yugoslavias implosion

under the same command in Belgrade. That the three armies acted
essentially as one was best explained by Milošević (after his arrest in
2001 for financial fraud but before he was transferred to the international
tribunal in The Hague), when he declared that he had “acted
only in [the] interest of the state and people” and that “state money
was spent on arms, munitions and other needs for the Army of the rs
and rsk,” but raison d’état compelled these facts to be “kept as state
secrets and could not be presented in the Budget Law.” 283
Although the transformation of the ypa into a Serbian army was
initiated in 1991 by Vuk Drašković through pressure on Minister of
Defense General Tomislav Simović, Milošević insisted on the name
“Yugoslavia” for both the state and the Army in order to lend weight
to his contention that Yugoslavia had been broken up by secessionist
Slovenia and Croatia with support from Germany, Austria, and
the Vatican. Milošević believed that the fry would be recognized as
the successor to the sfry. In a letter to Milošević titled “Theses on the
Situation of the People, Society, and State,” Ćosić, too, demanded the
“urgent reorganization of the ypa and its transformation into a Serb
army.” 284 This double track or shrewd idea to keep the ypa as a cover
for claiming to defend Yugoslavia was reflected in decisions making
whether and how to mobilize for wars both in Croatia and Bosnia. It
also explains why Milošević relied so heavily on police security forces
and his most confidential man Jovica Stanišić, chief of the Serbian
Security Forces.
Dobrila Gajić-Glišić writes that many volunteers refused to be
sent to the Croatian front with insignias bearing the five-pointed red
star, which represented the ypa. They were allowed to wear the Serbian
tricolor, and Simović “gave serious thought to the tricolor as
the symbol of the Serb army.” Asked by soldiers “whether there was
going to be a Serb army,” Simović replied: “I can assure you that the
283 April 3, 2001, www.b92.net
284 Slavoljub Đukić, Lovljenje vetra, p . 187 .
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ChApter 2