Milorad Ulemek
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Milorad "Legija" Ulemek (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад "Легија" Улемек) (aka. Milorad Luković - Милорад Луковић) (born on March 15, 1968 in Belgrade) is a former Serbian militant who served in numerous military groups, most notoriously, the Red Berets, a branch of Serbia's secret police.
Contents |
[edit] French Foreign Legion
His father Milan was a non-commissioned officer in the Yugoslav People's Army and his mother Natalija was a homemaker. He was a very lively boy that often got into trouble. He finished a course as an automechanic and he graduated from the Nurse school.
After a botched store robbery in 1985 he fled to France and joined the French Foreign Legion on April 10, 1986. He stayed with the Legion for several years, fighting in Chad, Libya, Beirut, French Guiana and Iraq (the first Gulf War). It was this phase of his career which earned him his nickname Legija, the Legionnaire.
[edit] Serb Volunteer Guard
Ulemek returned to Serbia at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars (he deserted from the Legion on March 18, 1992) and joined the Serb Volunteer Guard, aka "Arkan’s Tigers" (a paramilitary group). Their leader, "Arkan", was for many years a particular favorite of Slobodan Milošević. [citations needed] (Though Milošević would eventually turn against him, leading to his murder in 2000.) Ulemek first became combat instructor and later promoted to one of the Guard's deputy commanders, and fought with Arkan in Croatia and Bosnia. He commanded a special unit based in eastern Slavonia called "Super Tigrovi"(Super Tigers) that operated in 1994-1995 around Bihac pocket.
[edit] Red Berets
When the Tigers were disbanded, in 1996 Ulemek joined the notorious Special Operations Unit of Serbia’s secret police, better known as the Red Berets. The Red Berets were nominally an "antiterrorist unit". Ulemek became commander of the Red Berets in 1999.
He is suspected of involvement in the murder of four officials of Vuk Drašković's Serbian Renewal Movement in a staged traffic accident in 1999. (This was one of several unsuccessful attempts to kill Drašković himself.) A few months before, during the war in Kosovo, Legija commanded the Red Berets in the field. As in Bosnia and Croatia, he left behind numerous allegations of atrocities and war crimes.
Then came the fall of Milošević. Legija's role in this remains controversial, but the most generally accepted version is that he met with Vojislav Koštunica and Zoran Đinđić — who were then leaders of the opposition — and effectively negotiated a change of sides. The Red Berets would not intervene to save Milošević. The new government, in turn, would leave them most of their privileges and would not prosecute them or even inquire too deeply into their lives and their pasts.
[edit] Trials
In June of 2005, Legija was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for his involvement in Ibarska magistrala assassination, the attempted murder of Vuk Drašković in June 2000. The verdict was appealed and subsequently annulled in late March 2006 by Serbian Supreme Court. The case will now go back for District Court trial for the third time.
In July of 2005, Legija was sentenced to 40 years (maximum penalty) for the murder of Ivan Stambolić and the attempted of murder of Vuk Drašković in Budva. In June 2006, the Supreme Court of Serbia upheld the verdict.
It is believed that he played a major role in the March 12, 2003 assassination of the Serbian prime minister Zoran Đinđić. Legija is being tried for this murder.
