On 9 November 2001, soldiers of the Special Operations Unit (JSO), an elite special forces police unit of the FR Yugoslav State Security Service (RDB), also known as the ''Red Berets'', raised a mutiny in response to the arrest and extradition of the Banović brothers, indicted for war crimes before the

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

(ICTY) and the group's opposition to the

Government of Serbia The Government of Serbia ( sr, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Government ( sr, � ...

headed by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Zoran Đinđić Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician who served as the prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until his assassination in 2003. He was the mayor of Belgrade in 1997. Đinđić ...

. The mutiny ended on 17 November 2001 after certain concessions had been given to the Unit and the key figures in the State Security Service were dismissed. The mutiny was the forerunner of major political upheavals in Serbia, one of which was the

assassination of Zoran Đinđić Zoran Đinđić, the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, was assassinated on Wednesday 12 March 2003, in Belgrade, Serbia. Đinđić was fatally shot by a sniper while exiting his vehicle outside of the back entrance of the Serbian ...

in 2003.

Background

Overthrow of Milošević

During the overthrow of

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

in October 2000, the Special Operations Unit (JSO) played a significant role. The Unit's commander

Milorad Ulemek Milorad Ulemek ( sr, Милорад Улемек; born 15 March 1965), also known as Milorad Luković () and "Legija" (), is a Serbian former commander of the Serbian police special unit, the Special Operations Unit (JSO) and a former paramilitary ...

made an agreement with opposition leader

which resulted in Ulemek refusing to carry out Milošević's order to open fire on the anti-government protesters in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Arrest of Milošević and split within the transitional government

The following year, Milošević was arrested and transferred to the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

(ICTY) in the Hague in late June 2001. This became a wedge issue, leading to a split within the transitional authorities and the formation of an "anti-Hague lobby" centered around Yugoslav President

Vojislav Koštunica Vojislav Koštunica ( sr-cyrl, Војислав Коштуница, ; born 24 March 1944) is a Serbian former politician who served as the last president of FR Yugoslavia from 2000 to 2003 and as the prime minister of Serbia from 2004 to 2008. ...

. As Koštunica distanced himself from the ruling

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

coalition, he created a kind of shadow government grouped around his presidential cabinet. This opened an opportunity for remnants of the Milošević regime to capitalize on the ongoing power struggle between

Đinđić and President Koštunica, with the ultimate goal of preserving their interests.

Milorad Ulemek's resignation and criminal activities

During the year following the overthrow of Milošević, Milorad Ulemek increasingly associated with

Dušan Spasojević Dušan Spasojević ( cyrl, Душан Спасојевић; 10 July 1968 – 27 March 2003), known by the nicknames Duća and Šiptar (meaning “Albanian”) was the head of one of the largest Serbian criminal groups on record, the Zemun clan ...

, allegedly a former JSO member, who was a leader of the

Zemun Clan The Zemun Clan (Serbian Cyrillic: Земунски клан) is one of the Belgrade clans of the Serbian mafia. It is named for the gang's base in Zemun, a municipality of Belgrade. The peak of the clan's power and influence occurred between 1999 ...

. This was first made clear during the arrest of Spasojević and several Zemun Clan members in May 2001 in France, when Ulemek argued for their release in front of

Interior Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Dušan Mihajlović. After hearing of their arrest, Ulemek started a fire in the disco "Tvrđava" (Fortress) in Kula. He started several incidents in Belgrade's cafes, culminating on 15 June in the cafe "Bojan Stupica", during

Ceca Ražnatović Svetlana Ražnatović ( Veličković; sr-cyr, Светлана Ражнатовић, ; ; born 14 June 1973), better known by her stage name Ceca ( sr-cyr, Цеца, ), is a Serbian singer and television personality. Often referred to as the "S ...

's birthday party. The Stupica incident, which included Ulemek threatening police officers while armed, led to his resignation from the Ministry of the Interior on 26 June 2001. Still, Ulemek kept his influence in the JSO, now led by Dušan Maričić "Gumar", and remained its ''de facto'' commander. After his resignation, Ulemek continued to enjoy certain privileges afforded to former high-ranking State Security operatives, such as armed guards dispatched from the police force. Ulemek spent the several following months in Greece, where he was arrested in August 2001 for possessing a forged passport. Ulemek was released after State Security Service director Goran Petrović submitted a written request to Greek authorities. This arrest further upset him because he had long suspected that he, too, was wanted by the ICTY, and that he could be charged for the Ibar Highway attack. Increasingly paranoid, Ulemek met with

Čedomir Jovanović Čedomir "Čeda" Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Чедомир "Чеда" Јовановић, ; born 13 April 1971) is a Serbian politician and businessman. During the presidency of Slobodan Milošević in Yugoslavia, Jovanović became one of the student l ...

