Special Operations Unit

Unit for Special Operations (; abbr. ЈСО or JSO) or Special Operations Unit, also known as Red Berets (by berets; ) or Frankies (by Franko Simatović; ), was an elite special forces police unit of the FR Yugoslav State Security Service (RDB). The JSO was created in 1996 by merging paramilitary units under the command of Željko Ražnatović "Arkan" and Franko Simatović and incorporating them into the security system of the FR Yugoslavia under the auspice of Jovica Stanišić, head of the Serbian State Security (RDB). From 1996 to November 2001, it was formally under the competence of the RDB. The unit was finally disbanded in March 2003, after the Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Đinđić was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy in which some members of the unit were involved. Patrons and numerous members of the unit and its predecessors have been implicated and some sentenced, for war crimes during the Yugoslav Wars, as well as criminal activity. The unit's official commander Franko Simatović and its gray eminence Jovica Stanišić (head of RDB during the first half of Slobodan Milošević's rule) were acquitted at International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for various war crimes. Various other members are convicted or being tried for the Ibar Highway assassination attempt and for the murders of Ivan Stambolić and Slavko Ćuruvija. The JSO was also reportedly involved in instances of war crimes in the Kosovo War. History The origins of the JSO can be traced back to April 1991, on the eve of Croatian War of Independence, when a paramilitary group led by Franko Simatović and Dragan Vasiljković set off from Belgrade to Knin, capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina. Several days earlier, on March 16, Milošević promised "preparations of appropriate units capable of defending interests of Serbia and Serb people outside Serbia" in a closed session with Serbian municipal presidents. The order of creating such a unit was given to Jovica Stanišić, Milošević's strongman and head of RDB, which committed the task to Stanišić. The unit had not had any formal connections with Belgrade, so the operation was taken solely within RDB, without the involvement of Serbian Ministry of the Interior.