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Milorad UlemekMilorad "Legija" Ulemek (born 1965 in Belgrade) was a Serbian militant who served in numerous military groups, most notoriously, the Red Berets, a branch of Serbia's secret police. French Foreign Legion In the mid-1980s he fled to France and joined the Foreign Legion. He stayed with the Legion for several years, fighting in Chad, Libya, Beirut, French Guyana and Iraq (the first Gulf War). It was this phase of his career which earned him his nickname Legija, the Legionnaire. Serb Volunteer Guard Ulemek returned to Serbia at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars in 1992 and joined the Serb Volunteer Guard, aka "Arkans Tigers", a paramilitary group that quickly became notorious for a variety of war crimes. Their leader, "Arkan", was for many years a particular favorite of Slobodan Milosevic. (Though Milosevic would eventually turn against him, leading to his murder in 2000.) Ulemek became one of the Guard's commanders, and fought with Arkan in Croatia and Bosnia. Red Berets When the Tigers were disbanded, Ulemek joined the notorious Special Operations Unit of Serbias secret police, better known as the Red Berets. The Red Berets were nominally an "antiterrorist unit", but they were widely considered to be Milosevics Praetorian Guard. Ulemek became commander of the Red Berets in 1999. He is suspected of involvement in the murder of four officials of Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement in a staged traffic accident in 1999. (This was one of several unsuccessful attempts to kill Draskovic himself.) A few months later, during the war in Kosovo, Legija commanded the Red Berets in the field. As in Bosnia and Croatia, he left behind numerous allegations of atrocities and war crimes. Then came the fall of Milosevic. Legija's role in this remains controversial, but the most generally accepted version is that he met with Vojislav Kostunica and Zoran Djindjic -- who were then leaders of the opposition -- and effectively negotiated a change of sides. The Red Berets would not intervene to save Milosevic. The new government, in turn, would leave them most of their privileges and would not prosecute them or even inquire too deeply into their lives and their pasts. Legija is being tried for the murder of Zoran Djindjic.
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