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http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1437887,00.html
The Guardian (U.K.)
Tuesday March 15, 2005

Russians accused of sheltering war crimes suspects

Bosnian Serbs who allegedly took part in the Srebrenica massacre are
being protected by Russia's secret services, say intelligence sources

Ed Vulliamy in Sarajevo

Russia's secret services are shielding Bosnian Serbs wanted by the
war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities committed during the
Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica, where more than 8,000
Muslim men and boys were slaughtered.

Gojko Jankovic, a Bosnian Serb who gave himself up to the tribunal
yesterday to face accusations of torture and multiple rape, was
one of a group of fugitive alleged war criminals living in Russia
under official protection.

According to sources at The Hague and other intelligence sources, those
still on the run and enjoying protection from the Russian secret services
are Vinko Pandurevic and Vujadin Popovic, two senior Bosnian Serb military
figures accused of genocide over the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995.

Mr Jankovic was flown to The Hague yesterday having given himself up
in the Bosnian Serb capital of Banja Luka, after four years in Moscow.

There was no conclusive explanation last night as to why Mr Jankovic
had turned himself in. A senior diplomat said: "Jankovic suddenly phoned
from Moscow saying he wanted to come in."

His wife, Milica, suggested personal reasons: a phone call to
their son, Boban, in Belgrade, and the belief that he may be able
to serve a prison term in Bosnia. Mrs Jankovic wanted to convince
her husband to "surrender ... for the family".

Sources at The Hague pointed to pressure from the Bosnian Serb republic,
Republika Srpska, "who are beginning to realise that this is not going to
go away".

The FSB, Russia's secret service, told the Guardian last night: "We know
nothing about this, and we have no comment on it."

There is acute frustration in diplomatic circles with Russia's attitude,
not least because it is a signatory to the Dayton accord, which ended the
Bosnian war in December 1995.

"Why they are doing it is not clear. What is clear is that the Russians
are helping these people, which is holding the process to ransom," one
senior diplomat said.

During the Bosnian war, Mr Jankovic was sub-commander of military police
and a paramilitary leader in the river Drina valley town of Foca, which
was hit by violence in 1992, with Muslim families rounded up and driven
out or killed by Serbs.

A number of girls and women were kept (along with some other
civilians) in a school, a sports hall and a military facility. There,
and in a network of apartments and motels, they were subjected to
serial sexual assault by Serbian soldiers and paramilitaries.

In 2001, three men were convicted at The Hague in a case which, for
the first time, affirmed serial rape as a crime against humanity.

But Mr Jankovic, accused of a series of assaults at the facilities
which were detailed in his indictment, slipped the net.

The Guardian can reveal that Mr Jankovic has been living under
the protection of the authorities in Russia.

A statement by Mr Jankovic's wife to the Bosnian Serb republic's
interior ministry has been obtained, in which she describes a voyage
to Moscow from eastern Bosnia in December, to meet her husband.

Her account describes a visit largely supervised by a man driving a
black bulletproof Mercedes and carrying a FSB identity card. The man
produced the card over dinner, but put it away when Mrs Jankovic's
interest was roused. He was "a person of knowledge and experience in
police work as he spoke about tapping devices, etc", the statement said

The man paid the couple's bills in expensive restaurants each evening
of the visit, before taking them home in the early hours to a luxury flat
with which Mr Jankovic had been provided.

"I was bothered by his constant presence, and then I realised that
he was the one who paid the bills. I got the feeling that Gojko feels
very safe in his presence," said Mrs Jankovic. According to her statement,
Mr Jankovic was given Russian citizenship, under a pseudonym.

Sources at The Hague said Mr Popovic, wanted for "genocide or complicity
in genocide" for the Srebrenica massacre, was also hiding in Russia.

The episode was the biggest single carnage in Europe since the
second world war.

Under the direction of the now fugitive Serb general Ratko Mladic,
Bosnian Serb and Serbian soldiers and paramilitaries separated men
from women and children while Dutch UN troops watched, and took the men
to a series of execution sites.

They also ambushed a column trying to escape through the woods,
executing thousands more.

Mr Popovic was assistant commander for security in the Drina corps
of the Bosnian Serb army and is accused of being "a key participant"
in the massacre.

