Jovica Stanišic
Encyclopedia
Jovica Stanišić (born July 30, 1950 in Ratkovo village near Odžaci
, Serbia
, FPR Yugoslavia) is a former head of the State Security Service now BIA within the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. He is facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for his role in the wars in Croatia
and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his service he acted in the role of a CIA agent.
. He has been charged with persecution
, murder
, deportation
and inhumane acts. According to the indictment, special paramilitary
units, including Arkan's Tigers, Red Berets and "Scorpions", were secretly established by or with the assistance of the Serbia
n State Security from no later than April 1991 and continued until 1995. They were established for the purpose of undertaking special military actions in Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
, intended to forcibly remove non-Serbs from those areas. These secret units were trained in various training centres and were then deployed to locations in Croatia and Bosnia were they were subordinated to other "Serb Forces", in particular the local Serb Territorial Defence. He and Simatović are charged with the following crimes:
Croatia
Bosnia
Part of the charge, that Stanišić was part of a "joint criminal enterprise
" including former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević
and other Serbian politicians, was concluded the trial of Milan Martić
. The court accused him of "attempting to create a Greater Serbia
using the areas containing the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats." The United States Central Intelligence Agency
submitted a sealed document to the court attesting to his role as an undercover
operative
helping to bring peace to the region.
The family of Stanišić originate from Montenegro, descending from the Bjelopavlići
.
Odžaci
Odžaci is a town and municipality in the West Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The town of Odžaci has a population of 9,832 people, while the population of the municipality of Odžaci is 35,474 people .-Name:The name Odžaci means "chimneys" in Serbian...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, FPR Yugoslavia) is a former head of the State Security Service now BIA within the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. He is facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for his role in the wars in Croatia
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his service he acted in the role of a CIA agent.
Trial at the ICTY
Stanišić was arrested by Serbian authorities in 2003 and handed over to the ICTY soon after. Stanišić pleaded not guilty to all charges. His case is being processed together with that of Franko SimatovićFranko Simatovic
Franko "Frenki" Simatović was the head of the Serbian secret police of Slobodan Milošević, the Special Forces of State Security of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was the founder of the "Special Operations Unit"....
. He has been charged with persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
and inhumane acts. According to the indictment, special paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
units, including Arkan's Tigers, Red Berets and "Scorpions", were secretly established by or with the assistance of the Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n State Security from no later than April 1991 and continued until 1995. They were established for the purpose of undertaking special military actions in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, intended to forcibly remove non-Serbs from those areas. These secret units were trained in various training centres and were then deployed to locations in Croatia and Bosnia were they were subordinated to other "Serb Forces", in particular the local Serb Territorial Defence. He and Simatović are charged with the following crimes:
Croatia
- Baćin massacreBacin massacreThe Baćin massacre was a war crime committed by rebel Croatian Serbs' forces on October 21, 1991 on a location near village of Baćin, near Hrvatska Dubica, in central Croatia, during the Croatian War of Independence....
- Massacres in Lipovača, Vukovići and SaborskoSaborsko massacreThe Saborsko massacre was a war crime committed during the Croatian War of Independence in Saborsko and two other Croatian villages in the region of Kordun by the Serb-led JNA and rebel Croatian Serbs' "Militia of Republic of Serb Krajina" in October and November 1991, in which they killed local...
- Škabrnja massacreŠkabrnja massacreŠkabrnja massacre was a war crime committed by Serb Army forces during the Croatian War of Independence. On November 18, 1991, Serb paramilitaries, supported by the JNA, captured the village of Škabrnja and killed 25 Prisoners of war and 61 civilians over the next several days.-Before the...
- Bruška massacreBruška massacreThe Bruška massacre took place on 21 December 1991 in Bruška, a small village near the Croatian town of Benkovac when Serbian paramilitaries executed 10 civilians in the hamlet of Marinovići...
- Dalj massacreDalj massacreDalj killings and Dalj massacre refer to the events beginning on 1 August 1991 which resulted in the murder of 11 Croatian civilians and 28 Croatian policemen in the village of Dalj, eastern Slavonia at the hand of Serbian paramilitaries, during the Croatian War of Independence.-August killings:At...
- Erdut massacreErdut massacreAfter the town of Erdut was forcefully taken over by the rebel Serb forces and JNA and annexed to the puppet state of Republic of Serbian Krajina during Croatian War of Independence, Croats and other non-Serbs were either expelled or killed, with Serbs repopulating empty villages in the area.From...
Bosnia
- Bosanski Šamac killings
- Doboj massacreDoboj massacreThe Doboj massacre refers to war crimes, including murder, wanton destruction and ethnic cleansing, committed against Bosniaks and Croats in the Doboj area by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary units from April until October 1992 during the Bosnian war...
- Sanski MostSanski MostSanski Most is a town and municipality in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the Sana River in Bosanska Krajina, between Prijedor and Ključ. Administratively it is part of the Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
killins - Srebrenica massacreSrebrenica massacreThe Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
- Zvornik massacreZvornik massacreThe Zvornik massacre refers to the killing of 700-900 Bosniaks as well as ethnic cleansing of 40,000 in Zvornik. Serbian paramilitary groups - "Arkanovci", Territorial Defence units , White Eagles, Yellow Wasps and others - carried out the acts in Zvornik from 1992 until 1995, during the Bosnian war...
Part of the charge, that Stanišić was part of a "joint criminal enterprise
Joint Criminal Enterprise
Joint criminal enterprise ' is a legal doctrine used by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav wars 1991-1999....
" including former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
and other Serbian politicians, was concluded the trial of Milan Martić
Milan Martic
Milan Martić is a Serbian politician, former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina...
. The court accused him of "attempting to create a Greater Serbia
Greater Serbia
The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia applies to the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology directed towards the creation of a Serbian land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation...
using the areas containing the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats." The United States Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
submitted a sealed document to the court attesting to his role as an undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
operative
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
helping to bring peace to the region.
The family of Stanišić originate from Montenegro, descending from the Bjelopavlići
Bjelopavlici
Bjelopavlići is a strip of fertile lowland in Montenegro. It stretches along the Zeta river, being wider in river's lower end, down to the confluence with Morača river near Podgorica...
.
See also
- Franko SimatovićFranko SimatovicFranko "Frenki" Simatović was the head of the Serbian secret police of Slobodan Milošević, the Special Forces of State Security of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was the founder of the "Special Operations Unit"....
- The Unit (2006), a Serbian documentary by Filip Švarm about the secret unit "Red Berrets".