STATE KILLER: Veselin Vukotić
The biography of Veselin Vesko Vukotić appears to a civilian chronicler as fragmentary and interrupted: from his native Nikšić to Belgrade, then a gap to a certain street in Brussels, then a gap to the night club "Nana" in Senjak, then nothing for a long time; then Novi Sad, then Budva, then absence until last week when the Spanish police arrested him at the airport, and because of the passport that was brought to their attention. Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble's multi-year efforts to convince member states to update the numbers of stolen or otherwise irregular passports with the international police organization seem to have borne fruit after all. Wicked people say - only when Ante Gotovina fell, because Croatia (and Vesko had a Croatian passport in the name of Ludvig Bulić) only then put into circulation the rest of the serial numbers of the famous "Mostar passports" that the Croatian consul in that city, Ćiro Grubišić, had been selling for years . Let's remember that Milorad Legija Ulemek also had such a passport, but he left it at home in Belgrade, knowing that it had been stolen. Vesko Vukotić had to know, but he was wrong.
LEAD YEARS: Murdered Miroslav Bižić
There are some historical ironies in Vesk's fate: it started with passports, and it ended with passports. But let's go in order.
Veselin Vesko Vukotić, diminutive but with an awkward character, belonged to the one from Nikšić
group, how can we say, who immigrated to Belgrade on the lines of countrymen and relatives, hungry and ambitious. It started with Student City and jeans, through motor vehicles, and beyond. For the old, rotten Yugoslavia (SFRJ, that is), the police kept them under control until they went crazy (like the late Ranko Rubežić, for example): a hand was a hand, a favor for a favor, but you knew who was the boss. The economic crises of the early eighties drove most criminals to Western Europe, because the money was there, not here. On the other hand, State Security, at that time still more or less a government organization with a unique strategy, at least towards Yugoslav enemy emigration (JNE), had problems: after the Kosovo crisis of 1981, a new, young and angry wave of Albanian emigration appeared in Western Europe. The then Federal Secretary for Internal Affairs, Stane Dolanc, a powerful and awkward personality, came up with the idea of hiring ordinary criminals much more than before for jobs under the JNE. The more they are in Europe, the more willing they are to earn privileges in the country, the less the Service is compromised. This is how Željko Ražnatović Arkan was hired, as well as many others, including the three actors of the "Nana" case, from whom the story of Vesko Vukotić publicly begins. Those three are Vesko, Darko Ašanin and Andrija Lakonić Laki; and their passports, lest we forget.
A month before the fateful night in "Nana", namely, the aforementioned three traveled to Belgium, using their fake passports, of course. Those passports were not forged: they were real, but Official; on them are the faces of our heroes, but other names. At least thirteen of those passports were later found by the police in the crates of the participants in the murder in "Nana", which was more than unpleasant. So, according to the claims of the Belgian authorities, those three - Vukotić, Ašanin and Lakonić - shot and killed in Brussels a certain Enver Hadri, the leader of the more or less obscure Albanian political group Red People's Front and returned to the country. It all went so-so, except that Lakonić, who was driving the car from which Vesko shot, lost his composure at one point and endangered the safety of the operation. Vesco allegedly slapped him after that. Andrija Lakonić proved to be a weak link in the chain.
On that night between March 23 and 24, 1990, the weakest link in the "Nana" club was removed. Lakonić was already rumored to be addicted to narcotics and it was known that he talked about the work he did for the Service more than was hygienic: his parents confirmed this. That night, an incident between Lakonić and Ašanin was deliberately caused, as it was about a girl; Lakonić pulls a revolver on Ašanin, but does not shoot; that's why Vesko Vukotić shoots and kills Lakonić thoroughly, with two guns. All this was immediately reported to their police liaisons, who are starting damage control, so that the Service does not "de-conspiracy". Well, now: the whole of Belgrade knew that Laki was killed by Vesko, who immediately disappeared, but Ašanin liked the detention, who will be acquitted in court in October 1990, because he did not kill Laki. They could only put salt on Vesca's tail. That reckoning served the RSUP of Serbia to finally eliminate the Federal SUP and GSUP Belgrade from the game, that is, to take over all their "positions" among criminals, but that is another sad story. As collateral damage, Miroslav Bižić Biža (murdered in May 1996; still unsolved crime) and the inevitable Božidar Spasić were fired, and some other important policemen left the service, disappointed.