, a member of Đinđić's inner circle, on 5 October 2001 in the Zemun Clan headquarters in Šilerova street. According to Jovanović, Ulemek relayed these fears to him during their meeting, meanwhile boasting of his alliance with Security Administration chief Aco Tomić. Another event that made Ulemek feel threatened was ICTY prosecutor

Carla Del Ponte Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947) is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former ...

's request for information from Interior Minister Mihajlović during her stay in Serbia on 19 October 2001. The information concerned around 200 individuals, including members of the JSO. Ulemek was also scheduled to appear before the court as a witness in the Ibar Highway case on 12 November. He was later himself indicted in the case and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Immediate causes

The immediate cause for the mutiny was the arrest of

Predrag Banović Predrag Banović (born 28 October 1969)Profile
icty.org; accessed 13 April 2015. in

and Nenad Banović, two brothers who were indicted for war crimes committed during the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

Keraterm camp The Keraterm camp was a concentration camp established by Bosnian Serb military and police authorities near the town of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. The camp was used to collect and confine between 1,000–1, ...

, and their subsequent extradition to the ICTY. The arrest was carried out by the JSO on 8 November 2001 in

Obrenovac Obrenovac ( sr-cyr, Обреновац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 71,419 inhabitants, while the urban area has 24,568 inhabitants. The largest Serbian th ...

. During the mutiny, the JSO claimed they had no knowledge that the brothers would be extradited to the ICTY following their arrest, and that they considered the extradition to be "unlawful and unconstitutional". However, according to deputy State Security director Zoran Mijatović, the JSO was informed of the fact in a meeting on 7 November attended by commander Dušan Maričić and reserve commander

Zvezdan Jovanović Zvezdan Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Звездан Јовановић; born 19 July 1965), also known as "Zmija" ("Snake") is a Serbian former paramilitary and Commander in the Serbian police's Special Operations Unit (Serbia), Special Operations Unit, ...

, and had not protested during the meeting. Another possible underlying reason for the mutiny was the fact that the Banović brothers were former members of the

Wolves of Vučjak Wolves of Vučjak ( sr, Вукови с Вучјака, Vukovi s Vučjaka) was a paramilitary unit active in the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. It was established in Prnjavor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were active in figh ...

paramilitary unit, closely aligned with the JSO, which could have raised fears that some members of the JSO might be arrested in the future.

Mutiny

On the evening of 9 November 2001, the Special Operations Unit disobeyed the State Security Service and most of its members withdrew from their jobs, including drivers and bodyguards of Serbian government officials. When the mutiny arose, Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić and Interior Minister Dušan Mihajlović were on official business while Goran Petrović, director of the State Security Service, was on vacation. Petrović informed deputy director Zoran Mijatović in the evening. Around that time, he also informed

who tried to establish contact with the Zemun Clan in Šilerova, where he left a message for Ulemek. That same evening, the JSO barricaded themselves inside their headquarters, a training center built on the site of the former

salaš Salaš (in Serbo-Croatian, Czech and Slovak, from Hungarian ''szállás'' meaning "house, accommodation"

Štolc in Kula. There, they held a press conference from the memorial room, a space decorated with images of members who were killed in action, as well as maps describing their activities during the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...

. Their demands were read out to a group of journalists by a man who introduced himself as "major Batić", later identified as Vladimir Potić. These included the enactment of a law on cooperation with the ICTY and the dismissal of Interior Minister Dušan Mihajlović. The demand for a law on cooperation with the ICTY corresponded to President Koštunica's views on this matter. While there is no evidence that he was directly involved, his support for the mutineers gave the JSO additional legitimacy in the eyes of the public. In fact, his command over the army stopped the Government from resorting to a military solution to the crisis. Additional informal demands were established later, including the removal of Goran Petrović from his position of director. On 10 November, the JSO refused all communication with the government institutions. That day, the Unit blocked a loop of the E75 highway near Vrbas from around 1 PM to 3 PM. Prime Minister

returned from his visit to the United States on 11 November. In the afternoon, he chaired a meeting held at the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. At this meeting, Đinđić asked

Sreten Lukić Sreten Lukić ( sr, Сретен Лукић, born 28 March 1955) is a retired Serbian colonel general. He served as the head of the Serbian Police in Kosovo during the 1998–99 Kosovo War and subsequently as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affa ...

for a direct answer to the question of whether the police could prevent JSO in its potential attempt to occupy the government building and he received a negative answer. Čedomir Jovanović got a coded letter from Milorad Ulemek during the day inviting him and Đinđić to the JSO headquarters to negotiate. In the evening, Đinđić visited the center of the Special Operations Units in Kula. Talks were held for three hours in order to calm the situation and find a solution. The statement, which was distributed to the journalists points out that Đinđić accepted the reasons for the protest, but was not ready to support them.

