Among the tens of thousands of people who participated in the protest rally and 15-hour blockade of the center of Kragujevac in Serbia on February 15 were veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade.
As former members of this Serbian Army unit, they are controversial, due to the role they played during the war in Kosovo.
Members of this brigade were present at the site of one of the most massive crimes committed by Serbian forces in the municipality of Gjakova.
Wearing red berets - one of the symbols of their unit - they first paid homage and laid wreaths at the monument to the citizens of Kragujevac, who were shot by the Nazis in 1941.
They then joined the protest called by students, who, for almost three months, have blocked more than 60 faculties, due to the death of 15 people from the collapse of the Railway Station shelter in Novi Sad, in November last year.
This was not the first time that members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade Veterans Association participated in mass rallies, organized by students in cities across Serbia.
They were also present on February 1 in Novi Sad, where academics and other citizens blocked the Freedom Bridge for 27 hours, as well as on January 27 in Belgrade, where a road intersection, known as Autokomanda, was blocked for 24 hours.
From what is known, they are not involved in organizing student activities, who distance themselves from political influences and connections with political parties or organizations.
Why did they join the protests?
They explained their presence at these rallies in a statement published on February 6 on the association's website, which, among other things, states that the 63rd Parachute Brigade Veterans Association "is not a political organization" and that "the presence of veterans at current events does not express any political stance, other than concern for the safety of young people protesting peacefully."
"There is a deep division in public opinion towards students and young people who are protesting, threats have been made against them and entire parastatal groups have been named, which were supposedly supposed to disperse the protests by force," the statement says.
Students and other citizens, who block streets and intersections for 15 minutes each day to silently honor the 15 victims of Novi Sad, have been repeatedly targeted with verbal and physical attacks. Two students were seriously injured in two separate incidents in Belgrade after being hit by cars.
The statement by the veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade states that several members of this association "have actively participated in protecting students from potential threats to their safety and lives."
Natasha Kandic, founder of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, tells Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that veterans, as retired members of the military, are taking part in protests that have broad public support for their demands. They have also been joined by teachers, farmers, lawyers and cultural workers.
Kandic adds that with their presence, veterans are not conveying messages regarding their political stances.
"They are offering support, just like other social groups there. They support what the vast majority of people support - for institutions to do their job," says Kandic.
Radio Free Europe was unable to obtain any comment from the Serbian Ministry of Defense and the Army about the participation of veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade in the protests in Serbia.
Role in the wars of the 1990s
The 63rd Parachute Brigade is a tactical unit, which deals with gathering information and conducting special forces operations in the operational and strategic depths of the enemy, using vertical maneuvers, according to the website of the Serbian Army.
It can also be engaged in carrying out special combat activities and operations of particular importance.
The brigade was officially formed in 1967, headquartered in Niš, in the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
They were present on April 27, 1999, when the major operation 'River' was carried out... when the most massive crime in Kosovo occurred."
In the wars that broke up Yugoslavia, its members were present everywhere - from Croatia, to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, says Kandic, whose organization is engaged in collecting facts about war crimes and victims during the wars of the 1990s.
At the level of proven judicial facts, says Kandic, there is data on the participation of the 63rd Parachute Brigade in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.
This is also evidenced by the verdicts against the then generals of the Yugoslav Army, Nebojša Pavković and Vladimir Lazarević, for war crimes against Albanian civilians.
For war crimes against Albanian civilians, Pavković, former commander of the Third Army of the Yugoslav Army, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in The Hague, while Lazarević, as former commander of the Pristina Corps, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In these judgments, the Hague Tribunal found that around 500 members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade were present in April 1999 in the territory of Gjakova, where they were deployed to prevent the passage of members of the Kosovo Liberation Army from Albania on the Gjakova-Deçan road.
"They were present on April 27, 1999, when the major operation 'River' was carried out... when the most massive crime in Kosovo took place. On that occasion, more than 300 residents of the village of Meje were separated from their families and killed on the road to Gjakova, while the other residents were deported to Albania," recalls Kandić.
According to her, there is no other data that would indicate the responsibility of the commanders or chiefs of staff of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, because the indictments against the military leadership of the Yugoslav Army focused on the generals and those who commanded the formations on April 27.
"What has been definitively proven is the presence and actions of members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade. They were engaged both before and during the NATO bombings, within the Pristina Corps, but as part of the tasks assigned to various units that were subordinate to the Pristina Corps," says Kandic.
Members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade were also present at the Battle of Koshare, which took place in southern Kosovo from April to June 1999.
This is one of the tragedies of the war, which in Serbia, in recent years, has been described as a heroic epic of young soldiers who defended the border and prevented the entry of KLA members from Albania into the territory of Kosovo, during the NATO bombing.
According to the Humanitarian Law Center, two members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade were killed in the fighting.
Kandic says they were young men who, after completing their regular military service, were sent directly to Koshare.
"Of the total number of those killed, at least 50 of them were young men in regular military service, who were sent as 'cannon fodder'. That unit - which is always referred to as an elite unit - used the same method in Koshare as all the other units: it sent young men aged 19 and 20 into a very serious battle, where there were direct actions from both sides," says Kandic.
Based on the Humanitarian Law Center's data on Serbian citizens who lost their lives in the wars of the 1990s, it can be seen that members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade were also present on the fronts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
From brigade to battalion and back
This unit, together with the 72nd Special Brigade, were honored with the Order of the People's Hero in October 1999 and the Order of the Battle Banner in June 2000, for their merits during the war, namely during the regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević.
After the overthrow of his autocratic regime, both units were reduced to battalion rank in 2006 and merged into the Special Brigade.
Thirteen years later, the current Serbian government, led by the Serbian Progressive Party, returned brigade status to both units.
The then Minister of Defense, today Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, justified this decision, saying that these two units stood by the Serbian people whenever they were "threatened by the danger of crime and destruction."
Today, one of the most loyal allies of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Vulin was a member of the Yugoslav Left during the 1990s, which was part of the regime along with Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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