Photo of the "Arkanovac" hitting his victim, photo: Ron Haviv

Former ‘Arkan’s man’ Jovan Dimitrijevic testifies in The Hague as Franko Simatovic’s defense witness. When he was examined by Simatovic’s defense lawyer, Dimitrijevic claimed that the arrival of the paramilitary unit in Bijeljina was ‘easy, quick and effective’. Prosecutor Marcus today pointed that the price of ‘effectiveness’ was war crimes against civilians. The prosecutor showed the well-known photo taken by Ron Haviv immediately after the Serb Volunteer Guard entered Bijeljina. The photo shows one of ‘Arkan’s men’ kicking wounded civilians lying on the ground.

Asked if he recognized anyone on the photo, the witness said that the person kicking civilians was Srdjan Golubovic, an SDG member, who was punished and removed from the unit because of that incident. As the witness explained, Arkan’s unit used ‘the disciplinary measures of the old Serbian army’ and Golubovic was physically punished. He received 25 strokes on the buttocks. The witness couldn’t tell if Golubovic ever faced criminal prosecution for the crime. During the war, Dimitrijevic was Arkan’s clerk and came to Bijeljina after the volunteers entered the town.

A while later, the prosecutor showed a document containing about 100 payroll lists, which clearly prove that the Serbian State Security Service, headed by the accused Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, regularly paid per diems to Arkan’s men from September 1994 to the end of 1995. The document contradicts the witness’s claim that the Serbian Volunteer Guard never had anything to do with the Serbian secret service. This also refuted the witness’s allegation that ‘Arkan’s men’ fought only for patriotic reasons and never received any payment from anyone during the wars from 1991 to 1995. Today the witness admitted that he recognized the names of many Arkan’s volunteers on the payroll lists. The witness nevertheless insisted that this was the first indication he had that the Serbian State Security Service paid the SDG members.

Finally, the document contradicted the witness’s claim that Srdjan Golubovic was removed from Arkan’s unit after the incident in Bijeljina. Golubovic’s name is on the Serbian State Security payroll too. Dimitrijevic said that Golubovic was later ‘rehabilitated’ and brought back to the unit. Volunteers were ‘sometimes forgiven a mistake or two’ and it was considered that the 25 strokes on the buttocks ‘taught him a lesson’.

The witness claimed that the Serbian Volunteer Guard didn’t cooperate with the Serbian MUP and the State Security Service, but only with the government and the Territorial Defense of Eastern Slavonia and the JNA. This prompted the prosecutor to show several documents which indicate that the Serbian MUP provided arms to ‘Arkan’s men’ in their training center in Erdut. The documents also show that some of Arkan’s volunteers received police pensions. Dimitrijevic responded that he didn’t know anything about that.

The witness dismissed the suggestion that criminal activities were one of the sources of financing of Arkan’s unit. The witness said that the money came in from donations, the revenues of Raznatovic legitimate businesses, and from a pastry shop and bakery Raznatovic ran in Belgrade.

Dimtrijevic thus completed his evidence. The trial of Stanisic and Simatovic who are charged with the crimes committed by the various police and paramilitary units, including ‘Arkan’s men’, continues next Tuesday.

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