Serbian CIA Agent Stanisic Arrested For War Crimes

CIA agent Stanisic, who was an informant on Slobodan Milosevic`s regime during the war, is awaiting trial in The Hague.

Jovica Stanisic, head of the Serbian intelligence service during the time when Slobodan Milosevic was the Serbian president, who was charged before The Hague Tribunal with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, was the most important man of US Central Intelligence Agency in Belgrade in the 90s, the Los Angeles Times writes on Sunday.

Stanisic`s career in CIA

Throughout eight years, Stanisic informed CIA agent William Lofgren at secret meetings in safe houses and on ships on Sava River about the way Milosevic`s regime worked. He revealed information on the locations of NATO hostages, he aided CIA agents in finding mass graves and the establishment of secret bases in BH, as well as delivered blueprints of bunkers and other objects constructed by Serbian companies in Iraq for Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, the LA Times writes, Stanisic founded death squads for Milosevic, which implemented the campaign if genocide and according to many, was the alfa and omega of a regime which gave a new horrible term to the world – ethnic cleansing.

Indictment counts

The International Crime Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia charges him with crimes which might lead to life in prison, while Lofgren, who is now retired, claims that the CIA has drafted a document which shows that “this allegedly evil person did a whole lot of good”.

But setting the indictment aside, there are things this man did that helped bring hostilities to an end and establish peace in Bosnia - Lofgren said.

In the spring of 1993, Stanisic pressured Ratko Mladic to briefly stop the shelling of Sarajevo, Lofgren claims. Two years later, he helped liberate 388 NATO soldiers which Bosnian Serbs held hostage. They took off their uniforms and tied them to electric poles, using them as human shields against air strikes, while Stanisic negotiated their release “with the help of CIA leadership”.

CIA finds apologies for its agent

Doug Smith, CIA station head in Bosnia-Herzegovina recalls that Stanisic could not stand Milosevic.

- He intensely disliked Milosevic. He went off on how awful Milosevic was - dishonest and crooked – Smith said.

Stanisic is now divorced and has estranged children.

The Hague Tribunal charged Stanisic and Frank Simatovic that they took part in a joint criminal venture, with the goal of forcedly and permanently removing the majority of non-Serbs, above all Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from large areas in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Individuals who took part in the joint criminal venture were Slobodan Milosevic, Blagoje Adzic, Ratko Mladic, Radmilo Bogdanovic, Radovan Srojicic, Mihelj Kertes, Milan Martic, Goran Hadzic, Milan Babic, Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic.