Æuruvijin ubojica poznat veæ godinu dana

22.12.2004.

 

CURUVIJA KILLER "KNOWN FOR A YEAR"

BELGRADE, December 17, 2004 (B92) - Serbian police have known for a year who murdered publisher Slavko Curuvija in 1999, B92 has learnt.
According to the findings of a B92 investigative crew, Montenegrin organised
crime figure Luka Pejovic was identified as the killer during 2003 when New Serbia leader Dusan Mihajlovic was minister for internal affairs.
Pejovic had already been murdered himself near his Belgrade home at the time he was identified as the killer.
A witness to the murder gave the police a written statement in which he identified Pejovic but B92's investigators have been unable to discover why this information was not released to the public.

The president of the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, Nebojsa Bugarinovic, said that it was shocking to wait four or five years for the names of people responsible for two crimes against journalists in Serbia and that the representatives of the former and current Serbian governments, who had declared themselves for a democratic society and free media before October 5, 2000, to determinedly and clearly conceal information.

"I don't know what their reason is for this decision, but the fact that two
ministers and the special prosecutor have done this leads me to the
conclusion that these people simply don't care about public opinion or
crimes which have been committed," said Bugarinovic.

The organised crime prosecution and the Organised Crime Division said on December 9, 2003, that a previously unknown witness had positively identified people suspected of direct involvement in the crime.

The two bodies said that, because this was an organised political murder, the investigation was aimed at identifying who had commissioned the crime.
Because of that, they, said, the case would not be served by releasing the identity of the suspects.

Luka Pejovic, from the Montenegrin city of Niksic, who was identified as Curuvija's killer, was himself murdered on December 5, 2000, near his home in Dinarska Street in Belgrade. At the time media described him as a member of a notorious Montenegrin gang in the Belgrade underground and a known drug trafficker. Members of the Belgrade Montenegrin underground are notorious for doing "dirty work" for the state security services.

B92 sources described the way in which Pejovic was killed as bearing the signature of a professional special unit. The unidentified gunman fired more than twenty rounds from a 7.62 calibre Kalashnikov automatic rifle into Pejovic and a companion, Radule Kasalica, who was with him at the time.
Pejovic was wounded by the first shot and attempted to escape down Dinarska Street but was dispatched by another two shots to the head.

RADICALS DENOUNCE B92, TV PIROT

PIROT, December 18, 2004 (B92) - The Serbian Radical Party has described TV B92 as "a treacherous television station with TV Pirot as its branch office".

The local branch of the Radical Party in Pirot has demanded that the local station stop rebroadcasting B92 programming. If they do not, says the party, the local council, which the party dominates, will withhold financial support to the station.
The statement issued by the party describes TV Pirot as a broadcaster of the collapsed DOS regime and a branch office of TV B92 "a treacherous television station of foreign intelligence services whose only aim is to destroy Serbia and its institutions".

Council President Boban Vojinovic said that the reason for the party's
position is a program which TV Pirot broadcast on alleged crimes in
Srebrenica.

"This program on alleged crimes in Srebrenica has gone on for four or five months. I'm not saying that there were no crimes in Srebrenica, but I have not seen a single program on Ustasha crimes against Serbian people broadcast on this television," he said.

TV Pirot journalists Vladimir Veljkovic said that the Radicals were using the language of vilification in their statements.

"They use the kind of vocabulary popular in 1998 and 1999 and throw it into their statement. If they were asked to explain how B92 and TV Pirot are fascist television of the Lora model I don't believe they would know how to answer," he said.

The Radicals say that their demand for the rebroadcasting of the Belgrade program on TV Pirot is based on the fact that B92 already covers most of the territory of Pirot with its own signal.

However, says Radio Pirot editor Andjelka Mitkovic Djordjevic, there is
still hope that the Pirot Municipal Council will not put more pressure on
local media.

"Given that the Radicals are always angry at the media, I believe that the rest of the 56 council members (the Radicals have only nine seats) will not put financial pressure on the media.
It is ironic that the Pirot public is again being divided into patriots and
traitors, in the same year that the town was given an OSCE award as the most tolerant municipality in Serbia.

JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION RECEIVES INFROMATION ON MURDER

BELGRADE, December 19, 2004 (B92) - The president of the Independent
Association of Serbian Journalists has confirmed for B92 that the
organisation has received two letters giving details of the murder of
Vecernje Novosti report Milan Pantic.

Association President Nebojsa Bugarinovic said that the letters were also sent to the Special Prosecutor for Organised Crime, Jovan Prijic, adding that they include very detailed information about Pantic's death.

Meanwhile the Serbian Government has still not reacted to information
revealed by a B92 investigative crew on the identity of the murderer of
publisher Slavko Curuvija in 1999. B92 named the murderer as Montenegrin organised crime figure Luka Pejovic and revealed that the Serbian Interior Ministry had been aware of this for more than a year.

A deputy prime minister in the former government, Zarko Korac, told B92 that the former internal affairs minister, Dusan Mihajlovic, had reported to the cabinet on Curuvija's murder saying that the investigation was progressing very slowly. Korac also quoted Mihajlovic as saying at one point during the investigation that a witness had come forward with more precise details on the description of the killer.

"The prosecution must demand urgent answers from the Internal Affairs
Ministry on the authenticity of these details. As far as I recall, the main
problem at the time was that we had a possible witness to the crime and that this was not sufficient to initiate a more serious investigation that would have provided the answers needed," said Korac.

