Mladen Karan, defence witness of Franko Simatovic

Operation Spider is not listed in the indictment against former chiefs of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic. Nevertheless, the prosecution has been using the operation since the start of the trial as a paradigm of the Serbian secret service’s involvement in combat outside Serbia. The prosecution alleges that combat operations were carried out in concert with other units as part of the joint criminal enterprise aimed at ethnically cleansing parts of Croatia and BH. Operation Spider lasted from the fall of 1994 to the summer of 1995 in Western Bosnia; its objective was to provide support to Fikret Abdic’s troops in their fight against the BH Army 5^th Corps. The operation included units from Serbia, Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

Simatovic’s defense witness, a retired military security officer Mladen Karan, tried to play down the role of the Serbian State Security Service and the accused in the operation. Karan claimed the Serbian Army of Krajina (SVK) officers headed the operation. According to him, Milorad Ulemek Legija and Radojica Rajo Bozovic, who were both in the Eastern Slavonia Territorial Defense, led the two tactic units, while Franko Simatovic was ‘only’ in charge of the electronic reconnaissance group in the operation HQ at Petrova Gora. As prosecutor Maxine Marcus cross-examined the witness today, she showed a series of documents that in her view contradicted the witness’s claims.

The prosecutor first showed the Operation Storm logbook. The 15 daily entries state that Franko Simatovic selected military targets and dealt with the deployment of the forces. When the prosecutor noted that this clearly went beyond electronic reconnaissance into the sphere of combat operation planning, Karan replied that ‘one could say that’. What Karan couldn’t understand is how Simatovic could do electronic reconnaissance, such a ‘serious and comprehensive’ task, and at the same time exercise command over an operation. As Karan said, only a ‘superman’ could accomplish it.

Insisting on Jovica Stanisic’s role in Operation Spider, the prosecutor showed documents from the meetings where the accused discussed support for Fikret Abdic with the highest-ranking Serb military and political officials: Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and Momcilo Perisic. The witness dismissed the suggestion that Stanisic in effect took part in the planning of the operation by dint of attending the meetings. The witness explained that it was ‘just an agreement’ while combat operations were planned in the field.

The witness claimed that Ulemek and Bozovic joined Operation Spider as members of the Territorial Defense of the SVK 11^th Vukovar Brigade. The prosecutor then showed a document from the Serbian State Security Service which states that Ulemek and Bozovic were sent there as members of the Anti-Terrorist Unit, run by the Serbian secret service. The unit is also known as the Red Berets. The document also reports that the Red Berets were involved in combat operations and not just in securing the command at Petrova Gora, contrary to what the witness had claimed. Karan, who served as a security officer in the SVK 21^st Corps at the time, replied that he ‘didn’t have that information’ about Ulemek and Bozovic. Karan allowed that some members of the Red Berets unit might have taken part in the fighting although it was not their task.

Simatovic’s defense case will continue next Tuesday.

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