MONTENEGRO ARRESTS PIFWC VLASTIMIR DJORDJEVIC

UNCLAS PODGORICA 000215 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KAWC KCRM MW SR SUBJECT: MONTENEGRO ARRESTS PIFWC VLASTIMIR DJORDJEVIC SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Montenegrin police arrested Hague indictee Vlastimir Djordjevic on June 17 in Budva. The arrest was executed in cooperation with Serbian police and the ICTY. Djordjevic was flown directly to The Hague on the afternoon of June 17. Local media reported he was working in construction, and had grown a long beard as a disguise. Media accounts of the arrest and transfer are by and large accurate, if limited in details. Djordjevic was wanted for the deportation, persecution, and murder of Kosovar Albanians from 1997 to 1999, including involvement in the death of the AmCit Bytyqi brothers. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Very late on June 15, Serbian border police arrested the female companion of arrested Hague indictee Vlastimir Djordjevic as she attempted to cross the land border from Montenegro into Serbia, smuggling alcohol and cigarettes. She told Serbian police that Djordjevic had entered Montenegro a few months earlier, using the identification of a deceased Kosovar Serb refugee. She said Djordjevic was currently in the Montenegrin coastal city of Budva. ¶3. (SBU) The Serbian police requested and received permission from the Montenegrin police to enter Montenegro, ostensibly to look for another suspected war criminal who had recently escaped from Bosnian custody. Only as Montenegrin and Serbian police approached the first location indicated by the companion, who had accompanied police to Budva, did the Serbian police reveal the actual target. Montenegrin police then insisted on surveillance measures before effecting entry. The target was not in the first location. ¶4. (SBU) A second location was then indicated, a house where the target was a boarder. The house was put under surveillance, and the target returned some hours later, on the evening of June 16. He was arrested early in the morning of June 17, while sleeping. The owners of the house, an elderly couple, apparently were unaware of the true identity of their boarder. Djordjevic was moved midday June 17 under heavy guard to Podgorica, from where he was flown on a jet under GoM control and guard, to the Netherlands. ¶5. (SBU) Comment: Montenegrin authorities stressed to post how the latest arrest again underscores the GoM commitment to full cooperation with the ICTY. National Security Agency head Dusko Jovanovic also singled out in his comments to post the key role of the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice in facilitating the rapid transfer of Djordjevic to ICTY custody. End comment. BARNES