Other western intelligence sources named Mr Pandurevic, who was
commander of the Zvornik brigade and alleged to be involved in the
capture of Srebrenica and the attacks on the column through the woods,
as also hiding in Russia

Along with General Radislav Krstic, who has been convicted at The Hague
for his role in the massacre, Mr Pandurevic is accused of overseeing the
mass murder of hundreds of Muslims in a field near a school at Grbavici
and hundreds more at a military farm in Branjevo.

He also allegedly commanded the reburial of bodies in secondary
mass graves, in order to try to conceal the extent of the massacre.

Russia's protection of fugitives can only obstruct efforts
to rein in Republika Srpska which was established along with the
Muslim-Croat Federation by the Dayton peace agreement. Russia has
persistently crossed swords with the UN high representative in Bosnia,
Lord Ashdown.

Republika Srpska's refusal to cooperate with the Hague tribunal
has blocked Bosnia's entry into Nato and led Lord Ashdown to impose
two rounds of sanctions.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/international/europe/15serbia.html
The New York Times
March 15, 2005

Former Bosnian Serb Police Official Surrenders to Tribunal

By NICHOLAS WOOD

After more than five years on the run, Gojko Jankovic, a former
Bosnian Serb police commander wanted for war crimes committed during the
1992-95 conflict in Bosnia, surrendered yesterday to the United Nations
tribunal in The Hague.

Mr. Jankovic, 50, who is accused of torturing and raping Muslim women,
followed an example set by four other Bosnian Serbs this year in turning
himself in, which he did over the weekend to the authorities in the
Bosnian Serb town of Banja Luka.

However, Mr. Jankovic appeared to have arrived at the court via a
more circuitous route than his fellow suspects. Until late last year,
according to his wife, Milica, he was hiding in Russia under a false
identity and was under 24-hour protection.

Her account of his situation was made in a statement to the Bosnian Serb
police after she traveled to Moscow last December. According to the
statement, which a visitor was permitted to read, Mrs. Jankovic said
she had been sent to see her husband by the Bosnian Serb authorities
in an attempt to persuade him to surrender, and thereby help improve
Bosnia's relations with the tribunal.

As with its former Yugoslav neighbors, Bosnia must cooperate with
the United Nations court before its integration with the European Union
and NATO can proceed.

Officials in the Bosnian Serb government said they were unable to
comment on how Mr. Jankovic eventually came to hand himself in.

However, a Western diplomat in Sarajevo as well as officials at the
war crimes tribunal in The Hague said Mr. Jankovic was one of at least
three war crimes suspects hiding in Moscow.

The diplomat and the tribunal officials, who asked not to be identified,
said that in addition to Mr. Jankovic, they believed that Vlastimir
Djordjevic, a former commander in the Yugoslav Army during the 1999 war
in Kosovo, and Vujadin Popovic, a Bosnian Serb army officer, were also
in Moscow.

Since the removal of Slobodan Milosevic from the Yugoslav presidency
in October 2000, Moscow has become a well-known refuge for members of his
family and immediate circle. His wife, Mira Markovic, lives in Moscow.
His son, Marko, also spends time there.

In her testimony, Mrs. Jankovic indicated her husband was being protected
by a member of the Russian security services, but she offered no proof
to support that contention.

She said a man carrying a card marked with the abbreviation F.S.B. - for
the successor organization to the K.G.B. - accompanied her and her husband
throughout her stay in Moscow from Dec. 7 to Dec. 12.

She said that since a previous visit to Moscow in 2003, Mr. Jankovic
had married another woman even though he had not obtained a divorce,
and that he had been able to acquire Russian citizenship and other
official documents under the name Sergey Plutsadiev, or Plutmadiev.

Serbia has sought confirmation from Russia about the location of
Mr. Djordjevic, who is wanted for war crimes committed in Kosovo.
Serbian newspapers have reported that he as being in Moscow. The
Russian government has denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, said
Milan Vujin, an adviser to the Serbian president, Boris Tadic. "It's
too small a question for them to find out where Vlastimir Djordjevic is
or anyone else," Mr. Vujin said.

For his surrender, Mr. Jankovic will be entitled to a reward plan
set up by the Bosnian Serb authorities to encourage war crimes suspects
to surrender. It includes about $540 and scholarships for his children.

/Ivana Sekularac contributed reporting from Belgrade, Serbia, for this
article./