A one-time colleague of Curuvija, Aleksandar Tijanic, now director of Radio Television Serbia, said that Mihajlovic after October 5, 2000, Mihajlovic had given him a note with the names of two individuals whom the former minister claimed had killed Curuvija.
"I wrote those names down somewhere and put them away. The last name of one of the individuals did not end in 'ic'. Then he told me that one of them was dead and that the other had disappeared somewhere in the Republic of Srpska.
Neither of the two names is the one you have given me now," said Tijanic.

Biljana Kovacevic Vuco of the Committee of Human Rights Lawyers said that the information uncovered by B92 on the identity of Slavko Curuvija's killer might not get the case reopened but that, nevertheless, it created a very alarming situation.

If Serbia was a state governed by the rule of law, she said, and if it had
not been corrupted to the extent which it was under Milosevic, any
information or rumour of this kind would be cause for an investigation of
who was responsible for withholding the information from the public and
would lead to the uncovering of who was behind the murder of Curuvija.

STILL NO REACTION ON CURUVIJA REVELATIONS

BELGRADE, December 20, 2004 (B92) - Five days after B92 revealed that the Serbian Interior Ministry has known for more than a year who killed Slavko Curuvija, there has been no response from the authorities.

Neither the ministry, the government nor the Special Prosecutor responded to the information revealed by the B92's "Insider" that the killer was identified as Montenegrin crime figure Luka Pejovic.

Director of the Institute for criminology and social researches Dobrivoje
Radovanovic says that it is likely that the police will not release the name until there is material evidence available. However, he points out that Curuvija was murdered five and a half years ago, and that the police has concealed the information on his killer for a year.

"It is too long for silence. It really needs very little time to gather the
information required to arrest the suspects. But in this country politics is involved and we have already had a case where political deals have been made before some investigations, some murders, and unfortunately I think that politics is involved in this case", said Radovanovic.

Rajko Danilovic, a lawyer representing Jovo Curuvija, brother of the
murdered publisher, says that he had already heard about Luka Pejovic but was not certain that police regarded the information as credible. He also says that this could be one lead of the investigation.

"In any case, if the criminal police do not take matters into their own
hands, and if they do not deal with it seriously and interrogate all members of the secret police and, now, probably, most employees of the Security Intelligence Agency, which was tailing Slavko Curuvija that day, about why the surveillance was called of immediately before the murder, I don't believe that proceedings will be possible at all, we are still standing in the same place", said Rajko Danilovic.

While maintaining that the police need not release the name without
evidence, Radovanovic insists that the Interior Ministry should respond in some way to the information published by B92.

"I think that the police are obliged to do that, because the Curuvija murder wasn't yesterday, the public is very confused about the case, which has gone on for years. This is unacceptable and I think that because of that they are obliged to respond to published information, whether it is correct or not", he said.

Lawyer Danilovic believes that there has been political interference in the case and that the truth about the murder of Curuvija will not be revealed until the political elements have been brought into the open.

"Under the previous government I have to say that something was done, not enough, but it was done. But now the new government, which really pledged to resolve unresolved cases, has to be urged to react, because without political consensus a large number of secret police people cannot be questioned and they have certain information about this case", Danilovic said.

ANNUAL JOURNALISM AWARDS

BELGRADE, December 20, 2004 (Glas Javnosti) - The Association of Serbian Journalists has given awards for the journalists for 2004.

A Life Achievement Award was given to journalist Igor Holotkov, while the Dimitrije Davidovic Editorial Prize went to Blic editor-in-chief Veselin Simonovic.

The annual Laza Kostic awards for achievements in journalism went to
Dragomir Milojkovic of Kragujevac TV Kanal 9, Olivera Panajotovic of Nis daily Narodne Novine, Politika journalists Bosko Lomovic, Vecernje Novosti's Veljko Lazic and Ugljesa Balsic, cameraman Goran Danilovic of Zvecane's TV Most and Nis cartoonist Sasa Dimitrijevic.

Indjija journalist Rade Glusic was awarded the Golden Charter, while the special Zika M. Jovanovic Prize went to Zivota Djordjevic and Miroslav Jokic. A special acknowledgement was given to the editor of daily Danas, Grujica Spasovic.

NGOs AND JOURNALISTS OBJECT TO MEDIA COVERAGE

ZRENJANIN, December 20, 2004 (Glas Javnosti) - Zrenjanin journalists and non-governmental organisations have objected strongly to reporting in Glas Javnosti and Zrenjaninski Dnevnik on a rural family living near Zrenjanin whose children have been put into care after alleged mistreatment.

Weekly Zrenjanin published an article under the headline "Journalism sinking low - children from the cover page" in which Gradjanski List and Beta Agency writer Darko Sper reported statements from Milica Velimirovic, the coordinator of the Mastaliste Creative Centre for Children and Youth, and Vesna Stankov, the acting director of the Social Work Centre, together with weekly Vreme journalists Tamara Skroza, criticised media coverage of this story.

"Blic, Glas Javnosti and Zrnejaninski Dnevnik described the issue as the tragic affair of a family from a village near Zrenjanin, publishing
photographs of the children on the cover either masked or unmasked.
Journalists also revealed the names of the parents and their address," wrote Sper.

Velimirovic described the stories as direct manipulation of the children and appealed to the appropriate authorities to penalise everyone involved adequately. She also briefed Zrenjanin Municipal Ombudsman Vladimir Arsic on the issue.

Skroza called on the journalists involved to take responsibility for their
actions.

Glas published an article last week on the five children taken into care,
illustrating it with photographs of the children, concealing their
identities by masking their eyes in the photographs and without publishing
their names.

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Povratak