Željko Ražnatovic
Encyclopedia
Željko Ražnatović widely known as Arkan (Аркан; 17 April 1952 – 15 January 2000) was a Serbian
career criminal and later a paramilitary leader who was notable for organizing and leading a paramilitary force in the Yugoslav Wars
. He was on Interpol
's most wanted list in the 1970s and 1980s for robberies and murders committed in a number of European countries and was later indicted by the UN for crimes against humanity. Arkan was assassinated in 2000 before his trial.
, a small border town in the Styrian region of southern Slovenia, where his father was stationed at the time. He also spent a part of his childhood in Zagreb
and Pančevo
, before his father's job eventually took the family to Belgrade
, which Arkan considered his hometown. His disciplinarian father Veljko Ražnatović was a Montenegrin Serb
who served as a decorated officer in the SFR Yugoslav Air Force
, earning high rank for his notable World War II
involvement on the Partisan
side, while his mother Slavka Josifović whom his father had met in Kosovo during the liberation of Italian-occupied Pristina also took part in the war as a communist activist.
Arkan grew up in the 27th March Street, in old Belgrade, SR Serbia with three older sisters in a strict, militaristic household with beatings administered by his father being a regular occurrence. In a 1991 interview for Duga magazine, Arkan recalled: "He didn't really hit me in a classical sense, he'd basically grab me and slam me against the floor." Due to the highly demanding and significant position of both his parents, there appeared to be very little time in which a bond was able to be established between parents and children. His parents eventually divorced during his teenage years.
He wanted to become a pilot.
Based on the rare occasions when Arkan attended school, he was said to be a decent student with a quick and argumentative mind. Most of his time was spent training in kick-boxing or loitering in the streets of Belgrade with the nightly gatherings with girls at the Kalemegdan Park
.
Arkan was arrested for the first time in 1966 and spent a year at a juvenile detention center not far from Belgrade. His father then sent him to the seaside town of Kotor
to join the Yugoslav Navy
, but Arkan had other plans, ending up in Paris at the age of 15. In 1969 he was arrested by French police and shipped home, where he was sentenced to three years at the detention center in Valjevo
for several burglaries. During this time he organized his own gang in the prison.
In his youth, Arkan was a ward of his father's friend, the Slovenian politician and Federal Minister of the Interior, Stane Dolanc
. Dolanc was chief of the secret police and a close associate of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito
. Whenever Arkan was in trouble Dolanc helped him as a reward for his services to the Yugoslav secret state police (UDBA
), as seen in the escapade from the Lugano prison in 1981. Stane Dolanc is quoted as having said: "One Arkan is worth more than the whole UDBA."
, Ranko Rubežić, Đorđe Božović Giška, Goran Vuković
, Rade Ćaldović Ćenta etc. all of whom, like him, were also occasionally contracted by the Yugoslav secret service. He took the nickname "Arkan" from one of his forged passports. He had convictions or warrants in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden (20 burglaries, 7 bank robberies, outside assistance to prison escape, attempted murder), Germany
, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.
On 28 December 1974 he was arrested in Belgium following a bank robbery and was sentenced to ten years. On 4 July 1979, he managed to escape from the Verviers
prison. A Belgian police official was quoted as saying: "He's the most dangerous man I ever came across. He's no ordinary criminal, he's a rabid dog".
Though Arkan was rearrested in the Netherlands on 24 October 1979, the few months he was free were enough for at least two more armed robberies in Sweden and three more in Holland. Serving a 7-year sentence at a prison in Amsterdam
, he pulled off another escape on 8 May 1981 after someone slipped him a gun. Wasting no time, more robberies followed, this time in Germany where after less than a month of freedom he was arrested in Frankfurt on 5 June 1981 following a jewellery store stick up. In the ensuing shoot out with police he was lightly wounded, resulting in his placement in the prison hospital ward where looser security allowed him to escape again only four days later, on 9 June, supposedly by jumping from the window, beating up the first bystander, and stealing his clothing before disappearing. His final European arrest occurred in Basel
, Switzerland during a routine traffic check on 15 February 1983. However he managed to escape again within months, this time from Torberg prison on 27 April. It is widely speculated that Arkan was closely affiliated with Yugoslav security service UDBA
throughout his criminal career abroad. Ražnatović was even on Interpol
's ten most wanted list.
Arkan learned the main European languages because of his undercover work in Western Europe. He spoke fluent English, French, and Italian, and was also familiar with German, Swedish, and Dutch. He also spoke some Albanian and Bulgarian.
, was at place when Croatian Dinamo Zagreb
played home against the Red Star at Stadion Maksimir on May 13, a match that ended in a riot. Arkan and his group, consisting of 1500 people, reportedly went across Zagreb
beating supporters of the home team.
On 11 October 1990, as the political, ethnic, and religious situation in the former Yugoslavia
became tense (see Log Revolution
), Arkan created a paramilitary group named the Serb Volunteer Guard
, possibly under the auspices of the Department of State Security. Arkan was the supreme commander of the unit, which was primarily made up of members of the Delije, his friends and other criminals. In late October 1990, Arkan traveled to Knin
to meet representatives of the Republic of Serbian Krajina
, a break-away region composed out of ethnic Serbs wanting to remain in FR Yugoslavia (with Montenegro and Serbia), as oppossed to the Croatian government that seceded.
On 29 November 1990, Croatian police arrested him at the Croatian-Bosnian border crossing Dvor na Uni, along with local Dušan Carić, and Belgraders Dušan Bandić and Zoran Stevanović. The police found Heckler & Koch
s in the car. His entourage was sent to Sisak
, and was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the newly formed Croatian state. Arkan was given 20 months in jail. He was released from the Remetinec prison
in Zagreb on 14 June 1991 under unclear circumstances, without the notice of Josip Boljkovac
, then Internal Minister. It is believed that the Croatian and Serbian governments agreed on a 1 million DM settlement.
