The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia has adopted amendments to the Law on former Serbian presidents' rights, which reduced Slobodan Milosevic's security guard to one person. The security is provided by the Serbian Interior Ministry.

After the law had been adopted, the Personal Security Office, which solely guarded Milosevic as the Yugoslav President, was abolished. The head of the Office was General Senta Milenkovic. The duties of the Office and its staff were transferred to the appropriate office of the State security service. The Serbian Government gave support to the amendments to the act on the organization and systematization of the Serbian Interior Ministry. General Milenkovic was not transferred to the State security service because he wanted to stay in Public security service as an independent executor. Out of 74 employees of the Office, 58 were transferred to the State security service, while 16 of them did not fill the application forms. We have learned that Slobodan Milosevic called a number of them to work as his private security guard for appropriate compensation.

We have warned several times that the fact that Slobodan Milosevic lived without authorization in the residency of the Yugoslav President, 11-15 Uzicka Street, guarded by the Yugoslav Army and the Guard Brigade under General Bojovic's command, represented a serious security problem.

When implementing the provisions of the law and the new organization of the Serbian Interior Ministry, Yugoslav Army officials did not want to allow authorized employees of the State security service in the compound. The Yugoslav Army practically obeyed unauthorized persons in the service of Slobodan Milosevic. In order to solve these problems, Serbian Interior Ministry met with Yugoslav Army Generals Djakovic and Bojovic, and Colonel Kovacevic, and reached an agreement. Unfortunately, this agreement was not realized due to Yugoslav Army officials' obstruction.

At about 1:20 am on March 31, 2001, we were informed that General Bojovic would allow an authorized official in the compound. However, authorized officials of the Serbian Interior Ministry faced the fact that the soldiers had handed over the keys to the gate of the compound to the members of Slobodan Milosevic's private security guard who were armed with automatic weapons, and who included Sinisa Vucinic, president of the Left Radical Party "Nikola Pasic". After he was given the keys, he threw the only authorized official of the Serbian Interior Ministry out of the compound.

When several attempts by an authorized official of the Serbian Interior Ministry and an investigating judge to enter the compound ended in failure, a special Serbian Interior Ministry unit was engaged. When the unit entered the yard of the compound, its members came under fire from the building Milosevic lives in. One special unit member suffered a gunshot to his arm, the other to his hand. Both were hospitalized at the Belgrade Military-Medical Academy. One news photographer was slightly injured. While entering the yard, the police did not use live ammunition and aborted the action when fire was opened from the residency. The head of the unit went alone to the residency and met with Slobodan Milosevic, who told him he would "not go to prison alive". During his stay in the residency, the head of the unit noticed several armed people headed by drunk Sinisa Vucinic, several pieces of automatic weapons, two heavy machine-guns, and several grenades.

Employees of the former Personal Security Office were all taken out of the compound, except one who remained with Milosevic. Other persons are activists of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Yugoslav Left.

The police move the rallied citizens from the compound for their security. For that purpose, the police will block the area around the residency and allow only official vehicles and tenants in. No force will be used against the citizens.

When the authorized persons estimate that it is possible to carry out the arrest of Milosevic, it will be done since the Serbian Interior Ministry gave them proper authorization to do so.

I am obliged to inform you that all the participants of this action are at risk, bearing in mind the aggressiveness and the use of firearms by Slobodan Milosevic's private guards.

For this purpose I propose that authorized state and political officials should send a clear message to the citizens that nobody is above the law and that nobody can prevent authorized officials of the Serbian Interior Ministry from performing their duties. Serbian Interior Ministry is not arresting Milosevic to extradite him to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, but to bring him before an investigating judge.

MINISTER
Dusan Mihajlovic

(Source: Serbian Interior Ministry, www.mup.sr.gov.yu)