Highway blockade in Belgrade

On Monday, 12 November at around 5:20 AM, about 70 armed members of the Special Operations Unit blocked the highway through Belgrade near

Sava Centar Sava Centar ( sr, Сава центар) is an international congress, cultural and business centre of various multi-functional activities located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is the largest audience hall in the country and entire forme ...

in the direction of the

Gazela Bridge The Gazela Bridge ( sr, Mост Газела, Most Gazela) is the most important bridge over the Sava river in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is a part of the city highway and it lies on European route E75, on the highway passing through the ...

with their

Humvee The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...

vehicles. Among the rebels was

, later sentenced to 40 years in prison for the assassination of Đinđić. At around 7:30 AM, Goran Petrović sent his deputy Zoran Mijatović to negotiate with the Unit. Mijatović came to the blockade at around 8 AM, where he talked to Maričić and threatened him with an ICTY indictment. Mijatović was incorrect, seeing as neither Maričić nor any other members of the JSO, apart from

Franko Simatović Franko "Frenki" Simatović ( sr-cyr, Франко "Френки" Симатовић; born 1 April 1950) is a Serbian former intelligence officer of Croatian descent and commander of the elite special forces police unit Special Operations Unit (J ...

, were ever indicted by the ICTY. During the negotiations on the highway, Mijatović also threatened Maričić saying the population in the surrounding buildings consisted mainly of former and current army officers, many of whom owned weapons. Meanwhile, the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of the Ministry of the Interior was on full alert that day and the day before. The JSO cleared the highway around 3 PM on 12 November. That afternoon, Milorad Ulemek testified at the trial for the murders on the Ibar Highway. He came to court together with several armed men, which affected other witnesses who refused to testify at the hearing out of fear. After leaving the courtroom, Ulemek told the media that he supported the mutiny and that everyone had the right to protest in their uniforms. This sentiment was echoed several days later by President

, who justified the JSO protesting armed and uniformed by comparing them to doctors who would protest in their lab coats.

Agreements and the end of the mutiny

On 13 November, Deputy Prime Minister

and Interior Minister Dušan Mihajlović went to Kula to negotiate an end to the mutiny. The JSO demanded that Mihajlović resign from the position of minister, to which he agreed. However, Jovanović took the written resignation from his hands and tore it up. A fight broke out and Zvezdan Jovanović threatened Čedomir Jovanović with a knife. It was agreed that Mihajlović should present a letter of resignation to the Government. The following day, the Government of Serbia declined Mihajlović's resignation, but accepted the resignation of State Security Service director Goran Petrović and his deputy Zoran Mijatović. Mihajlović made Andreja Savić acting director of the Service the day after on 15 November. Following the negotiations with the Special Operations Unit, some concessions were given and Goran Petrović was removed from the position of director of the State Security Service and Andreja Savić was appointed in his place permanently, while Milorad Bracanović was appointed his deputy. Bracanović was a security officer for the JSO before the mutiny. This position was later occupied by Veselin Lečić. The Unit was reassigned from the State Security Service to the Public Security Service and it was agreed upon that the Unit can be used only be the order of the minister and with the approval of the Government of Serbia. Đinđić refrained from dissolving the JSO in the name of preserving stability. The mutiny ended on 17 November 2001, at around 7 AM, when armored personnel carriers and armed guards who had been there throughout the uprising were removed from the entrance to the JSO base. The base was visited by Andreja Savić and Sreten Lukić.

Role of the Zemun Clan

, the leader of the Zemun Clan, was one of the main organizers of the mutiny. In the intercepted telephone conversations between him and JSO commander Dušan Maričić, held on 9 and 11 November, Spasojević discussed the mutiny, the next steps JSO needs to take and how to tactically coordinate the event's media coverage. According to the testimony of Zoran Vukojević "Vuk", a protected witness in the trial for the assassination of Zoran Đinđić, members of the Zemun Clan visited the Special Operations Unit base in Kula every day during the uprising and influenced journalists. He also testified that Spasojević was planning on making lawyer Gradimir Nalić the Interior Minister if Mihajlović were to resign. Additionally, on 12 November, district prosecutor Rade Terzić informed the Fourth Municipal Prosecutors' Office that the JSO was demanding the release of Mile Luković "Kum" and several other Zemun Clan members from custody. His request was declined. Terzić later released Luković from custody himself, due to lack of evidence, on 16 November.