In July 1991, Arkan was for some time at the Cetinje monastery
, with Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović
. His group of men, fully armed, were allowed to enter the monastery, which they served as security. Arkan's group travelled from Cetinje to the Siege of Dubrovnik
. At the return from Dubrovnik, he was again guest at Cetinje.
. His volunteer army saw action from mid 1991 to late 1995, initially in Vukovar
region of Croatia. Arkan's much feared irregular military
forces consisted of a core of 200 men and perhaps totaled no more than 500 to 1,000. His units were supplied and equipped by the reserves of the Serbian police force during the war in Croatia and Bosnia
.
After war broke out in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia in the fall of 1991 and in Bosnia in April 1992, Arkan and his units moved to attack different territories in these countries. In the Republic of Serbian Krajina
, Arkan's Tigers fought in various locales in SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. In the Republika Srpska
, Arkan's Tigers, fought in battles in and around Zvornik
, Bijeljina
and Brčko
.
In autumn 1995 his troops fought in the area of Banja Luka
, Sanski Most
and Prijedor
. In October 1995 he was forced to escape from Sanski most and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Armija BiH took the city from the Serbs. Arkan personally led most of war actions, and rewarded his most efficient officers and soldiers with ranks, medals and eventually the products of the lootings.
Arkan came to serve as a popular icon for both Serbs and their enemies. For some Serbs he was a folk hero and patriot, while serving as a target of hatred to their enemies. His troops were also stationed in the Republic of Serbian Krajina to fight against the Croatian army, and he had a dispute over military operations with the Serbian regional leader Milan Martić
Arkan also had friendly contacts and political plans with Russian ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky
.
Arkan was glorified by part of the Serb population as a war hero, and was the subject of war songs. He owned a voluminous mansion in the elite Belgrade neighborhood of Dedinje
where high-ranking politicians and foreign diplomats reside. Despite being raised an atheist in a family of communists, Arkan made a point of showing public respects to the Serbian Orthodox Church
, especially its head Patriarch Pavle. Additionally, he observed and celebrated various religious holidays, often publicly. Some questioned the motives behind these public displays of his new found religious spirituality and saw it as shameless self-promotion ploy in an attempt at ingratiation with the Serbian public.
On 3 November 1993, Arkan and his followers founded the Party of Serbian Unity
, and he became its president, but the party lost parliamentary elections and failed to win seats despite an energetic promotional campaign. In the 2000 election
, however, the party received 200,000 votes and won 14 seats in the Serbian parliament.
Vojislav Šešelj
, a political rival of his, described the power Arkan wielded as early as 1987 during his testimony at the Milošević trial in 2005.
In the postwar period after the Dayton agreement
was signed, Arkan returned to his interests in sport and private business. The Serb Volunteer Guard was officially disbanded in April 1996 with the threat to be reactivated in case of war emergency. In June of that year he took over a second division soccer team FK Obilić which he soon turned into a top caliber club, even winning the 1997/98
Yugoslav league
championship. According to a book by Franklin Foer
, How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
, Arkan threatened players on opposing teams if they scored against Obilić.
This threat was underlined by the thousands of veterans from his army that filled their home field, chanting threats, and on occasion pointing pistols at opposition players during matches. One player told the British football magazine FourFourTwo
that he was locked in a garage when his team played Obilić. Europe's football governing body, UEFA
, considered prohibiting Obilić from participation in continental competitions because of its connections to Arkan. In response to this, Arkan stepped away from the position of president and gave his seat to his wife Ceca. Arkan was also a chairman of the Yugoslav Kick-boxing Association.
Arkan has been accused of being involved in protection racket
s, extortion, and the smuggling of oil and luxury items. Later he pursued more legitimate business and had about 400 people working for him. He owned casinos, discos, gas stations, pastry shops, stores, bakeries, restaurants, gyms, as well as a private security agency.
Arkan was unofficially allied with Slobodan Milošević
, and operated under his control, although he was fairly independent in his day-to-day actions and decisions. Contacts between the men were usually carried out through a mediator Radovan "Badža" Stojičić, Serbia's police chief and Milošević's close associate, who was assassinated in April 1997.
In August 1998, when tensions over Kosovo had already begun, Arkan tried to get close to the West, writing a letter of support to U.S. president Bill Clinton
over the bombings of U.S. embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania. In the letter he expressed condolences for the victims that died in the attack, and warned Clinton of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism
. An excerpt from his letter reads: "Mr President… do not allow that terrorism continues in this part of Balkan in the Serbian state, which is forever a friend of your state." Clinton ignored him and never responded to the letter.
, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva convention of 1949 for customs and traditions of war. The warrant was kept sealed and was not made public until 31 March 1999, a week after NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
had begun. Arkan's indictment was made public by Louise Arbour
, then UN court's chief prosecutor.
In the week before the start of NATO bombing – as the Rambouillet talks
collapsed – Arkan appeared at the Hyatt hotel in Belgrade, where most Western journalists were staying, and ordered all of them to leave Serbia.
During the NATO aerial bombardment of Serbia, Arkan denied the war crime charges against him in interviews he gave to foreign reporters during the Kosovo War
. Arkan blamed NATO for the bombing of civilians and creating refugees of all ethnicities, and stated that he would deploy his troops only in the case of a NATO direct ground invasion. After the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three journalists and led to a diplomatic row between the U.S. and People’s Republic of China, NATO and various Western media claimed the building might have been targeted because the office of the Chinese military attaché
was being used by Arkan to communicate and transmit messages to his paramilitary group, the Tigers, in Kosovo.
(ICTY) announced that Zeljko Raznjatovic (Arkan) had been indicted by the Tribunal, although the indictment was only made public after Arkan’s assassination.
