From: "danceswithcarp" <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
To: <anarchy-list-AT-lists.villages.virginia.edu>
Subject: arkan the innocent
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 18:47:55 -0500


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Serb Volunteer Guard [SDG / SSJ] "Tigers"
During the war in Bosnian the White Eagles paramilitary formation, Zeljko Raznatovic [better known as Arkan] organized a private army, the Serb Volunteer Guard [SDG / SSJ] "Tigers" in 1992. Arkan's men were in the beginning incorporated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the Krajina police owns the training center in Erdut in eastern Slavonia which was Arkan's main operating location) but with time they became a special unit with the Srem-Baranja corps. Arkan organized the SDG paramilitary forces first in Croatia and then in Bosnia-Herzegovina and, as such, committed many crimes.
Arkan was the author of massacres in 1991 in Eastern Slavonia, and of a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the eastern area of Bosnia against Bosnian Moslems. Some 1400 Bosniaks were killed in various ways Foca [Srbinje], starting on 6 April 1992 with the arrival of Arkan"s and other paramilitary groups. During their expeditions in the area all Muslim villages and the city suburbs in which mostly Bosniaks lived were burned to the ground. At the end of May 1992 these paramilitary units withdrew from the area, and following the withdrawal from western Bosnia, the SDG has been stationed in Erdut. According to estimates of the Serbian Helsinki Committee, about 20,000 refugees from Krajina went through Arkan's camp in Erdut in the fall of 1995, after being arrested and taken there by the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs [MUP]. Arkan's forces withdrew from Erdut in April 1996.


The process of liquidating those close to Arkan began soon thereafter, as the Serbian State Security Service began actions against the criminals who used to work for it, but are now only unpleasant witnesses to crimes. Aleksandar Knezevic, Bojan Banovic, Bane Grebenarevic, Zoran Dimitrov-Zuca, and Nebojsa Djordjevic, who was a pensioned-off "colonel" of Arkan's "Serb Volunteer Guard," were all involved in the recruitment of volunteers for paramilitary formations (predominantly from among the criminals, prisons, and poor parts of the country). They were all killed very professionally within a very short period of time.
But Arkan is not on in the public list of 75 war crimes indictments issued by The Hague in 1996. In mid-1997, prompted by UN war crimes expert Serif Bajsuni's accusations in CNN's program "Wanted" that Interpol has seven warrants for Arkan, Interpol confirmed that Arkan was the subject of an international arrest warrant charging him with genocide.

Arkan, also wanted for robbery offences by several European police forces, leads a high profile life in Yugoslavia, and is married to a glamorous folk singer, Ceca. In May 1998 Arkan was re-elected chairman of the Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) for four years by the unanimous vote of the SSJ Assembly. In elections, the Kosovo Serbs chose Arkan as their parliamentary representative. He enriched himself from the spoils of these operations, and his holdings include at casino in Hotel Jugoslavija, and another two companies, one a transport company and the other a radio station.

In January 1998 unconfirmed reports placed paramilitary forces led by Zeljko Raznatovic-Arkan and Captain Dragan in the Skenderaj [Srbica] county in Drenice, Kosovo. But Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) Deputy Chairman Borislav Pelevic stated on 07 February 1998 that the Serbian Voluntary Guard and its commander Zeljko Raznatovic-Arkan was not in Kosovo. Pelevic also said that, if the need arises, the guard would be able to immediately mobilize 3,000 men.

Sources and Resources
    a.. Sarajevo Weekly Views Purge in RS Army : FBIS-TOT-97-002-L : 6 Nov 1996

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