Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told under political patronage or in conjunction with intelligence services under Franko "Frenki" Simatovic (see Ministry of the Interior, state security, below). Lt.-Gen. Pavkovic, the VJ commander in Kosovo, 10 denied that there were "paramilitary or special volunteer units (operating independently)". Paramilitary units are hard to define and recognize. On a number of occasions, it is likely that there was confusion in distinguishing between armed local civilians and the organized paramilitaries who originated from outside Kosovo. The value of creating the rumour that "Arkan's Tigers" were about to enter a village was often sufficient to encourage the inhabitants to leave. Local or volunteer units may well have played on this myth on a number of occasions - creating a possibly misleading impression from the statements taken from the refugees. However, descriptions given by many refugees are consistent with known dress codes and other identifiers of certain paramilitary formations. Moreover, some Serb individuals, as reported in the international media, do claim to have been recruited into paramilitary units through a close friend or relative at the 11 behest of Zeljko Raznjatovic ("Arkan"). Some have claimed that they were released from jail with their sentence period quashed on the condition they join a paramilitary unit. It is believed that some units were given a list of houses to loot, prepared prior to the launch of the NATO airstrikes and from information collected at the local level in Kosovo. It has been claimed that elements of one unit arrived in Kosovo in the middle of February in order to prepare the logistics for transporting the goods back to Serbia proper. Sketch of a paramilitary given as part of an interview statement by a Kosovo Albanian refugee [zoom] It is believed that Arkan's units worked alongside "Frenki" Simatovic in dividing up areas to operate. Arkan's units were believed to have avoided operations until after the air war started. He is believed to have had a training camp between Leposavic/Leposaviq and Kosovska Mitrovica/Mitrovice, and his forces are believed to have operated mainly around Kosovska Mitrovica, Pec, Djakovica and Prizren. 12 Some refugee statements refer to "Frenki's", as do a number of comments from media interviews given by Serb paramilitaries. These paramilitary units recruited by "Frenki" Simatovic were observed in "cream" coloured jeeps which could be augmented by a 20mm machine gun to the rear. They were known to operate in both green uniforms and in what has been described as a lighter cream uniform. They are also said to have favoured wearing cowboy hats. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch3.htm (5 of 16)12/5/2003 11:48:47 AM