According to the indictment Arkan should have been prosecuted on 24 charges of crimes against humanity (Art. 5 ICTY Statute), grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions
(Art. 2 ICTY Statute) and violations of the laws of war
(Art. 3 ICTY Statute), for the following acts:
It is claimed that Arkan was individually responsible for the crimes alleged against him in this indictment pursuant to Art. 7 § 1 of the ICTY Statute. But Arkan was also or alternatively criminally responsible as a commander for the acts of his subordinates pursuant to Art. 7 § 3 of the ICTY Statute, since he had at all times the complete authority to direct and control all of the actions of the members of his paramilitary unit.
Arkan was assassinated, on 15 January 2000, 17:05 GMT, in the lobby of Belgrade's elite InterContinental Hotel, a location where he was surrounded by other hotel guests. The killer, Dobrosav Gavrić, was a 23-year-old police mobile brigade's junior member. Gavrić had ties to the underworld and was on sick leave at the time. He walked up alone towards his target from behind. Arkan was sitting and chatting with two of his friends and, according to BBC Radio, was filling out a betting slip. Gavrić waited for a few minutes, calmly walked up behind the party, and rapidly fired a succession of bullets from his CZ-99
duty-issued pistol. Arkan was shot in his left eye and lapsed into a coma on the spot. His bodyguard Zvonko Mateović put him into a car, and rushed him to a hospital, but he died on the way. According to an article on NPR, Milošević's own men may have killed him for knowing too much.
According to his wife, Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic, Arkan died in her arms as they were driving to the hospital.
Arkan's companions, Milenko Mandić, a business manager
, and Dragan Garić, a police inspector, were also shot to death by Gavrić. Gavrić was shot and wounded immediately after by Arkan's bodyguard, Zvonko Mateović, and fell unconscious. A woman bystander was seriously wounded in a shootout between the two as well. After complicated surgery, Gavrić survived, but remained disabled and a wheelchair user as result of a spinal wound.
Željko Ražnatović Arkan was buried with military honours by his volunteers and with funeral rites on 20 January 2000. Around 20,000 people attended the funeral.
In reaction to the death, Serb sentiments varied across the political spectrum. For those who sympathised with his anti non-Serb rhetoric, he was a war hero, but for many who had seen and heard of his and the Tigers' actions, as well as his apparent political connections, feared him too much to make any public comment at the time.
A new trial was conducted in 2006, ending on 9 October 2006 with guilty verdicts upheld for Gavrić as well as his accomplices Milan Đuričić and Dragan Nikolić. Each man received 30 years in prison. Only Nikolić is actually serving the sentence while Gavrić and Đuričić have been on the run for years.
Still, the murder's background and identities of the person(s) who ordered it remain unclear and subject of rife speculation. According to one rumour, Marko Milošević, the son of Yugoslavia's president at the time, Slobodan Milošević
, was said to have had a harsh quarrel with Arkan over control of oil-smuggling rackets. NPR reported that he was more likely someone who simply knew too much when war crimes trials were becoming a reality for the Milošević regime.
Yet another rumour claims that Borislav Pelević
, Arkan's close associate and his successor as president of Party of Serbian Unity
, served as the "inside man" for the plot against Arkan. Security services also wiretapped Arkan shortly before his murder; for four months the group allegedly followed Arkan's movements and whereabouts, learning his habits.
On 15 January 2008, 8-year anniversary of Arkan's death, his sister Jasna Diklić accused Andrija Drašković, a controversial businessman with alleged ties to the Mafia, of being behind her brother's murder. She further accused Serbian state institutions of "protecting Arkan's murderers Gavrić and Đuričić, and not doing anything to apprehend them".
According to 1994 relation of SISMI
, Arkan sent one of his most trusted men, Radovan Stanisc to Italy
to start relationship with camorra
boss Francesco Schiavone
.
Arkan, asked Schiavone for arms for his guerrillas and the participation of Schiavone to solve two crucial problems: quieten the Albanian mobsters, because they stopped his war, blocking the weapon route, and make arrive the money in Serbia, under the form of humanitarian aid. In exchange the near entrepreneurs clans acquired at optimal prices companies, enterprises, stores, masserie, breedings in half Serbia.
, in 1975 from a relationship with a Swedish woman, Agneta. Mihajlo decided to move to his father in 1992, at the age of 17, leaving Sweden and joining his father's unit during the Yugoslav wars. Mihajlo has since been living in Belgrade and has played for the Red Star icehockey team, also representing Serbia 2002–2004. He is a successful businessman and in 2000 his daughter was born.
Then followed two daughters: Sofia from relations with a Belgian woman and Anđela (born 1980) with a Belgrade actress. Arkan acknowledged paternity of each of his three children that were born out of wedlock.
Arkan's first wife was Natalija Martinović, a Spanish language professor, with whom he had four children: daughter Milena, twin sons Vojin and Nikola, and another daughter Maša. Their divorce became official in December 1994.
Since 1993 Arkan was involved with the popular folk singer Svetlana "Ceca" Veličković, 21 years his junior. Their lavish wedding ceremony on 19 February 1995 occurred as a day-long media production carried live on TV Pink
with different locations and changes of clothing (at different points of the ceremony Arkan alternated between World War I
Serb military uniform and traditional Montenegrin attire). "Ceca" bore him two more children, son Veljko and daughter Anastasija.
In June 1994, sometime after her separation from Arkan, Natalija Martinović and their four children left Yugoslavia and moved to Athens
, Greece where Arkan bought them an apartment in the suburb of Glyfada
. After Arkan's death Martinović disputed his will
, claiming that Ceca, his second wife, doctored it. In May 2000, she sued Ceca over ownership of Arkan's assets including the villa at 3 Ljutice Bogdana Street in which he and Ceca lived (and Ceca continues to reside in to this day), claiming it was built with funds from a bank loan Martinović and Arkan took out in 1985. The court eventually ruled against Martinović. The court agreed with her assertions that the villa was built with money from a 1985 bank loan taken out by her and Arkan, but also found that she forfeited any rights in future division of that asset when she signed the property over to Arkan in 1994 before moving to Greece.
