October 13, 1996 Vreme News Digest Agency No 262

Leftist Studio B

In the early evening of Wednesday, October 2 the management board of RTV Studio B dismissed director general Dragisa Kovacevic at his own request. The board appointed assistant Serbian state TV (RTS) director Djordje Minkov as the acting director of the local station until another appointment is made. Minkov, a law school graduate, is considered to be a capable businessman. The Belgrade-born Minkov is rumored to be either a JUL or SPS member.

Since he has come into the position, Studio B producers have been forced into wearing suits and a ban on jeans is in place. The new acting director said Kovacevic will stay on as director of the station’s SOS sports channel.

Kovacevic began his career as a reporter in Radio Belgrade where he shared an office with Slobodan Jovanovic (former Tanjug director and former SPS chief in Belgrade). Before Studio B set up its TV facilities he was editor of the station’s radio sports desk with his own show. In 1990 that show became televised.

Kovacevic’s dismissal has been rumored for a long time. Ever since Zoran Predic was brought in as acting editor in chief, the rumor spread, perhaps as a reflection of what staff wanted. Early this September, Kovacevic fired several producers. On September 23, he sent the acting editor in chief a memo saying he had stopped payment for part-timers Milan Djurovic, Ivan Galebovic and Role Radivojevic and threatened to take disciplinary action if that decision wasn’t respected.

The reasons for that decision could have come from Kovacevic’s wish to make full use of his powers as director (knowing his time was running short) and to remove staff who weren’t loyal to him. He also undermined Predic’s efforts to bring a higher level of quality to the station. Allegedly there are two factions: one includes Kovacevic, Belgrade Mayor Nebojsa Covic and management board chairman Ljuba Milic, while the other includes Belgrade SPS chief Branislav Ivkovic and Predic.

Predic lived in Macedonia prior to this posting and he helped the Macedonian privately owned SITEL TV station to achieve top ratings in the country as its editor. His dismissal as editor in chief of TV Politika four years ago was caused by then-Politika company director Zivorad Minovic. We assume Minovic was granting current Serbian information minister Aleksandar Tijanic his wish to try his hand at TV.

Kovacevic’s CV, which got him his post in the first place, should not be the reason behind the dismissal. His sins most probably lie in Studio B's finances over the past seven months. In any case, the SOS channel stopped broadcasting last February because of financial embezzlement allegations in billing Studio B although it operates as part of the station. There’s also the possibility that the personnel changes in Studio B are linked to rumors in Belgrade recently that Studio B will change from being a public company to a shareholders’ consortium. The Socialists are allegedly debating the possibility of the opposition winning the local election in Belgrade. Through a new privatization scheme, the control of Studio B would remain in SPS hands.

Purging the Vozdovac Gang

Zoran Dimitrijevic Zuca (30) was killed on October 6 in the Belgrade suburb of Konjarnik. He was a prominent member of the Vozdovac gang - one of the crews believed to be in the organized part of Belgrade’s underworld.

"We’re no criminal organization or family as the media are calling us," he told Politika Ekspres once. "We’re just friends who stick together and help each other."

He also explained how he sees himself (Intervju magazine): "It’s unfair to view those of us, who people consider to be criminals, as psychopaths who shoot women and children. Ask any of my friends what we would do to people like that. We’d kill them on the spot."

Zuca also described an ordinary working day (Svet magazine): "We get up around noon. We look under our cars to see if there’s any explosives, scout around to see if there’s an ambush and check our guns."

Local crime watchers said the Vozdovac gang was the most powerful group of racketeers in the city for a long time. They said they were also involved in car theft and drugs.

Those sources said Branislav Matic Beli and Djordje Bozovic Giska were among the founders of the "group of friends". Beli was killed on August 5, 1991 in front of his house in Vozdovac while locking his car and Giska died in Gospic on September 15, 1991 while commanding the SPO Serb Guard.

Legend has it that Aleksandar Knezevic Knele took over the group then as Giska’s deputy while he was away fighting in the war. Zuca and his friend Miodrag Blaskovic Mija advanced rapidly to become important members of the group which was expanding its business. They even expanded into Montenegro.

Knele was killed on October 28, 1992 in Belgrade’s Hyatt hotel but the Vozdovac gang wasn’t left leaderless. Goran Vukovic returned to Belgrade then after four years and eight months in a German prison for the killing of Ljubomir Magas Zemunac.

"When I got out of jail, I realized that some of my criminal friends had become Serb national heroes," he said once.

Vukovic and friends continued operating under the motto: we’re the strongest and no one can do anything to us. They racketeered mercilessly and, as the legend goes, the new boss couldn’t resist the temptation of high profit drug deals anywhere his crew could reach. Zuca is said to have been his right hand man and chief gunman.

Vukovic was gunned down in central Belgrade on December 12, 1994. The Vozdovac gang was left without a boss and things went downhill from there. There was no pretender to fill Vukovic’s shoes but open season continued: Zuca and Mija were shot at in front of the Hyatt, Zuca’s car was bombed and Mija was wounded. The competition showed no mercy.

Claims that the Vozdovac gang is being hunted down because they talked too much in public is countered by arguments that they had to do just that: If their main job was racketeering they had to create a dangerous and tough image. Any statement to the contrary from their world had to be countered. In racketeering, the threat of force is much more effective than force itself.

That’s how their killings are viewed. The killers are not as efficient as they are ruthless, persistent and greedy.