JSO (Special Operations Unit)
Milorad Ulemek "Legija"
Special Operations Unit (Serbian: Јединица за специјалне операције - ЈСО, Jedinica za specijalne operacije - JSO), or the Frenkies (Serbian: Френкијевци, Frenkijevci), or the Red Berets (Serbian: Црвене беретке, Crvene beretke), was an elite special unit of the Serbian Service of State Security.
The JSO was founded 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 security service (Serbian: Resor državne bezbednosti, 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 and of the unit and its predecessors are sentenced, accused or held responsible for numerous war crimes in Yugoslav wars, as well as political assassinations in Serbia. The unit's official commander Franko Simatović and its gray eminence Jovica Stanišić (head of RDS during Slobodan Milošević rule) are being tried (as of 2006) at International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes. Various other members are convicted or being tried for the Ibarska magistrala assassination and murders of Ivan Stambolić and Slavko Ćuruvija. Also, this unit have been reported for war crimes in the Kosovo War.
Read more about JSO (Special Operations Unit): History, Aftermath
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