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
career criminal and later a paramilitary leader who was notable for organizing and leading a paramilitary force in the Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
. He was on Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
's most wanted list in the 1970s and 1980s for robberies and murders committed in a number of European countries and was later indicted by the UN for crimes against humanity. Arkan was assassinated in 2000 before his trial.
Early life
Željko Ražnatović was born in BrežiceBrežice
Brežice is a city and municipality in eastern Slovenia in the Lower Sava Valley, near the Croatian border. The area was traditionally divided between Lower Styria and Lower Carniola...
, a small border town in the Styrian region of southern Slovenia, where his father was stationed at the time. He also spent a part of his childhood in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
and Pančevo
Pancevo
Pančevo is a city and municipality located in the southern part of Serbian province of Vojvodina, 15 km northeast from Belgrade. In 2002, the city had a total population of 77,087, while municipality of Pančevo had 127,162 inhabitants. It is the administrative center of the South Banat...
, before his father's job eventually took the family to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, which Arkan considered his hometown. His disciplinarian father Veljko Ražnatović was a Montenegrin Serb
Serbs of Montenegro
Montenegrin Serbs is a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Serbs. They compose the second largest ethnic group in Montenegro after the Montenegrins....
who served as a decorated officer in the SFR Yugoslav Air Force
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslav Air Force , was the air force of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . Formed in 1945, it was preceded by the Yugoslav Royal Air Force which was disbanded in 1941, following the German occupation of Yugoslavia...
, earning high rank for his notable World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
involvement on the Partisan
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
side, while his mother Slavka Josifović whom his father had met in Kosovo during the liberation of Italian-occupied Pristina also took part in the war as a communist activist.
Arkan grew up in the 27th March Street, in old Belgrade, SR Serbia with three older sisters in a strict, militaristic household with beatings administered by his father being a regular occurrence. In a 1991 interview for Duga magazine, Arkan recalled: "He didn't really hit me in a classical sense, he'd basically grab me and slam me against the floor." Due to the highly demanding and significant position of both his parents, there appeared to be very little time in which a bond was able to be established between parents and children. His parents eventually divorced during his teenage years.
He wanted to become a pilot.
Criminal career
Arkan ran away from home for the first time at age nine. He later frequently ran away to stay with more tolerant relatives, and simultaneously also got involved in various kinds of crime, eventually ending up in a delinquents' institution. He became a petty criminal (purse snatching, kiosk break-ins, etc.) in his early teenage years, eventually graduating to more serious offenses such as store robberies.Based on the rare occasions when Arkan attended school, he was said to be a decent student with a quick and argumentative mind. Most of his time was spent training in kick-boxing or loitering in the streets of Belgrade with the nightly gatherings with girls at the Kalemegdan Park
Kalemegdan
Belgrade Fortress , represent old citadel and Kalemegdan Park on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube, in an urban area of modern Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad...
.
Arkan was arrested for the first time in 1966 and spent a year at a juvenile detention center not far from Belgrade. His father then sent him to the seaside town of Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
to join the Yugoslav Navy
Yugoslav Navy
The Yugoslav Navy was the navy of Yugoslavia. It was essentially a coastal defense force with the mission of preventing enemy landings along the Yugoslavia's rugged 4,000- kilometer shoreline or coastal islands, and contesting an enemy blockade or control of the strategic Strait of Otranto...
, but Arkan had other plans, ending up in Paris at the age of 15. In 1969 he was arrested by French police and shipped home, where he was sentenced to three years at the detention center in Valjevo
Valjevo
Valjevo is a city and municipality located in western Serbia. It is the center of the Kolubara District, which includes five other smaller municipalities with a total population of almost 180,000 people...
for several burglaries. During this time he organized his own gang in the prison.
In his youth, Arkan was a ward of his father's friend, the Slovenian politician and Federal Minister of the Interior, Stane Dolanc
Stane Dolanc
Stane Dolanc was a Yugoslav and Slovenian communist politician, one of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito's closest collaborators and one of the most influential people in Yugoslav federal politics in the 1970s and 1980s...
. Dolanc was chief of the secret police and a close associate of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
. Whenever Arkan was in trouble Dolanc helped him as a reward for his services to the Yugoslav secret state police (UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
), as seen in the escapade from the Lugano prison in 1981. Stane Dolanc is quoted as having said: "One Arkan is worth more than the whole UDBA."
The European years
In 1972, at the age of 20, hoping to find fortune through a criminal career, he illegally emigrated to Western Europe. Abroad, he got introduced to and kept contact with many well-known criminals from Yugoslavia such as Ljuba ZemunacLjubomir Magaš
Ljubomir Magaš was a Yugoslav amateur boxer, streetfighter and gangster. He was commonly known by his nickname Ljuba Zemunac .-Early days:...
, Ranko Rubežić, Đorđe Božović Giška, Goran Vuković
Goran Vukovic
Goran Vuković "Majmun" was a Serbian mobster and murderer.-Killing of Ljubomir Magas:...
, Rade Ćaldović Ćenta etc. all of whom, like him, were also occasionally contracted by the Yugoslav secret service. He took the nickname "Arkan" from one of his forged passports. He had convictions or warrants in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden (20 burglaries, 7 bank robberies, outside assistance to prison escape, attempted murder), Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.
On 28 December 1974 he was arrested in Belgium following a bank robbery and was sentenced to ten years. On 4 July 1979, he managed to escape from the Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
prison. A Belgian police official was quoted as saying: "He's the most dangerous man I ever came across. He's no ordinary criminal, he's a rabid dog".
