Peacock

Documents: "The Unit" series, the third part, Vreme film

Between November 9 and 17, 2001, there was an armed rebellion by the Special Operations Unit of the Department of State Security of the MUP of Serbia. Although retired for several months, Milorad Ulemek Legija was the actual commander of this formation and the main organizer of the rebellion. After it ended, he came to the cabinet of the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Dušan Mihajlović, in order to coordinate the joint statements of the MUP and Unit. Čedomir Jovanović, then the head of the DOS parliamentary club, also happened to be there.

When the meeting was over, Legija looked at the poster on the door of Mihajlovic's office, which offered three hundred thousand German marks each for information about a series of unsolved murders. In the third part of the "Units" series, Jovanović says:

"There were photos of Slavak Ćuruvija, there was a photo of Ivan Stambolić, there was a photo of Assistant Minister of the Interior Radovan Stojičić Badža, there was a photo of Defense Minister Pavle Bulatović, director of the national airline company Živorad Đorđević... Those were not the photos there were mobsters from the street. Legion looked at that poster and began to add the sum under each photo out loud. He said: 'I don't know if I should take these millions from you now or later'".

F. Sh.

In the weekly Vreme number 1202, on Thursday, January 16, read Miloš Vasić's analysis THE CASE OF SLAVKA ĚURUVIJE: The beginning of a possible unraveling and what it means
on the progress of the investigation into the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija

Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime Miljko Radisavljević said at a press conference in the Government of Serbia on January 14, 2014 at 17:XNUMX p.m., that in the investigation of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, the prosecution reached a "living word" - in his words, Milorad Ulemek Legija was legally convicted of murder Prime Minister Đinđić decided to unconditionally present his knowledge about the circumstances of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija. The First Vice-President of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, then stated that there are two more witnesses who confirm the "criminal role of the state" and the individuals who committed the crime.

Updated on 14. 1. at 17:11

Branka Prpa, the widow of the murdered Slavko Ćuruvija, told NIN magazine that Miroslav Kurak did not shoot her husband:

"It's a new name for me, but he didn't shoot Slavko." He doesn't look like that person to me. I didn't see the other person who hit me on the head with a gun from behind," Prpa said in an interview with NIN, which B92 reports on its website on January 14 at 17:44 p.m. under the title Prpa: Kurak did not kill Slavko

She confirmed that she saw Curuvia's killer and described him.

"He was young, had a black cap and was dressed in black." That coldness, that peace of someone who takes their life, I remember that," said Prpa.

Although she saw the face of the man who shot, she says that the police first called her to reconstruct the image of the killer only in November 2000, 19 months after the murder, and the last time she was a witness to the murder was in the District Court in January 2007...

Updated 14. 1 at 18:18

70

The disputed Sixth Department belonged to the Belgrade Center of the then State Security. It was founded at the end of November 1999 after the discovery of the fact that a DB truck was used in the murder of four SPO officials on the Ibar highway on October 3 of the same year. At that time, the director of DB was Radomir Marković. Immediately, as it was established, the Sixth Department was abolished on February 27, 2001.

It is not entirely clear what the slightly more than ten members of this department were doing in one year of their operational work. During that period he was killed Pavle Bulatović, Minister of Defense of the FRY (February 7), was killed and Žika Petrović, director of JAT (April 25), it happened assassination of Vuk Drašković in Budva (June 15), was kidnapped and killed Ivan Stambolić (August 25), judge Nebojsa Simeunović disappeared in November, and was later found dead in early December and after the secret surveillance dossier was released Slavka Ćuruvije, was killed and Luka Pejović, member of the reserve unit of the Special Operations Unit (JSO).

The head of Šestica was Ratko Romić. In the SPO announcement, he is called "an indisputable participant in the organization of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, the assassination in Budva and probably all other political crimes committed by the DB in 1999 and 2000."

Read more in the text Mirko RudićThe Secret of the Sixth Ward, TIME | BR 1131 | SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Vreme, war emergency issue number 6, April 17, 1999.