Responses and reactions

President of FR Yugoslavia The President of Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Председник Србије и Црне Горе, Predsednik Srbije i Crne Gore) was the head of state of Serbia and Montenegro. From its establishment in 1992 until 2003, when the country was ...

supported the rebellion, saying that "these were people who did not endanger the country's security". At one point, he seemingly quoted a public statement by Milorad Ulemek on the matter, justifying the JSO protesting fully armed and uniformed. Later, Koštunica would assess the coincidence of his statement with Ulemek's as "unimportant". Rade Bulatović, Koštunica's security advisor and later State Security Service director, supported Savić and Bracanović at the helm of the Service, publishing the article "Pobeda patriotizma" (Victory of Patriotism) on the topic in the March 2002 issue of '' NIN'' magazine. Koštunica's potential role in the mutiny would repeatedly come into question in the following years. Goran Petrović has described the event as a "counter-revolution" prepared by Koštunica. The president of New Serbia

Velimir Ilić Velimir "Velja" Ilić ( sr-cyr, Велимир "Веља" Илић, ; born 28 May 1951) is a Serbian politician. He is the founder and president of party New Serbia. He served as the Minister without portfolio in charge of Emergency Situations f ...

supported the mutiny, with the caveat that it would "complicate the security situation in the country". The

Socialist Party of Serbia The Socialist Party of Serbia ( sr, Социјалистичка партија Србије, Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) is a political party in Serbia. It is led by Ivica Dačić. It was founded in 1990 as the direct successor to t ...

also supported the mutiny. Vice president of the

Christian Democratic Party of Serbia The Christian Democratic Party of Serbia ( sr, Демохришћанска Странка Србије, Demohrišćanska Stranka Srbije; abbr. ДХСС, DHSS) was a political party in Serbia. History The party was founded in 1997 by Vladan Ba ...

Živojin Stijepić opposed the mutiny and said the leaders of the JSO should be replaced.

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

Momčilo Perišić Momčilo Perišić ( sr-Cyrl, Момчило Перишић; born 22 May 1944) is a Serbian former general who served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1998. On 6 September 2011, in a first-i ...

attributed the event to

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

Dragan Veselinov Dragan Veselinov ( sr-cyr, Драган Веселинов, born 3 May 1950) is a Serbian politician. As the president of the People's Peasant Party (founded in 1990), he was among few Serbians to go openly against the Serbian nationalist policies ...

and the Social Democratic Union led by Deputy Prime Minister

Žarko Korać Professor Žarko Korać ( sr-Cyrl, Жарко Кораћ), Ph.D. (born 9 March 1947 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian psychologist and politician. He teaches psychology at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy and is o ...

advocated for a dissolution of the JSO following the mutiny.

was interviewed for the magazine ''ID'' on 21 November by Gradiša Katić, later arrested during

Operation Sabre Operation Sabre was a Royal Navy military operation in World War II. It involved cutting the Japanese submarine communications cable linking Saigon and Singapore. operating from an X-Craft midget submarine in the Saigon River delta on 31 July 1 ...

. In the interview, he insisted the event was a protest instead of a mutiny, saying "if it were a mutiny, we would have taken over all Government offices by Saturday".

Aftermath

On 12 March 2003, Đinđić was assassinated in the yard of the Serbian government headquarters. He was killed by

, the then assistant commander of the Special Operations Unit. On 25 March 2003, the Special Operations United was disbanded. The indictment for the assassination of Prime Minister Đinđić states that the JSO mutiny was the "beginning of creating a political environment for the assassination". On 11 November 2010, Đinđić's mother's and sister's lawyer, Srđa Popović, filed a criminal complaint with the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime against Ulemek, Maričić, Koštunica, Tomić and five others for the participation in the mutiny. The indictment was raised on 9 March 2012, but ultimately discarded the complaint against Vojislav Koštunica and Aco Tomić. The Higher Court in Belgrade found the accused not guilty in the first instance in July 2018, after which the Appellate Court acquitted them in June 2019.

References

Literature

* * {{cite book , last1=Ostojić , first1=Mladen , title=Between Justice and Stability: The Politics of War Crimes Prosecutions in Post-Milošević Serbia , date=2014 , publisher=Ashgate Publishing , location=Farnham , isbn=9781409467434 , pages=68–74 Protests in Serbia 2001 protests Mutinies