Good morning! Some habits are hard to break. Why would a regime that sold ammunition to the opposing side during the war hesitate to do the same when it comes to the Russians and Putin, its alleged friends.
Vucic: Sorry Russians, but business is business
This is a story I often tell:
The corridor of one of the B-H institutions in Sarajevo after the war. Atif Dudakovic and Manojlo Milovanovic are standing there. Dudakovic is the general of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and commander of its Fifth Corps. Milovanovic is a general as well, chief of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska. Both are trained JNA staff. Suddenly, Alija Izetbegovic comes across the corridor and allegedly says: “I’m glad to see that two war commanders are talking.” Dudakovic then tells Izegbegovic, “I’m explaining to Milovanovic how I defended Bihac”, and Izetbegovic then responds, “You wouldn’t have defended it if I hadn’t paid 35 million marks for that”.
This is how I remember the story, it may be that the amount was somewhat different. However, it’s what Milovanovic tells in a documentary by Filip Svarm called ‘Jedinica’, when Dudakovic and he were interviewed, while their stories about wars in Cazin and Bihar don’t differ much.
The Fifth Corps is surrounded and Milovanovic is waiting for them to use up the last supplies of ammunition in order to start clearing and occupying the terrain. And just when everything quieted down, and the offensive was being prepared, the ARBIH began to shoot intensively again. Milovanovic calls Dudakovic, asking him, “Where did you get the ammunition, Dudakovic?”, to which Dudakovic replies, “Your Serbs sold me.”
It’s no secret that the Serbian State Security Directorate (DB) and the team did many things to make money during the war. They killed their own people like in Panda in Pec, and now we see they were selling ammunition used to kill Bosnian Serb soldiers – the same ones whom the DB fuelled for revolt.
The Yugoslav military industry was involved in numerous conflicts around the world, often by arming both sides in conflicts such as Iran vs. Iraq. Someone will later say that, because of it, karma did its job when it comes to the war in Yugoslavia.
Today, Serbia continues with the tradition. For example, many forgot that a few years ago several of their diplomats were killed in Libya due to malverzations with weapons.
Now we can hear some sources who say that since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Serbia (Serbian companies) has sold artillery ammunition worth 800 million dollars to Ukraine through third-party intermediaries. And all that while pretending to be a friend of Russia.
“My job is to make sure we handle our ammunition legally, to sell it. I have to take care of my people and that’s it. That’s all I can say. We have friends in Kiev and Moscow. Those are our Slavic brothers.”
And it would be even good and noble to sell ammunition to Ukraine. Only that Vucic does not get money to fund his influence operations in the Balkans, which often correspond to what Russia is doing to its neighbours. If there was no NATO in the region, it would most likely be identical to what Russia is doing.
Therefore, we support Serbia to keep providing ammunition for Ukraine. We just want them to leave the region alone.
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