Somewhere around 13:14 p.m., on Wednesday, April 11, the sound of a siren with a monotonous one-minute tone marked the end of the air threat, while a column of those who came to express their condolences to the relatives of Slavko Ćuruvija was still winding in front of the chapel at Belgrade's New Cemetery. Our colleague did not see the end of all danger. Unknown persons, who are being sought, killed him on April XNUMX in front of his apartment in the center of Belgrade

Several thousand Belgraders paid their last respects to Slavko Ćuruvija, including members of his immediate family, friends, colleagues, journalists, figures from public and cultural life... In front of the chapel at the New Cemetery, the editor of "Evropljanin" Ljijana Smajlović said that "Slavko Ćuruvija was brave man, unlike those who brutally killed him from behind, and those who brutally bombarded him from the sky". Journalist Voja Žanetić sent his last greetings to his friend and colleague at the grave. He spoke the journalist's news about the death of Ćuruvija: "Slavko Ćuruvija was killed by a bullet on the ground between the sirens that indicate air danger from aerial bombs." On Easter 1999."

The owner of the daily newspaper "Dnevni Telegraf" and the magazine "Evropljanin" Slavko Ćuruvija was killed in Belgrade's Ive Lola Ribara Street, in the passage in front of number 35. The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Ćuruvija "was shot dead by unknown perpetrators and that the workers of the Secretariat in Belgrade are intensively searching for the perpetrators of this crime". Only the daily newspaper "Politika" specified on Monday that Ćuruvija was killed around 16:40 p.m. and that he was shot by two assailants "dressed in black and wearing black caps with slits for the eyes on their heads." "Three or four shots were heard, and then two of them jumped out of the haustor and ran down the street towards Takovska", "Politika" reported the testimony of a citizen who happened to be at the scene. "Večernje novosti" stated a day later that in Ćuruvi "he was shot in the back, that one shot hit him in the head and the other went through his heart", as well as that the killers hit Branka Prpa with the handle of the gun and knocked her unconscious. was together with Ćuruvija. As stated in that newspaper, immediately before the attack, the two "were having lunch with some friends and around 16:35 p.m. they headed towards the building in Lola Ribara Street no. XNUMX, where the premises of the marketing department of 'Dnevni telegrafa' are located, and on the fourth floor is the apartment where the murdered man lived."

The official biography of Slavko Ćuruvija looks like this: he was born on August 9, 1949 in Zagreb. He graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences in 1978 and soon got a job as a business secretary and public relations expert at the company "Mašinogradnja" in Belgrade. According to the biography cited by the Beta agency, he was a permanent part-time contributor to the newspaper "Danas" from Zagreb, then the Center for Social Research, and from 1984 an analyst in the Directorate for Analysis of the Federal Secretariat for Internal Affairs. From 1986 to 1994, he was a commentator, editor of the internal political column, and then chief and responsible editor of "Borba". He collaborated in "Komunist", NIN, "Vjesnik", "Večernji list", "Nedelja", "Pobjeda", TV Belgrade, TV Politika, TV Sarajevo and in some European newspapers. Together with Momcilo Đorgović, he founded the newspaper "Nedeljni telegraf" in 1994, and "Dnevni telegraf" in 1996, the first private daily newspaper in Serbia, of which he was the director and editor-in-chief, and after the separation with Đorgović, the owner. He founded the magazine "Europljanin" last year.

"Daily Telegraph" was temporarily banned on October 14, 1998, and the premises were sealed on the basis of the Decree of the Government of Serbia on special measures in the conditions of the threat of a NATO attack on the country. At the end of October, the entire property of the company DT-pres was confiscated, after which the newspapers were registered in Montenegro. Because of the texts and illustrations in "Evropljanin" in October 1998, the court in Belgrade imposed a total fine of 2,4 million dinars on Ćuruvia and his company, based on the new Law on Information. A new fine of 1,2 million dinars was imposed on the Montenegrin company "DT" on November 8 last year, due to the violation of the Law on Information. Ćuruvija, along with two other newspaper journalists, was sentenced to five months in prison on March 8 of this year for disturbing the public. The appeal procedure was ongoing.

Slavko Ćuruvija was the author of two publicist books, scripts for several TV shows. He wrote comments and reports from Kosovo in the period 1986-1988, a series of texts about political prisoners in Yugoslavia, then "Ibe people speak" and "Croatia from the other side of the wall". He is the winner of the annual "Borbe" award. The part of the biography that is not printed in "Who's Who" editions was best summed up by the man who said on the grave, above the coffin, that Ćuruvija was a brave man, not "like her Mr...."! He was controversial in his journalistic and political leanings. He was praised and attacked. The last attack, before the fatal one in the entrance of the building where he lived, was excruciating because Ćuruvija did not have the opportunity to defend himself from him as quickly as he was attacked. According to "Vremena" sources, the police is conducting a self-sacrificing and detailed investigation, and it is to be hoped that its results will disprove the thesis that Ćuruvija's murder was motivated by political hatred. It is certain that this heinous act is not in favor of freedom of the press, but it is in favor of the enemies of our country, who took the assassination of Ćuruvia as a new proof of the justification of the attack on the FRY and the intervention of NATO.

