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Top Serbian nabbed for spying
16/03/2002 17:42 - (SA)
Belgrade - A Serbian deputy prime minister and former army commander has been arrested by military police on suspicion of passing secret documents to a US diplomat that could implicate Slobodan Milosevic at his war crimes trial, officials said on Friday.
Momcilo Perisic was seized on Thursday at a Belgrade restaurant by police from the military secret service, known as KOS, said his
aide, Nebojsa Mandic. A ranking Yugoslav government official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said Perisic, 58, was arrested "on
suspicion of espionage".
Perisic's detention, which appeared to have caught civilian
government leaders by surprise, sharpened tensions between military
hard-liners and Serbia's pro-Western leadership. With Perisic no
longer in the military, it was not immediately clear what formal
authority the army had in arresting him.
Military sources said Perisic was
apprehended together with a US diplomat while allegedly handing
over secret army documents that "could link Milosevic with war
crimes".
Milosevic still wields influence
Milosevic is on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in the
Netherlands accused of war crimes and genocide in Kosovo, Croatia
and Bosnia during Yugoslavia's bloody break-up in the 1990s.
Perisic's arrest by the military could reflect the fact that
Milosevic still wields considerable influence among hard-line
military commanders opposed to providing evidence of war crimes to
the UN war crimes panel.
The US Embassy lodged a protest, saying the diplomat was
"arbitrarily arrested and held incommunicado for 15 hours". State
Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said the diplomat was
"physically assaulted" and said the United States was "outraged".
"We are forcefully protesting these actions by the Yugoslav
military to the Yugoslav civilian authorities," he told reporters.
"In addition to our concerns about our diplomat, we're also
concerned about this apparent move against an elected Serbian
civilian official."
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic blasted the arrests as "a
first-rate scandal" and said the military secret service has "gone
out of control".
'Bag over his head'
The US diplomat "was detained with a bag over his head, had no
translator nor a lawyer", Djindjic said.
The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said the developments "could
seriously hamper relations between two countries".
A joint statement by the Serbian and Yugoslav governments said
the arrest of Perisic and the US diplomat "harms the reputation
of the country".
"The manner in which this case was handled casts doubt on
whether the military and its security services are under civilian
control," the statement said.
A ranking Serbian government official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the cabinet had convened an emergency session on
Friday, and Perisic's apartment and office had been searched by
military agents.
"Only in totalitarian and Stalinist regimes can the security
services arrest a senior government official in this manner," said
Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, a retired colonel and former military spokesperson.
'Serious warning'
The Serbian government officials described the detention as a
"serious warning from a clique of military hard-liners what will
happen if we continue with our policy of co-operation with The
Hague".
Milosevic was ousted and turned over to the UN tribunal in the
Netherlands by the leadership of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav
republic that effectively determines the country's affairs.
The same leadership remains under pressure from the West to hand over other senior past and present politicians indicted by the
tribunal but faces opposition at home, from Kostunica, the federal
president, and hard-line military and civilian pro-Milosevic
loyalists.
Perisic served as Yugoslavia's chief of staff during the wars in
Croatia and Bosnia, but was sacked by Milosevic in 1998 on the eve
of Nato bombardment of Yugoslavia for criticising the Kosovo
campaign against ethnic Albanian militants conducted by Milosevic.
'Too pro-American'
Perisic commanded Yugoslav troops during the opening stages of
wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the early 1990s. He was sentenced in
a Croat court in absentia to 20 years in prison for ordering the
shelling of Adriatic towns of Sibenik and Zadar.
Perisic was fired a few months before Nato's 78-day air attack
against Yugoslavia. The Nato attack was intended, among other
things, to punish Milosevic for his crackdown against Kosovo's
ethnic Albanians.
During the period before the strikes, Perisic had met top Nato
commanders, including US General Wesley Clark. He had been
criticised by Milosevic's hard-liners as "too pro-American".
- Sapa-AP
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