seruriermarshal
05-27-2004, 06:44 AM
Military intelligence head in Serbia and Montenegro sacked
BELGRADE (AFP) May 27, 2004
The chief of military intelligence in Serbia and Montenegro has been sacked because of his claims that intelligence agents had infiltrated extremist groups operating in Kosovo, radio B92 reported Thursday.
Colonel Momir Stojanovic said in an interview in February that the military security agency VBA had been working in the Serbian province, and had managed to penetrate extremist organizations operating there, among them Al-Qaeda.
"The Defense Council discussed information given by the Ministry of Defense related to statements to media by the head of the Military Security Agency and decided to dismiss him," council head and Serbia-Montenegro's President Svetozar Marovic said.
The council, the top state body in charge of the army at the same session late Wednesday promoted Stojanovic to the rank of general, the radio said. He will be replaced by Colonel Svetko Kovac.
In his interview, Stojanovic claimed that the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and other terror groups were present in Kosovo and northern Albania and were planning to step up their activities in the Balkans region.
Stojanovic, appointed to the post in March 2003, headed the Yugoslav army intelligence service in Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict.
A witness at the war crimes trial to former president Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague has pointed to Stojanovic as the officer who had ordered a mass killing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in reprisal for a murdered Serb officer.
Kosovo has been under United Nations and NATO control since June 1999, following a 78-day bombing campaign that forced Serbian armed forces out of the majority ethnic Albanian province.
BELGRADE (AFP) May 27, 2004
The chief of military intelligence in Serbia and Montenegro has been sacked because of his claims that intelligence agents had infiltrated extremist groups operating in Kosovo, radio B92 reported Thursday.
Colonel Momir Stojanovic said in an interview in February that the military security agency VBA had been working in the Serbian province, and had managed to penetrate extremist organizations operating there, among them Al-Qaeda.
"The Defense Council discussed information given by the Ministry of Defense related to statements to media by the head of the Military Security Agency and decided to dismiss him," council head and Serbia-Montenegro's President Svetozar Marovic said.
The council, the top state body in charge of the army at the same session late Wednesday promoted Stojanovic to the rank of general, the radio said. He will be replaced by Colonel Svetko Kovac.
In his interview, Stojanovic claimed that the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and other terror groups were present in Kosovo and northern Albania and were planning to step up their activities in the Balkans region.
Stojanovic, appointed to the post in March 2003, headed the Yugoslav army intelligence service in Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict.
A witness at the war crimes trial to former president Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague has pointed to Stojanovic as the officer who had ordered a mass killing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in reprisal for a murdered Serb officer.
Kosovo has been under United Nations and NATO control since June 1999, following a 78-day bombing campaign that forced Serbian armed forces out of the majority ethnic Albanian province.