Though Arkan was rearrested in the Netherlands on 24 October 1979, the few months he was free were enough for at least two more armed robberies in Sweden and three more in Holland. Serving a 7-year sentence at a prison in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, he pulled off another escape on 8 May 1981 after someone slipped him a gun. Wasting no time, more robberies followed, this time in Germany where after less than a month of freedom he was arrested in Frankfurt on 5 June 1981 following a jewellery store stick up. In the ensuing shoot out with police he was lightly wounded, resulting in his placement in the prison hospital ward where looser security allowed him to escape again only four days later, on 9 June, supposedly by jumping from the window, beating up the first bystander, and stealing his clothing before disappearing. His final European arrest occurred in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, Switzerland during a routine traffic check on 15 February 1983. However he managed to escape again within months, this time from Torberg prison on 27 April. It is widely speculated that Arkan was closely affiliated with Yugoslav security service UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
throughout his criminal career abroad. Ražnatović was even on Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
's ten most wanted list.
Arkan learned the main European languages because of his undercover work in Western Europe. He spoke fluent English, French, and Italian, and was also familiar with German, Swedish, and Dutch. He also spoke some Albanian and Bulgarian.
Back in Yugoslavia
Arkan returned to Yugoslavia in May 1983, continuing his criminal career by opening a number of illegal businesses. In November 1983, two federal policemen ambushed Arkan at his house in order to have him arrested and interrogated over some of his activities. He resisted, pulled a gun, and shot and wounded both of them. An intervention from federal Interior Minister Stane Dolanc effected his release from prison only two days later. This incident increased Arkan's criminal-political reputation in Belgrade as it now became clear to every one of his underworld rivals that he enjoyed protection from the highest circles.Early
Only days after the Croatian elections in 1990, Arkan, who was the leader of the Delije, football hooligans of the Belgrade club Red Star BelgradeRed Star Belgrade
Red Star Belgrade is a football club from Belgrade, Serbia. The club is a part of the Red Star Sports Society.Red Star Belgrade is the most successful Serbian club, with a record of 25 national championships and 23 national cups in both Serbian and ex-Yugoslav competitions...
, was at place when Croatian Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...
played home against the Red Star at Stadion Maksimir on May 13, a match that ended in a riot. Arkan and his group, consisting of 1500 people, reportedly went across Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
beating supporters of the home team.
On 11 October 1990, as the political, ethnic, and religious situation in the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
became tense (see Log Revolution
Log Revolution
The Log Revolution was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990 in areas of the Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs....
), Arkan created a paramilitary group named the Serb Volunteer Guard
Serb Volunteer Guard
The Serb Volunteer Guard also known as Arkan's Tigers was a Serbian volunteer paramilitary unit, founded and led by Željko Ražnatović, that fought in Croatia ; Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Kosovo War ....
, possibly under the auspices of the Department of State Security. Arkan was the supreme commander of the unit, which was primarily made up of members of the Delije, his friends and other criminals. In late October 1990, Arkan traveled to Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
to meet representatives of the Republic of Serbian Krajina
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
, a break-away region composed out of ethnic Serbs wanting to remain in FR Yugoslavia (with Montenegro and Serbia), as oppossed to the Croatian government that seceded.
On 29 November 1990, Croatian police arrested him at the Croatian-Bosnian border crossing Dvor na Uni, along with local Dušan Carić, and Belgraders Dušan Bandić and Zoran Stevanović. The police found Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms. Some of their products include the SA80, MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle, the G36 assault rifle, the HK 416, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision...
s in the car. His entourage was sent to Sisak
Sisak
Sisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...
, and was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the newly formed Croatian state. Arkan was given 20 months in jail. He was released from the Remetinec prison
Remetinec prison
Remetinec prison is a closed-type prison located in the Remetinec neighborhood of Zagreb, Croatia.The prison's capacity is 560 inmates, making it the largest prison in Croatia. , it housed 850 prisoners and detainees. The prison's overcrowding problem is also a major problem of the Croatian prison...
in Zagreb on 14 June 1991 under unclear circumstances, without the notice of Josip Boljkovac
Josip Boljkovac
Josip Boljkovac is a former Croatian politician, and was the first Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of Croatia....
, then Internal Minister. It is believed that the Croatian and Serbian governments agreed on a 1 million DM settlement.
In July 1991, Arkan was for some time at the Cetinje monastery
Cetinje Monastery
The Cetinje Monastery is the most famous Serb Orthodox monastery in Montenegro. It is located in Cetinje and is the seat of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and its name derives from Saint Peter of Cetinje...
, with Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović
Amfilohije Radovic
Amfilohije Radović is the current Metropolitan of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Archbishop of Cetinje.His role in the Yugoslav Wars is considered controversial.- Biography :...
. His group of men, fully armed, were allowed to enter the monastery, which they served as security. Arkan's group travelled from Cetinje to the Siege of Dubrovnik
Siege of Dubrovnik
The Siege of Dubrovnik is a term marking the battle and siege of the city of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in Croatia as part of the Croatian War of Independence. Yugoslav People's Army invaded the Dubrovnik area in October 1991 from Montenegro, Bosnia and even parts of Croatia, surrounding...
. At the return from Dubrovnik, he was again guest at Cetinje.
War
Arkan's Tigers, a paramilitary force he created, set up their headquarters and training camp in a former military facility in ErdutErdut
Erdut is a village and a municipality in eastern Croatia. It is located in the Osijek-Baranja County, eastern Slavonia, 37 km east of Osijek. The elevation of the village of Erdut is 158 m...