Darko Ašanin retreated to Krnješevci, where he had a fortified castle and where he socialized with various people; later he will take over the restaurant in Dreizerova, in a certain estate, but he will also be killed there. He was rumored to be the king of cocaine. The Belgians, however, did not forget Enver Hadri, so Ashanin was imprisoned in Greece according to their warrant in the fall of 1995. Milosevic's police officers barely got him out, pulling the fraternal Orthodox ties in the Greek government.
NOVI SAD JOB: Casino "Royal" in Hotel "Putnik"
Vesko Vukotić, however, although on the run and with a warrant in his name, was hanging around Belgrade, Novi Sad and Montenegro without any problems. We said that he was an awkward character: small and angry, he did not solve problems with his fists but with a gun, which half the world soon got used to and took care not to annoy him. The late Iso Lero Djamba (actually he is listed as a "missing person" ever since Arkan's men beat him up and put him in a car so that he would never be seen again) once in the "Maracana" tavern, he made remarks about Montenegrins in front of Vesko; Vesko shot without a word, pierced Jambi's left palm and thigh and turned back. At the beginning of the nineties, Vesko will "rent" the Hotel Putnik in Novi Sad and open there the Casino Royale (to name it imaginatively), as well as an exclusive public house. It goes without saying that this did not work without the cover and embedding of the Service: casinos have always been a sweet source of income for the slush funds of all our services and DB loved them selflessly. No one dared him to do anything, and to this day the Novi Sad criminal underworld speaks of him in whispers: "Let him go, you fucking guy, the state liquidator." Not even the famous Branko "Long" and "Barking" Lainović,
extroverted as he was, the deceased (he was killed by the people of Zemun), he spoke quietly and respectfully about Vesko.
Nothing strange: from Wesko's casino and others
installation, didn't the peak of Milošević's power break out. It is remembered that on the evening of the murder of Radovan Stojičić Badža, 10-11. in April 1997, the entire elite was sitting in the casino near Wesko: Franky, Vucella, certain tobacco and media magnates and half of the RDB; nothing new - they didn't break out from there anyway.
All of that would have been fine and dandy, if Vesco had not relaxed professionally. On the night of November 15-16, 1997, in the Flesh tavern in Prčanje, Boka Kotorska, there was an argument in which Vesko Vukotić shot and killed the captain of the long-ship Dušan Bošković with a pistol. Then Vesco disappears from circulation, until last week.
For some reason, after the arrest in Spain, a theory emerged that the Hague Tribunal was interested in Veselin Vesko Vukotić as a witness. That occupation is linked in some media to the testimony of that protected witness C-048, who was a staff member in Vesk's casino at a critical time, when interesting persons were visiting there. Someone then also mentioned the late Enver Hadri: that he supposedly had "evidence against Milosevic for 34 murders." Difficult: in 1990, Hadri could only have material on the murders in Kosovo during the riots of 1989, something on the topic of Albanian political emigration and nothing more; certainly not 34 murders. Vesco, on the other hand, could know much more than that unfortunate Hadri, but that is hardly for Hag; more somehow for our Special Prosecutor's Office in Ustanička and for Montenegro.
Belgium and Serbia and Montenegro will request the extradition of Vesko Vukotić, as is heard: SCG for at least two murders, and Belgium for Hadri, although people from the intelligence community who worked in that sector at the time say that the Belgians do not have much - except for clues. It remains to wait until the decision of the Spanish judiciary.
(The material from the book by Uroš Komlenović was used to write this text
Die u Belgrade)
Why plural fugitives od justice, po various basics, they believe da su safer na Pyrenees nego u others European countries
If we were in the "Age of Franco", everything would be clearer. While the dictator was alive (1939–1975) Spain, for very understandable reasons, was a favorite refuge of various fugitives from international justice, above all war criminals for whom the Franco regime, in close relations with Hitler and Mussolini despite Spain's formal neutrality in the Second world war, was a kind of natural refuge or at least a stopover for a more permanent escape to South America, where many lost all traces. However, last November Spain marked 30 years since Franco's death and the same since the beginning of the democratic changes that really changed the country in every way. Today, Spain is a prominent member of the European Union, with many important places in the community of European states, with a growing economy, with a drastic increase in the number of inhabitants due to a large influx of migrants who, as in Germany in the 60s of the last century, as cheap labor, contribute to a faster development of the country.
