Arkan

An ex-member of the ‘Scorpions’ paramilitaries told the Hague Tribunal that his unit and the ‘Tigers’ led by Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan, were under the control of the Serbian security service in the Bosnian and Croatian wars.

An expert witness told the Hague trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that the Serbian State Security Service, which they ran, was able to deploy paramilitary boss Arkan’s forces - a claim rejected by the defence.

The trial of former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic was told that fighters allegedly controlled by the defendants detained and killed non-Serbs at a base in Croatia run by paramilitary boss Arkan.

At the trial of former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, a prosecution witness said that paramilitary boss Arkan’s unit - allegedly controlled by the defendants - murdered Croats in 1991.

The lawyer for the former head of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic, told the UN court that a witness’s claim that the security chief was paramilitary leader Arkan’s boss was untrue.

A prosecution witness told the retrial of former Serbian security service chief Jovica Stanisic and his deputy in The Hague that notorious paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan, said Stanisic was his boss.

Two former Serbian intelligence chiefs will go back on trial before U.N. judges on June 13, accused of running death squads which terrorized Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s Balkans wars.

Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

BELGRADE -- Tens of thousands of people across the country on Tuesday celebrated the beginning of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

This is the calendar adhered to by the Serbian Orthodox Church, so the January 13 festivities are sometimes referred to as the Orthodox, or Serbian New Year.

Testifying at Ratko Mladic’s trial, defence witness Dusko Corokalo blamed Serbian soldiers who 'lost control' and Zeljko Raznatovic 'Arkan'’s men for the crimes against Muslims and Croats in Sanski Most.

Rade Rakonjac, a former bodyguard to Zeljko Raznatovic "Arkan", was shot dead in a cafe in the Belgrade neighbourhood of Dedinje on Wednesday at noon.

Two others were injured in the incident and taken to the emergency centre.