. His volunteer army saw action from mid 1991 to late 1995, initially in Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
region of Croatia. Arkan's much feared irregular military
Irregular military
Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....
forces consisted of a core of 200 men and perhaps totaled no more than 500 to 1,000. His units were supplied and equipped by the reserves of the Serbian police force during the war in Croatia and Bosnia
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
.
After war broke out in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia in the fall of 1991 and in Bosnia in April 1992, Arkan and his units moved to attack different territories in these countries. In the Republic of Serbian Krajina
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
, Arkan's Tigers fought in various locales in SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. In the Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
, Arkan's Tigers, fought in battles in and around Zvornik
Zvornik
Zvornik is a city on the Drina river in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located south of the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town Mali Zvornik lies directly across the river in Serbia, and not far north is Loznica.-History:Zvornik is first mentioned in 1410, although it was...
, Bijeljina
Bijeljina
Bijeljina is a city and municipality in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city is the second largest in the Republika Srpska entity after Banja Luka and fifth largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is situated on the flat rich plains of Semberija...
and Brčko
Brcko (city)
Brčko is a city in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, administrative seat of the Brčko District. It lies on the country's border along the Sava river across from Gunja, Croatia...
.
In autumn 1995 his troops fought in the area of Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
, Sanski Most
Sanski Most
Sanski 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....
and Prijedor
Prijedor
Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....
. In October 1995 he was forced to escape from Sanski most and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Armija BiH took the city from the Serbs. Arkan personally led most of war actions, and rewarded his most efficient officers and soldiers with ranks, medals and eventually the products of the lootings.
Arkan came to serve as a popular icon for both Serbs and their enemies. For some Serbs he was a folk hero and patriot, while serving as a target of hatred to their enemies. His troops were also stationed in the Republic of Serbian Krajina to fight against the Croatian army, and he had a dispute over military operations with the Serbian regional leader Milan Martić
Milan Martic
Milan Martić is a Serbian politician, former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina...
Arkan also had friendly contacts and political plans with Russian ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a Russian politician, colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe....
.
Power and influence in Yugoslavia
Arkan was a powerful man with high-level connections in the state apparatus. He had significant influence over public spheres of Serbian society. As part of his public image, Arkan presented himself as a defender of Serbs and fighter for freedom and justice. He clearly fostered two types of images, that of a strong, stern, and often brutal leader in public as well as a caring and reserved family man in private.Arkan was glorified by part of the Serb population as a war hero, and was the subject of war songs. He owned a voluminous mansion in the elite Belgrade neighborhood of Dedinje
Dedinje
Dedinje is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac...
where high-ranking politicians and foreign diplomats reside. Despite being raised an atheist in a family of communists, Arkan made a point of showing public respects to the Serbian Orthodox Church
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
, especially its head Patriarch Pavle. Additionally, he observed and celebrated various religious holidays, often publicly. Some questioned the motives behind these public displays of his new found religious spirituality and saw it as shameless self-promotion ploy in an attempt at ingratiation with the Serbian public.
On 3 November 1993, Arkan and his followers founded the Party of Serbian Unity
Party of Serbian Unity
The Party of Serbian Unity was a nationalist political party in the Serbia.The goals of the party included:*Unity of Serbian people*Keeping integrity of territory of Serbia...
, and he became its president, but the party lost parliamentary elections and failed to win seats despite an energetic promotional campaign. In the 2000 election
Serbian parliamentary election, 2000
The first free democratic parliamentary election after the fall of Slobodan Milošević was held in the Republic of Serbia on 23 December 2000.-Results:...
, however, the party received 200,000 votes and won 14 seats in the Serbian parliament.
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj, JD is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000...
, a political rival of his, described the power Arkan wielded as early as 1987 during his testimony at the Milošević trial in 2005.
Arkan became an untouchable criminal figure in Belgrade and all of the former Yugoslavia. He was really so powerful, so strong financially that no one could do anything about him.... In 1993, I learned that Željko Ražnatović, Arkan, had in Belgrade kidnapped and taken to Erdut and there killed Isa Lero... also a man from the criminal underground who had come into conflict with Arkan. I even found a witness to the murder. I publicly accused Arkan. I submitted a report to the police. The police inspectors came to see me. We talked about it. I gave them all the information I had, but then the police inspector told me that they were aware of it but that they were unable to prove it because of the fear among the potential witnesses. So the police were quite well-informed about his criminal activities, but it was very hard to prove anything or to bring charges because his support network was so widespread, and this can be shown through various newspaper articles and so on. In one television statement, I told him when we were debating on TV, that he had pulled a sock over his head more often than I had pulled one on my feet.http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:D2RuuFsw_fIJ:www.slobodan-Milošević.org/documents/trial/2005-08-25.html+%2B%22Seselj%22%2B%22joined+myself%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca
In the postwar period after the Dayton agreement
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
was signed, Arkan returned to his interests in sport and private business. The Serb Volunteer Guard was officially disbanded in April 1996 with the threat to be reactivated in case of war emergency. In June of that year he took over a second division soccer team FK Obilić which he soon turned into a top caliber club, even winning the 1997/98
First League of FR Yugoslavia 1997-98
-Overview:The league was divided into 2 groups, A and B, consisting each of 10 clubs. Both groups were played in league system. By winter break all clubs in each group meet each other twice, home and away, with the bottom four classifiyed from A group moving to the group B, and being replaced by...
Yugoslav league
Serbian Superliga
Serbian SuperLiga is a Serbian professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Serbian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 16 clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with the Serbian First League...
championship. According to a book by Franklin Foer
Franklin Foer
Franklin Foer is an American journalist and editor-at-large for The New Republic. Foer is a 2012 Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation as of Sept...
, How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
How Soccer Explains the World
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Terrorism is a book written by American journalist Franklin Foer...
, Arkan threatened players on opposing teams if they scored against Obilić.
