I know this interview is a couple of days old, but for people new to gathering info, it's a succinct personality portrait of Arkan, as it is in his own words. At any rate, copied here just for us information gatherers:
King of the Tigers
-- ABCNEWS.com
April 3, 1:23pm PT — The Serb militia leader known as
“Arkan” says his paramilitary group will defend their country.
But he denies accusations that his feared “Tigers” — known
by the insignia they wear — are already operating in Kosovo.
Arkan's real name is Zeljko Raznatovic. Reputedly one of
Serbia's richest men, he is wanted for bank robberies in
Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, and is believed to
have amassed wealth from war profiteering.
This week, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal based in The
Hague revealed it had indicted Arkan in 1997 for unspecified
war crimes. Western officials have accused him of committing
atrocities during the 1991 Serb rebellion in Croatia and later in
Bosnia.
NATO has applauded making the indictment public, hoping
it will serve as a warning to Arkan not to deploy his gang in
Kosovo. Fears that he would do that were sparked by his
public appearance last weekend in Belgrade, where his
pop-star wife, Ceca Raznatovic, performed at an anti-NATO
concert. He was seen cradling two of his children.
A ‘Serb Patriot'
For his part, Arkan vehemently denies he's a war criminal. He
prefers the term “Serb patriot.”
He says the three U.S. soldiers captured by Yugoslav
forces were “clearly on a spying mission.” He's also issued a
plain threat to the United States and NATO: “If they come with
ground troops they will fly back in bags.”
This week ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer interviewed Arkan on
Good Morning America. Following is a transcript of the
interview:
Sawyer: We're going to turn now to Zeljko Raznatovic, who is
the man known as Arkan, and he joins us now from Belgrade,
Yugoslavia. Good morning to you, sir. This is my question:
We have heard that you say that in Yugoslavia, your
indictment is considered funny. Is this a laughing matter?
Arkan: Yes. Very laughing matter. You are talking to me,
and you've been bombing the civilians in Nagasaki and
Hiroshima, you've been bombing people of Vietnam, you did
genocide in Cambodia, killing innocent children by biological
experiments, and you been killing people in Panama and
Grenada, and you are talking to me as that I am a war criminal
because I was defending my country called Yugoslavia, and
you don't know either on the map where we are. You know
only that your country …
Sawyer: Well, without addressing the fact — without — I
think we do know on the map where you are, sir. But without
addressing those …
Arkan: OK, now you will know. You — you are going to
know where we are, OK. But I have to tell you that I don't
consider myself a war criminal — not even my president,
Slobodan Milosevic, is a war criminal as that expert talking
before to you was telling. We are a normal human beings —
we are normal people. I have, myself, have nine children, I
have a beautiful wife — so we didn't rape, we didn't kill, we
didn't torture nobody.
Sawyer: Well, let me ask you about something then. You
have said — let me ask you specifically: You have said that
your paramilitary units are not operating in Kosovo right now.
Will you swear on the lives of that family you mentioned that
they are not?
Arkan: I don't have the paramilitary — I don't have. Excuse
me, I don't have paramilitary units, I am — I was, all the time,
under the command of Yugoslav army. So to tell you that I am
not in Kosovo, I am in Belgrade and my units — those are
units of volunteers in a case of war — those units as you have
civil guard in United States. So let me tell you that I am a
commander of a civil guard in Yugoslavia, for example.
So to make it to you easier, so either if you come with
ground troops — the United States are coming with ground
troops — to Kosovo, to Yugoslavia — attacking — then I will
be active and I will defend my country, my children because
we are only to defend our country, nothing else. We didn't
attack United States. We didn't Great Britain or Germany or
France. We only defend our country.
Sawyer: Without letting you make a speech, excuse me,
sir. Let me ask you one specific question about the three …
Arkan: Why do you want to interrupt me?
Sawyer: Let me ask you …
Arkan: Why do you like to interrupt me during I am
talking? It's not polite for you.
Sawyer: Well, I don't know that it was polite …
Arkan: It's impolite to interrupt me when I am talking.
Sawyer: — some of the things you've been accused of is
— have not exactly been manners.
Arkan: You don't let me express myself.
Sawyer: Let me ask you this, sir, about the three young
men now being held. There is a trial, we are told, going to take
…
Arkan: Yes, we have three captured American soldiers.
Sawyer: That's right. And we've been told there is a trial
going to be taking place. What is the outcome of this trial
likely to be?
Arkan: If you would capture three Yugoslav soldiers in soil
of United States, you will try them for a spy mission as those
three scouts — American scouts — captured deep inside
Yugoslav territories are going to …
Sawyer: And the punishment?
Arkan: The punishment, I don't know. I can't tell you — I'm
not a judge, I am not president of the court — military court —
we are in a war. And, of course, they come without passport,
without visa, they didn't bring humanitarian aid to the people,
they bring rifles and some other things with them so probably
they will be, of course — they will go up to the military court
and we will see what is the punishment. But it's not, as I
heard, they are telling United States they will be shot or
something like this, is stupid. They will be probably free for few
days or few months, I don't know how long this stupid war will
going on.
Sawyer: All right, Mr. — Mr. Raznatovic, I'm sorry, we're
going to have to ….
Arkan: The war which NATO produced in Yugoslavia.
Sawyer: All right, sir. I am sorry, but we are out of time.
Perhaps we can continue this conversation in the days ahead,
and we thank you for joining us this morning. |
