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Dragan Gagovic - another Serb secretly accused and killed, without a right to defend himself
January 25, 1999



Members of SFOR have committed another brutal murder in Republic of Serbia. Again this time, during the attack and killing of Dragan Gagovic, children trainer from Srbinje - another Serb who was on a secret bill of indictment of The Hague Tribunal, it was done according to a Hollywood action film scenario. It all happened in front of five children. Gagovic, returning from Tara together with his pupils, young karate experts, was set an ambush with metal hedgehogs on the Uspinjaca - Srbinje road. Trying to avoid the obstacle on the road Gagovic turned the car off the road and hit the rock. One of the girls in the car driven by Gagovic was Sonja Bjelovic (1986), who, frightened, all in tears and noticeably excited, told us:

"We were on a karate seminary on Tara mountain with our trainers. Five of us were with trainer Dragan Gagovic when we started from Ustipraca towards Srbinje. Several kilometers further down the road, behind a curve, metal peaks were awaiting us. Dragan tried to break in order to stop the vehicle, because we couldn't get through, and than we heard shots. Our trainer said: "Get down, you'll get shot." He tried to protect us and to avoid metal peaks. However, the vehicle was hit, the tires became flat and it turned over. I saw our trainer all in blood. About fifteen SFOR soldiers in white uniforms and masks on their faces, we could only see their eyes, gathered around the vehicle. They pointed their rifles at us and roughly dragged us out of the overturned vehicle, through windows and doors, and made us sit on a nearby hill. Dragan was all in blood. They dragged him out of the car, took his ID from the pocket and photographed it. They carried him into a green jeep and took away in an unknown direction. We were lumped into a troop carrier and transported to a village on Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation territory in Gorazde. Than were we transported by helicopter to SFOR base in Filipovici, where we were questioned and aimed at all the time."

The act of murder was similarly experienced by other children too, who were left unhurt, thanks to their trainers presence of mind. Their bags were drilled with bullets, and a boy Dusan Ivanovic said: "I remember only that my trainer was carried into a vehicle with registration plates ."

A girl Milica Dzokovic says that she will never forget that sight: "When the trainer told us to get down, I lied under the seat and closed my eyes. When I opened them I saw my trainer in blood and the barrels of automatic rifles pointed at us. Somebody's eyes were watching us. Everything else was disguised."

Similar was the statement, full of emotions and excitement, of Mihaela Maric, a girl who felt her trainers head on her back, because she was also lying on the vehicle floor. She thought that he got down in order to avoid the bullets that were penetrating the vehicle. She didn't know that he was dead.

In her trainer's death, Jelena Pjano, according to her statement, doubted the moment when they were asked in SFOR base if they saw his corpse.

Dragan Gagovic is the fifth Serb already whose defense in The Hague Tribunal was prevented by death.

Guilt or innocence of Djordje Djukic, Simo Drljaca, Slavko Dokmanovic and Dr. Milan Kovacevic was never and will never be proved. The fact that The Hague Tribunal, with a great deal of premeditation and out of court procedure, have sentenced to death five Serbs, justifies in a tragic way all previous doubts in its objectivity. Today it is more than obvious that this institution is not only an example of political court, but also the only example of court-martial in Europe at the end of 20th century.

General Djordje Djukic was arrested in the beginning of February 1996, together with colonel Aleksa Krsmanovic and another six Serbs, on the so-called "blue road" between Lukavica and Ilidza. He was took to Hague, although there was no indictment against him. Although his lawyers have warned the Tribunal that Djukic has a carcinoma, nobody paid attention to it. Detailed medical examinations were carried out only when it was already to late to save Djukic's life. Authorities in Hague released general Djukic from prison to stand trial while free (in progressed phase of illness, less then a month before death at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade), and than made a decision to "freeze" the case, that begun and ended the same way - without the indictment.

In a notorious operation called "Tango", carried out on July 10th 1997 in the area of Prijedor, former chief of local police Simo drljaca was killed. British SAS commandos within SFOR, opened fire on Drljaca at the moment when he was, beside lake Gradina with his back on them and in his bathing trunks, preparing to fish. He was killed in front of his son and brother-in-law. He was also secretly indicted in Hague.

Former major of Vukovar Slavko Dokmanovic, who because of disorder tragically ended in the "Scheveningen" cell, hanging himself with a tie on the closet door a week before scheduled announcement of the verdict, was also arrested by fraud. He went from Sombor to Erdut, on a meeting with Jacques Klein who invited him and guaranteed his safety. Dokmanovic's car was ambushed and on the same evening he was in Hague.

Only a month after Slavko Dokmanovic's tragic death, in the "Scheveningen" prison cell died doctor Milan Kovacevic. Foreign media announced immediately that former director of the hospital in Prijedor had a heart attack. However, already the next day it was obvious that his death could be prevented because what happened was the breaking of aneurysm of a gastric aorta which was confirmed by autopsy. Kovacevic's lawyer Dr. Dusan Vucicevic pointed out to the public that medical staff of the prison owned a complete medical documentation about the history of Dr. Kovacevic's decease and that he, when the pain in the stomach started, had to be urgently taken to operating table. Instead of it, prison staff let Dr. Kovacevic suffer from pain all night and unsuccessfully call the guards.

Dr. Milan Kovacevic was also arrested by fraud, on the same day that Simo Drljaca was killed. Members of SFOR came to the hospital in Prijedor, but with the Serbian Red Cross markings, entered Kovacevic's office, pointed the gun at him and put the handcuffs. Than they placed him in a car and on the same day transported him by helicopter to Hague.

SFOR was arresting wrong people several times in Bosnia. Their biggest "accomplishment" was performed last summer on the riverbanks of Sana when to wrong twins were spectacularly arrested (we don't have to mention that they were Serbs) and off course immediately transported to Hague, without previously checking their identity.

Since The Hague Tribunal has been founded, the experts have denied its legitimacy and pointing to the fact that its only goal is to put a label of genocide on Serbian people. Those intentions are confirmed by these and similar deaths of accused Serbs, which are, off course, more than a coincidence. Common denominator of Hague "court" procedures, which are the causes of death, is a lack of proof for establishing the guilt, and even the elements for indictment. Nevertheless, a shadow of gilt is left on these people, disregarding that the proofs are pointing to their innocence.





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