In a telegram of condolence to the family and the editorial offices of "Dnevni telegraf" and "Europljanin", the independent association of journalists of Vojvodina pointed out that its members were "shocked by the brutal, professionally executed murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, a journalist who founded several newspapers and stirred up and improved the journalistic market of Yugoslavia". The society demanded an energetic investigation "in order to root out the concern that in these difficult times of war, those journalists who think differently are being freely shot." The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) also condemned this murder, stating that "whatever the motive may be, this brutal act can only provoke condemnation." On the day of the funeral, the Association of Journalists of Serbia also announced a telegram in which it says: "UNS expresses astonishment and indignation at the tragic death of colleague Slavko Ćuruvija..." Reactions also came from the international organization for the protection of journalists "Reporters sans frontieres" with headquarters in Paris, which expressed "regret and indignation over the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija". The Association of Private Media, one of whose founders was Ćuruvija, points out in its statement: "In the difficult conditions of aggression against our country, when all the media stood by their people and homeland, we ask that this crime be brought to light as soon as possible and the culprits brought to justice the face of justice. This is the only way to remove the worry that these difficult times can lead people with a darkened mind to think that it is possible to deal with journalists in such a heinous way, with impunity, regardless of what views they espouse." The Association of Independent Electronic Media recalled that just a few days before Ćuruvija's murder, a Belgrade daily published a comment accusing Slavko Ćuruvija of treason. ANEM claims that in all his public appearances and contacts with numerous officials, Ćuruvija tirelessly advocated against NATO's intervention in our country, warning of the fatal and incalculable consequences of such an act. They emphasize that Ćuruvija behaved in the same way after the start of the NATO aggression against the FRY, and that this crime represents "the murder of a good and loyal citizen of Serbia and Yugoslavia." The statements of media groups were quoted here, and the leaders of some parties, parties, groups of citizens and others also reacted... All of them very clearly emphasized the demand that the case be clarified in order to avoid speculation that it was a political reckoning in wartime. The national interest of Serbia is defended by smart politics, and without that there are no weapons that can defend us from others and ourselves.

RV

Source: Slavko Ćuruvija was buried at the New Cemetery in Belgrade, Vreme war emergency issue number 6, April 17, 1999.

***

Vreme 513, November 2, 2000.

The document that appeared in Belgrade on Tuesday morning points to the first concrete clue of the organizer or at least the witness of the organization of the assassination of Slavko Ćuruvija, the owner and publisher of "Dnevni Telegraf", dated April 11, 1999. Namely, the official note of the authorized employees of the Department of State Security, RDB Center -a for the city of Belgrade, indicates that Slavko Ćuruvija and his wife Branka Prpa were under operational surveillance of the Service until a few minutes before the murder. The Fund for Humanitarian Law and Jova Ćuruvija, the brother of the murdered Slavko, filed criminal charges against the head of the RDB Radet Marković and Milan Radonjić. head of CRDB Belgrade

The document in question seems completely authentic: graphically, linguistically and factually. Even if it is not authentic, the facts presented in it are, which the editors of "Vremen" established by comparing the content of the document with the statements of the witnesses mentioned in it. The document was typed with an electric typewriter; in the header it says that it comes from the Center of the Department of State Security - Belgrade, IX Department; the date is April 11, 1999. The title of that letter is "Report on the secret surveillance of a person - working title 'Ćuran'". The document contains two pages of text; the purpose of covert surveillance is to determine and document the contacts of the "object"; the head of the Belgrade RDB Center is listed as the principal; the time span of the covert surveillance is listed as 00:00 to 16:27 on April 11, 1999.

