By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, May 13 2003 (IPS)

Women have stepped in now where Serbia’s most feared men once lived and trained.

The women have come to take the place of the "Red Berets", the name given to the secret police force in the Serbia under former president Slobodan Milosevic, who fell from power in October 2000.

More than 350 young females began training last week at the once notorious centre of the Special Operations Unit (JSO), or the Red Berets as they were known, in little Kula town, 120 kilometres north-west of Belgrade.

"This is a symbolic break with ties with the past," Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said at the opening ceremony.

Women stepped in here for the first time; so did the public. Family members of policewomen and dozens of reporters walked freely around the centre. The dormitories look bright and sunny, with fashionable slippers by beds, and cosmetics and female toiletries on shelves.

The women will train four months here and then six months with the regular police forces. They will graduate with the rank of corporal.

It was quite a change from the older days. Members of the Red Berets that occupied the centre earlier, and their former commanders Milorad Lukovic Legija and Zvezdan Jovanovic have been charged with the killing of former reform-oriented prime minister Zoran Djindjic March 12.

Milosevic had established the unit in 1991. It was given clandestine tasks of waging war in neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia. It was made a part of the regular Serbian police in 1996.

The Red Berets were suspected in many war crimes against non-Serbs. About 200,000 people died in the four years of wars.

The unit remained in place after Milosevic fell from power. It was disbanded only after Djindjic was killed. The delay proved lethal.

Former leader of the Red Berets Lukovic is suspected of planning the assassination of Djindjic, while Jovanovic pulled the trigger, the investigation established. Lukovic is still on the run, but Jovanovic and more than 20 top officers from the Red Berets were arrested.

Jovanovic told the police that Djindjic was assassinated because the Red Berets feared that the new authorities would hand over all war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Milosevic’s propaganda machine had described the Red Berets as "important" or "heroic", but people were largely unaware of the real face of the Red Berets.

A first glimpse came in hearings at the ICTY in February this year. Serbs saw a direct broadcast of a 45-minute film on Kula shot on Red Berets Day in 1997. Milosevic was guest of honour.

Frenki Simatovic, commander of the Red Berets at the time, was seen on video telling the complete story why and when the secret unit was formed.

He was seen standing in front of a huge map of former Yugoslavia, marked with more than 50 pins at spots where the Red Berets went into action in 1991- 95. Simatovic was seen on the film escorting Milosevic at an inspection of weapons and equipment of the Red Berets. These were seen to include two helicopter gunships and dozen of armoured personnel carriers.

None of all that remains at Kula now. The vehicles and gunships were handed over to the army. The map was taken off the wall.

Simatovic was arrested recently. He is due to be handed over to the ICTY.

The Serbian police force is 25,000 strong, but includes only 1,300 women. Women joined the force after Milosevic fell from power. The first two groups trained at other bases.

"We’re gaining new ground for women, not just ‘conquering’ this base," trainee Sladjana Matijevic (24) declared at the ceremony.

"It is not by chance that we chose female trainees to bring new life to Kula," Mihajlovic said. "We need a fresh start from here."

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