However, due to some other characteristics, Spain is an interesting destination for many, including for criminals or people who deal with business on the edge of the law. About 50.000.000 tourists visit Spain annually, primarily because of the climate, the frequency of crossing the border at Spanish airports and road crossings is enormously high, the possibility of control is significantly reduced, reduced to pure routine and a random sample system. The great migration intensified in the last decade when capital began to arrive in Spain from the east, primarily from Russia, but also from some Arab countries. The pioneer in the new big business was Jesus Hill, former mayor of Marbella and former president of Atletico Madrid, one of the most controversial businessmen in Spain. He died a few years ago with a dozen open court cases due to malfeasance of all kinds, but until his heart failed him, he managed to stay free with the help of skilled lawyers and a lot of money. Hill was the nightmare of the Spanish judiciary, proverbially slow, and many of the affairs that were only begun during his lifetime are still being dragged out and unraveled. Hill brought great capital to the famous Costa del Sol (Sunny Coast) without asking much about its origins. Instead of petty dealers, drug addicts, prostitutes and similar elements whose numerous presence at the end of the 80s forced people to flee from Marbella, Hill "washed" the city, cleaned the streets and embarked on huge investments. In Marbella and its surroundings, the land and real estate trade has become the most profitable business, and the police won only a few rounds, and only for points, in a long "match" with businessmen of various profiles...
Political fugitives or wanted criminals also ideally fit into such a milieu. Spain is no more tolerant towards them than other European countries, but for the previously mentioned reasons, primarily due to the mass of tourists who visit Spanish tourist centers every day, it is more difficult to control the movement of people.
That's how it happened that the Spanish police scored two big points in just a few months. First, the fugitive Croatian general Ante Gotovina was arrested in Tenerife, and last week at the airport in Madrid, Veselin Vukotić, a citizen of Serbia and Montenegro, who is wanted by the Belgian and our police, as well as by the Hague Tribunal. The Spanish media, understandably, very extensively covered the arrest of Vukotić, with the obligatory remark that it is about "a man who can be of importance in the trial against Slobodan Milošević". The same story was published in all newspapers: Vukotić is suspected of the murder of the Albanian Enver Hadri in Brussels on February 25, 1990, who is claimed to have been a "representative of the Committee for Human Rights" in the former Yugoslavia, which does not quite agree with the assessments of some of our analyst. Be that as it may, the newspaper writes that Hadri "probably had evidence of Slobodan Milosevic's involvement in the series of murders." A figure of 34 murders even appeared. How and why exactly 34, remained unanswered.
Vukotić was arrested at the new terminal T-4, upon his arrival from Paris. He had a "perfectly forged" Croatian passport and other documents in the name of Ludvig Bulić, but the Spanish police were apparently informed of his arrival and stopped him. At the time of his arrest, Vukotić was also in the company of Lidija V., whose legal wife has not been established, but with whom he undoubtedly has two daughters.
It turned out that Veselin Vukotić occasionally stayed in Barcelona, at the address where his wife Lidija and her daughters were registered. Neighbors from the building in Manuel Girona Street no. 2 in the elite Barcelona area of Surrey could not tell curious journalists anything about the arrested Vukotić, except that they saw him very rarely, unlike Lidija and the girls. Among the small Serbian-Montenegrin colony in Barcelona, no one knew anything about Vukotić, who was obviously very discreet. Spanish media reports that he traveled very often and stayed in the most luxurious hotels. Investigations will show where he gets the money to live on the high street.
As in the case of Gotovina, the arrest of Vukotić was the result of the cooperation of several European police forces. The Spanish police officers did not just stop Vukotić in Madrid, they were informed by their French colleagues that he had left Paris, and his monitoring began earlier, when it was established that his family lived in Barcelona. The apartment has been under surveillance since then (the police do not reveal the exact time), and tracking Lidia led to Veselin.
The day after his arrest, Vukotić appeared before investigative judge Fernando-Grande Marlasco and prosecutor Jesus Alonso. The hearing lasted only ten minutes, and court sources, referred to by the Spanish press, say that he was extremely calm, even offensively cold. He rejected all charges and refused the possibility of being extradited to Belgium or Serbia and Montenegro, after which he was ordered to be detained for up to 40 days. In the meantime, the Spanish judicial authorities will ask Serbia and Montenegro and the Hague Tribunal for appropriate documentation.
At our embassy in Madrid, we were told that the embassy was notified "routinely", as always when one of our citizens is arrested, but without any other details. The hearing before the investigating judge was attended by an interpreter provided by the court.
Vladimir Stankovic
