however, those media houses were of little influence in Serbian society.
The question remains, however, just how the information of Gavrilovic’s visit to the President’s Office got to those who would be bothered by such news. After the details of his murder and the events preceding were released to the public, the police investigation has been taken over by the military, which found wiretapping equipment and bugs throughout Kostunica’s office. It is still unknown whom that equipment belongs to, or better to ask, who is bugging Kostunica. One of Nacional’s sources in Belgrade warned how the statements by Djindjic and Kostunica say enough about the wiretapping and leaking of information to the public. While the Yugoslav President wishes to bring to light just who does the killing and who the political mentors of the killers are, the Serbian leader is only interested in who leaked the information to the press.
Thus, this newest affair, caused by the murder of Gavrilovic, needs to be considered in light of the conflict between Djindjic and Kostunica. Even though it is believed that Kostunica is the real successor of Slobodan Milosevic, first and foremost due to his pronounced nationalism, today it is obvious the Djindjic, who appears much more European, is certainly more inclined to Milosevic’s style of ruling, in uniting the mafia with politics and erasing the boundaries between those two worlds.
Evolution, Not Revolution
Analysts of Belgrade political and mafia life have concluded that there has not been any revolution in Serbia, only an evolution. In addition to everything mentioned above, the actual Serbian president Milan Milutinovic is suspected of war crimes, at the federal level the governing coalition DOS is partners with the Montenegrin SNP, which until recently was loyal to Milosevic, the military has remained unchanged and the police is run mainly by criminals. All these acts which permit the members of the former regime and Milosevic’s men to continue to have a strong influence on all of the political and economic events in the country. The murder of Gavrilovic is only the logical result of such a situation.
Not sure how much of Djindjic's power base I'd attribute to Milosevic's left overs but the rest of the story, if true, would explain quite a bit.
Maybe Kos' saw this as his last best hope for reasserting power?
It is instructive to note that the DOS takeover was led by mafia thugs, paramilitary groups, and assorted tough guys associated with Djindjic. I do not think it is too much of a streach to say that the Serbian mafia is in control of the government.
The dominance of the mafia in Serbian society is a direct result of over 10 years of UN and U.S. sanctions on Yugoslav civil society!
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.
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