This threat was underlined by the thousands of veterans from his army that filled their home field, chanting threats, and on occasion pointing pistols at opposition players during matches. One player told the British football magazine FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £4.50, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 200th edition in February 2011...
that he was locked in a garage when his team played Obilić. Europe's football governing body, UEFA
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
, considered prohibiting Obilić from participation in continental competitions because of its connections to Arkan. In response to this, Arkan stepped away from the position of president and gave his seat to his wife Ceca. Arkan was also a chairman of the Yugoslav Kick-boxing Association.
Arkan has been accused of being involved in protection racket
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
s, extortion, and the smuggling of oil and luxury items. Later he pursued more legitimate business and had about 400 people working for him. He owned casinos, discos, gas stations, pastry shops, stores, bakeries, restaurants, gyms, as well as a private security agency.
Arkan was unofficially allied with 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 operated under his control, although he was fairly independent in his day-to-day actions and decisions. Contacts between the men were usually carried out through a mediator Radovan "Badža" Stojičić, Serbia's police chief and Milošević's close associate, who was assassinated in April 1997.
In August 1998, when tensions over Kosovo had already begun, Arkan tried to get close to the West, writing a letter of support to U.S. president Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
over the bombings of U.S. embassies
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
in Kenya and Tanzania. In the letter he expressed condolences for the victims that died in the attack, and warned Clinton of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
. An excerpt from his letter reads: "Mr President… do not allow that terrorism continues in this part of Balkan in the Serbian state, which is forever a friend of your state." Clinton ignored him and never responded to the letter.
Role in the Kosovo war
According to chief judge Richard May from the United Kingdom, the ICTY issued an indictment against Arkan on 30 September 1997 for war crimes of genocideGenocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva convention of 1949 for customs and traditions of war. The warrant was kept sealed and was not made public until 31 March 1999, a week after NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
Operation Allied Force
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999...
had begun. Arkan's indictment was made public by Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda...
, then UN court's chief prosecutor.
In the week before the start of NATO bombing – as the Rambouillet talks
Rambouillet Agreement
The Rambouillet Agreement is the name of a proposed peace agreement between then-Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic-Albanian majority population of Kosovo. It was drafted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and named for Chateau Rambouillet, where it was initially proposed...
collapsed – Arkan appeared at the Hyatt hotel in Belgrade, where most Western journalists were staying, and ordered all of them to leave Serbia.
During the NATO aerial bombardment of Serbia, Arkan denied the war crime charges against him in interviews he gave to foreign reporters during the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. Arkan blamed NATO for the bombing of civilians and creating refugees of all ethnicities, and stated that he would deploy his troops only in the case of a NATO direct ground invasion. After the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three journalists and led to a diplomatic row between the U.S. and People’s Republic of China, NATO and various Western media claimed the building might have been targeted because the office of the Chinese military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
was being used by Arkan to communicate and transmit messages to his paramilitary group, the Tigers, in Kosovo.
ICTY indictment
In March 1999, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) announced that Zeljko Raznjatovic (Arkan) had been indicted by the Tribunal, although the indictment was only made public after Arkan’s assassination.
According to the indictment Arkan should have been prosecuted on 24 charges of crimes against humanity (Art. 5 ICTY Statute), grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
(Art. 2 ICTY Statute) and violations of the laws of war
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
(Art. 3 ICTY Statute), for the following acts:
- Forcibly detaining approximately thirty non-Serb men and one woman, without food or water, in an inadequately ventilated boiler room of approximately five square metres in size.
- Transporting twelve non-Serb men from 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....
to an isolated location in the village of TrnovaTrnova- Gornja Trnova :total: 420* Serbs - 413 * Croats - 2 * "Yugoslavs" - 2 * others and unknown - 3 - Srednja Trnova :total: 721* Muslims by nationality - 682 * "Yugoslavs" - 24 * Serbs - 12...
and shooting them, killing eleven of the men and critically wounding the twelfth. - The rape of a Muslim woman on a bus outside the Hotel Sanus in Sanski Most.
- Transporting approximately sixty-seven non-Serb men and one woman from Sanski Most, Sehovci, and Pobrijeze to an isolated location in the village of Sasina and shooting them, killing sixty-five of the captives and wounding two survivors.
- Forcibly detaining approximately thirty-five non-Serb men in an inadequately ventilated boiler room of about five square metres in size, beating them, and withholding from them food and water, resulting in the deaths of two men.
It is claimed that Arkan was individually responsible for the crimes alleged against him in this indictment pursuant to Art. 7 § 1 of the ICTY Statute. But Arkan was also or alternatively criminally responsible as a commander for the acts of his subordinates pursuant to Art. 7 § 3 of the ICTY Statute, since he had at all times the complete authority to direct and control all of the actions of the members of his paramilitary unit.
Assassination
CZ-99
The CZ 99 is a Semi-automatic pistol, which is produced in Zastava Arms, Serbia, first model developed in 1989. Designed with the intent to replace the Zastava M57 TT pistol as the standard issue handgun for the Yugoslavian Military and Police. The frame design was influenced by the Walther P 88...
duty-issued pistol. Arkan was shot in his left eye and lapsed into a coma on the spot. His bodyguard Zvonko Mateović put him into a car, and rushed him to a hospital, but he died on the way. According to an article on NPR, Milošević's own men may have killed him for knowing too much.
According to his wife, Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic, Arkan died in her arms as they were driving to the hospital.
Business manager
In a general context, a business manager is a person who manages the work of others in order to run a business efficiently and make a large profit...
, and Dragan Garić, a police inspector, were also shot to death by Gavrić. Gavrić was shot and wounded immediately after by Arkan's bodyguard, Zvonko Mateović, and fell unconscious. A woman bystander was seriously wounded in a shootout between the two as well. After complicated surgery, Gavrić survived, but remained disabled and a wheelchair user as result of a spinal wound.
