Radivoj Micic, defence witness of Franko Simatovic

In the cross-examination of former Serbian State Security Service operative Radivoje Micic, prosecutor Travis Far contested Micic’s claim that Franko Simatovic’s stay in Knin in the spring of 1991 had one only goal – to follow the movements of an Australian citizen, Daniel Snedden also known as Captain Dragan Vasiljkovic. Snedden’s plan to start training the local special units in Krajina may have jeopardized the national security of the Republic of Serbia, the witness claimed. Captain Dragan was placed ‘under surveillance’ by the State Security Service in Belgrade and in Knin. Micic was called to testify by Franko Simatovic’s defense. Simatovic and the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service Jovica Stanisic are charged with the crimes committed by the police and paramilitary units in Croatia and BH.

The prosecution contends that Captain Dragan was in fact a Serbian State Security Service agent and that Simatovic stayed in Knin to help Krajina Serbs prepare for the war. The prosecution showed a document produced by the Krajina Territorial Defense stating that four Rover cars with communications equipment were delivered from Serbia to the training center in Golubic in April 1991. Captain Dragan was the chief instructor in the training center. The same document states that the communications equipment was transferred to Lada Niva cars ‘on Frenki’s orders’ because the Rovers were to be used for another purpose. The prosecution put it to the witness that in Knin Simatovic did more than merely monitor Daniel Snedden’s movements. The witness said he didn’t know anything about that, although he admitted his knowledge was limited to what Franko Simatovic and his colleague Dragan Filipovic Fica had told him about their stay in Knin.

The prosecution contested the witness’s claims that the Serbian State Security Service was present in Croatia and BH only in order to gather intelligence through audio surveillance. The prosecution showed documents which indicate that the Serbian secret service agents had a far more active role in the armed conflicts. In an entry in his war diary on 22 September 1995, Ratko Mladic notes that Momcilo Krajisnik said in the presence of the Serbian State Security Service agents Dragan Filipovic and Radojica Bozovic that he expected the arrival of 1,200 police officers from Serbia. In late October 1995, Mladic writes in his diary that Filipovic told him at a meeting that ‘Arkan’s men’ operated ‘under Pecanac’s supervision’. An intelligence document from the Eastern Bosnia Corps of 20 September 1995 states that an agreement was reached with Simatovic and Bozovic that Arkan’s men would ‘liberate’ the village of Teocak near Bijeljina. The witness claimed never to have heard of any of it.

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