{"id":8535,"date":"2020-02-12T19:12:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T18:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/?p=8535"},"modified":"2020-02-15T19:12:29","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T18:12:29","slug":"yihr-held-workshop-on-crimes-and-operations-of-paramilitary-units-from-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/yihr-held-workshop-on-crimes-and-operations-of-paramilitary-units-from-serbia\/","title":{"rendered":"YIHR Held Workshop on Crimes and Operations of Paramilitary Units from Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the first day of the workshop, the participants had an opportunity to learn more about the formation and operations of various paramilitary units (the Scorpions, the Anti-Terrorist Operations Unit, the White Eagles, the Yellow Wasps) <\/b>and their links with the Serbian Interior Ministry, the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Intelligence Agency. A group of young people from Vrnja\u010dka Banja, \u010ca\u010dak, Mitrovica, Novi Sad, Ni\u0161 and Belgrade first went through the documents such as the <\/span>shorthand notes<\/b> of the meeting Slobodan<\/b> Milo\u0161evi\u0107 <\/b>had with the presidents of municipalities in Serbia on March 16 1991, where the formation of reserve police forces was mentioned for the first time, as well as the 1994 report of the UN Commission of Experts for former Yugoslavia, which discusses more extensively the operations of paramilitary units. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the article \u201c<\/b>Short History of Paramilitary Units in Post-Yugoslav Wars 1991-1995<\/b>\u201d, Dejan Anastasijevi\u0107 <\/b>states fragments of the said report, according to which, <\/span>82 para-military groups<\/b> were active on the territory of former Yugoslavia, 55 of which were Serbian, 13 Croatian and 14 Bosniak. According to this report: \u201cPara-military organisations are present in several forms. Some groups are highly organised and operate at multiple locations in cooperation with regular military forces. Others are loosely organised and act independently in one village from occasion to occasion. Some were formed before the conflict, others subsequently, while some were formed according to current needs. They were composed of the members of regular army, police and the Territorial Defence, local civilians, returnees from foreign countries and foreigners. <\/span>According to some reports, they also included criminals released from serving their sentences in order to join these groups<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Further, the participants had the opportunity to watch Part 1 of <\/span>Filip<\/b> \u0160varm\u2019s<\/b> documentary series \u201cThe Unit\u201d co-produced by the Vreme Weekly and RTV B92<\/b> in order to learn more about how para-militaries were formed, which is excellently demonstrated in the genesis of formation of the Special Operation Unit. Also, the participants watched the movie \u201cJackals\u201d about the unit some of whose members were charged with (the second instance proceedings are underway) crimes in Kosovo (\u0106u\u0161ka, Ljubeni\u0107, Pavljan and Zaha\u010d).<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the second day, the first lecture was delivered by Milica<\/b> Stojanovi\u0107, a journalist from BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network). <\/b>She talked about the trial of Jovica Stani\u0161i\u0107 and Frenki Simatovi\u0107, former heads of the Serbian Intelligence Agency, before the ICTY, currently on retrial. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the indictment (2003, revised in 2008), Stani\u0161i\u0107 and Simatovi\u0107 are accused of <\/span>joint criminal enterprise in which, together with other members of the Republic of Srpska Krajina, the Republic of Srpska and Serbia, their goal was to forcefully and permanently remove the majority of non-Serb<\/b>s, in particular Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from larger territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina by committing the crimes of persecution, murders, deportations and inhuman acts (forced relocations).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Milica Stojanovi\u0107 explained the role of this duo according to the indictment, as well as according to the course of the trial in the first and in the repeated proceedings. This in particular includes:<\/span><\/p>\n