Željko Ražnatović Arkan was buried with military honours by his volunteers and with funeral rites on 20 January 2000. Around 20,000 people attended the funeral.
In reaction to the death, Serb sentiments varied across the political spectrum. For those who sympathised with his anti non-Serb rhetoric, he was a war hero, but for many who had seen and heard of his and the Tigers' actions, as well as his apparent political connections, feared him too much to make any public comment at the time.
Trials and rumours
Dobrosav Gavrić pleaded innocent and never admitted to committing the crime. He was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years in prison. His accomplices received from 3 to 15 years each, after a year-long trial in 2002. However the district court verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court because of "lack of evidence and vagueness of the first trial process".A new trial was conducted in 2006, ending on 9 October 2006 with guilty verdicts upheld for Gavrić as well as his accomplices Milan Đuričić and Dragan Nikolić. Each man received 30 years in prison. Only Nikolić is actually serving the sentence while Gavrić and Đuričić have been on the run for years.
Still, the murder's background and identities of the person(s) who ordered it remain unclear and subject of rife speculation. According to one rumour, Marko Milošević, the son of Yugoslavia's president at the time, 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...
, was said to have had a harsh quarrel with Arkan over control of oil-smuggling rackets. NPR reported that he was more likely someone who simply knew too much when war crimes trials were becoming a reality for the Milošević regime.
Yet another rumour claims that Borislav Pelević
Borislav Pelevic
Borislav Pelević is a Serbian politician. He had been the president of the nationalist Party of Serbian Unity, before it merged into the Serbian Radical Party in December 2007. His old party had a marginal importance in Serbian politics. Pelević was one of the Arkan's Tigers during the war in...
, Arkan's close associate and his successor as president of Party of Serbian Unity
Party of Serbian Unity
The Party of Serbian Unity was a nationalist political party in the Serbia.The goals of the party included:*Unity of Serbian people*Keeping integrity of territory of Serbia...
, served as the "inside man" for the plot against Arkan. Security services also wiretapped Arkan shortly before his murder; for four months the group allegedly followed Arkan's movements and whereabouts, learning his habits.
On 15 January 2008, 8-year anniversary of Arkan's death, his sister Jasna Diklić accused Andrija Drašković, a controversial businessman with alleged ties to the Mafia, of being behind her brother's murder. She further accused Serbian state institutions of "protecting Arkan's murderers Gavrić and Đuričić, and not doing anything to apprehend them".
According to 1994 relation of SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
, Arkan sent one of his most trusted men, Radovan Stanisc to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to start relationship with camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
boss Francesco Schiavone
Francesco Schiavone
Francesco Schiavone is a member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan organized crime syndicate, and the head of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno...
.
Arkan, asked Schiavone for arms for his guerrillas and the participation of Schiavone to solve two crucial problems: quieten the Albanian mobsters, because they stopped his war, blocking the weapon route, and make arrive the money in Serbia, under the form of humanitarian aid. In exchange the near entrepreneurs clans acquired at optimal prices companies, enterprises, stores, masserie, breedings in half Serbia.
Personal
Arkan fathered nine children by five different women. His eldest son Mihajlo (Michael) was born in GothenburgGothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, in 1975 from a relationship with a Swedish woman, Agneta. Mihajlo decided to move to his father in 1992, at the age of 17, leaving Sweden and joining his father's unit during the Yugoslav wars. Mihajlo has since been living in Belgrade and has played for the Red Star icehockey team, also representing Serbia 2002–2004. He is a successful businessman and in 2000 his daughter was born.
Then followed two daughters: Sofia from relations with a Belgian woman and Anđela (born 1980) with a Belgrade actress. Arkan acknowledged paternity of each of his three children that were born out of wedlock.
Arkan's first wife was Natalija Martinović, a Spanish language professor, with whom he had four children: daughter Milena, twin sons Vojin and Nikola, and another daughter Maša. Their divorce became official in December 1994.
RTV Pink
RTV Pink or Radio-Television Pink is a popular, privately-owned, national TV network in Serbia. Pink is the leading commercial station in the Serbian television broadcast market. TV Pink has gained a strong reputation for its entertainment programming...
with different locations and changes of clothing (at different points of the ceremony Arkan alternated between World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Serb military uniform and traditional Montenegrin attire). "Ceca" bore him two more children, son Veljko and daughter Anastasija.
In June 1994, sometime after her separation from Arkan, Natalija Martinović and their four children left Yugoslavia and moved to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece where Arkan bought them an apartment in the suburb of Glyfada
Glyfada
Glyfada is a suburb of Athens, situated in the southern parts of the Athens Metropolitan Area. The area, which is home to many of Greece's millionaires, ministers and celebrities, stretches out from the foot of the Hymettus mountain and reaches out to embrace the Saronic Gulf. It is the largest of...
. After Arkan's death Martinović disputed his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
, claiming that Ceca, his second wife, doctored it. In May 2000, she sued Ceca over ownership of Arkan's assets including the villa at 3 Ljutice Bogdana Street in which he and Ceca lived (and Ceca continues to reside in to this day), claiming it was built with funds from a bank loan Martinović and Arkan took out in 1985. The court eventually ruled against Martinović. The court agreed with her assertions that the villa was built with money from a 1985 bank loan taken out by her and Arkan, but also found that she forfeited any rights in future division of that asset when she signed the property over to Arkan in 1994 before moving to Greece.
External links
- Gangster's life of Serb warlord, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
15 January 2000 - Arkan: Underworld boss of Milošević's murder squad, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 19 January 2000 - My Tea with Arkan the Henchman, TIME Magazine, 12 April 1999
- 'Blood and Honey – A Balkan War Journal', npr, February 2001
- Video:The hunt for a war criminal Arkan