The goal and time frame of the action immediately appear unclear: namely, if Slavko Ćuruvija and his contacts were so interesting for security purposes, why was the Service's attention paid to them for so short a time? Further analysis of the document will raise some more questions; let's stay for a moment at the very beginning of that very interesting letter. From midnight to 13:53 p.m., state security workers sit in Lola Ribara Street, in front of number 35, waiting for Ćuruvija to go somewhere. Should we conclude from that that Slavko Ćuruvija was not interesting to anyone until the evening of April 10 - or should we draw some other conclusions? Authorized officials accompany Slavko Ćuruvija and Branka Prpa, his wife, to Kne-Mihailova street, where shortly after 14 p.m. the two meet several people: "an older man and a woman", and then "a man aged 45-50, with a beard, wears glasses". For some reason, the authorized employees of the DB let the elderly couple walk away, but pay attention to the bearded man with glasses, who "gives the object a small piece of A6 paper, after which they part." The man in question is Dušan Veličković, a writer and journalist, as will become clear from the following text; "a piece of A6 paper" is his business card; Veličković remembers that episode well and confirms the truth of the allegations: yes, he met Ćuruvija on the fateful day; yes, he gave him a business card. For some reason, the Service team either separates or calls for help, so they follow Veličković further, as well as Ćuruvia and his wife. Veličković goes to the "Albania" palace, meets two men with beards, they all talk together for about twenty minutes and go to the "Kolarac" tavern. And that detail was confirmed in the reconstruction of the events described in the official note: the two bearded men are Milan Milošević and Nenad Lj. Stefanović, Vremena journalists and Veličković's longtime colleagues.

While the three bearded women sit in "Kolarac" (and the Service has a video about it), Ćuruvija and Branka Prpa walk around Kalemegdan until 15:53 p.m., and then head back to Knez-Mihailova. Quite quickly (in three minutes, according to the "Report") they reach "Kolac"; the authorized workers see them through the window standing next to the table and talking to three bearded women. At 16:07, three bearded women leave "Kolac", while Slavko Ćuruvija and Branka Prpa stay and have lunch. Again, the attention of the Service is focused on Veličković, who is followed to his apartment in Molerova and happily escorted to the very door "where he takes the keys from his pocket, unlocks the door of apartment no.** and enters it" (the prose of the "Report" occasionally resembles a certain chapters from "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov...). In the mysterious apartment in Molerova, however, nothing of security interest is happening, nor is the mysterious bearded man coming out, so - for some reason - the surveillance of that location is stopped at 16:58 "in agreement with the head of the department", who, by the way, is said to be in the notes, was informed about every change in the movement of the "object" and that "instantaneous". At the moment of the termination of the surveillance of the completely irrelevant location in Molerova, however, the "object" is already lying dead in the entrance of his house at Lole Ribara 35...

However, let's go back to the last minutes of Slavko Ćuruvija's life: Branka Prpa and he leave the "Kolarac" tavern at 16:27 p.m., when "further control is stopped in agreement with the head of the department"; and done. Slavko Ćuruvija and Branka Prpa go home to Lole Ribara 35, where two people are waiting for them and shoot Ćuruvija in the head, so that she immediately leaves the scene.

For some reason, the Center of the Department of State Security for the city of Belgrade, by the decision of the chief, ended the surveillance of Slavko Ćuruvija a few minutes before the "object" of that surveillance was killed in a well-planned professional assassination. The surveillance lasted for about sixteen hours and was terminated. During the surveillance, one of Slavko Ćuruvija's five contacts was selected for further monitoring, so he was also left behind. Behavior very unusual for any secret police, including ours, and even in wartime as they were.

The document titled "Report" was not signed, as it should have been: the last line says that it was made in two copies, one of which was delivered to the head of the Belgrade RDB Center... Obviously, the signatures of the authorized persons and the other addressee were omitted on purpose. That, however, should not be a problem for the same chief to reconstruct who had all the knowledge about the existence of the document and had access to it.

The document was accompanied by a shorter note, typed on a typewriter in capital letters; it says that "Ćuran" is a pseudonym for Slavko Ćuruvija; that the order for monitoring was issued by Rade Marković, the head of the RDB of the MUP of Serbia, to Milan Radonjić, the head of the Belgrade RDB Center, and that those two deliberately withdrew the operatives from the task "so that they would not see the assassins", the three who walked away from the scene in a white "Golf 3" car. Those two details – the three assassins and the color and type of the car – were not known before.

The appearance of this letter coincided on Tuesday with increased pressure from the ranks of DOS for Rade Marković to resign or be replaced by midnight on Tuesday; according to some information, he did request to be released from duty, but a cause-and-effect relationship - based on everything that is known - cannot be established. Be that as it may, the police now have something to deal with in elucidating the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija. If the rest of the content of this document is true as well as the details about the movements and encounters of Slavko Ćuruvija that afternoon on April 11 - it will be very interesting to find out why Ćuruvija was followed at all, and far more interesting why the monitoring was stopped just before the murder.

Milos Vasic

Source: The murder of Slavko Ćuruvija before dismissal? Time number 513, November 2, 2000.