Veran Matić: The killers and motives for the murder of Milan Pantić are known, but the power of the one who ordered the murder is stronger than the system

Interviewed by: Jelena L. Petković

“Someone ordered the murder of journalist Milan Pantić. The killers hired to murder him are serious criminals who are still active. It is completely clear that it is a question of protecting a corrupt chain that is known and connected to the top of the government, that a globally known company privatized the Novi Popovac cement plant through corrupt practices, which certainly had an impact on the concealment of corruption, but also indirectly on the concealment of crimes, because Milan Pantić wrote most seriously about that privatization. His writing could potentially cause dissatisfaction among workers and the then director complained to government representatives on the Board of Directors. They promised him that they would take care of the matter. And the “matter” was solved even before the privatization was completed. Our colleague was killed,” says Veran Matić, Chairman of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists.

“At the very beginning of the investigation,” adds Matić, “possible witnesses were deliberately not interviewed, no one checked Milan Pantić’s mobile phone, nor looked at the texts he wrote months before the murder to analyze possible motives.” We do not have the cooperation of the authorities to such an extent that I think that if we had brought the whole team to confess to the murder, we would not have had a verdict. We have to find a new way to resolve the investigation into the murder of journalist Milan Pantić, and we need international cooperation and help here”.

Journalist Milan Pantić from Jagodina, correspondent of Večernje novosti from Pomoravlje, reported on criminal affairs and corporate corruption. He was killed on June 11, 2001 at the entrance of the building in Branko Radičević Street in Jagodina where he lived. After all the efforts and evidence collected by the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, and many years of appeals by the media community, the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has not yet filed an indictment for this crime.

Ahead of the date that will mark the 22^nd anniversary since the crime and 22 years of impunity, Veran Matić, the president of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists, reminds that Milan Pantić’s texts were a vivid chronicle of Jagodina and its surroundings and that today there are almost no such journalists and such journalism. “And the killers succeeded in that, too”, he concludes.

The Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists has completed most of the work related to the murder of journalist Milan Pantić. You said that there are names of people who committed the murder and who deal with ordered liquidations, but that it is difficult to prove it because the “scene” after the murder was badly processed and contaminated. From all that information, what can you say – who killed Milan Pantić and why?

Veran Matić: The killers were commissioned to murder him. These are serious criminals who are still active. The murder happened in the first year of the “democratic government”, when we expected the resolution of the murders of Slavko Ćuruvija in 1999 and Dada Vujasinović in 1994. Instead, we got another murder, which completely shocked us in the media community, but it seems to me only us, and part of the media community. We all shared the horror and disappointment, because the  “our” new authorities did not comply with what was promised in the pre-election campaigns, that murders would be solved, democratic media laws would be passed, and on top of all that, another murder happened.

Milan Pantić is from a small town in central Serbia, from Jagodina, one of those journalists – correspondents of the national media who present the definition of journalism. He knew everything: what is happening, who is doing what, from neighborhood conflicts to big issues, such as the greedy, cruel privatizations that happened after the change of the autocratic criminal government of Slobodan Milosevic.

What happened to the investigation?

Veran Matić: We were promised a quick and efficient investigation and nothing happened. When we founded the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, which I lead, we spent several months collecting archives on investigations that lasted 12 years. The archives were very disorganized, located in several places, completely illogical. Before our engagement, seven working groups formed by the Ministry of Interior worked on this case, which should have meant special treatment when solving this case, but it turned out that there was no effective investigation. Every year and a half, teams were formed that simulated the investigation more than they worked professionally. A particularly shocking finding was that the “scene” of the murder on the day the crime took place was intentionally contaminated, since one cannot speak of accidental omissions. Hearings of possible witnesses, tenants of the buildings were deliberately not conducted, and we were shocked when we realized that no one had taken Milan Pantić’s mobile phone, that no one had ever collected texts that Milan wrote a few months before the murder, to analyze and look for possible motives…

How did the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists approach the investigation?

Veran Matić: The first Working Group formed by the police directorate at the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists was similar to the previous ones, and after a few years, it did not deliver anything new. But it helped that we collected documentation from several locations of the Ministry of the Interior. When the leader of the working group for the investigation of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija signed the indictment and when it was accepted by the court, we decided that the same person – inspector Dragan Kecman, should lead the working group for the investigation of the murder of Milan Pantić. Kecman completely turned the investigation around. His experience helped pave the way very quickly to prove the identity of the killers. It became absolutely clear that they were hired killers and that it was important to expose who they were. At the same time, an investigation was conducted to determine the exact motive for the murder.

Where did the investigation of the motive for the murder lead?

Veran Matić: It seems that the motive was deliberately covered up by the unsuccessful investigations of seven working groups of the police, even though there was an open criminal investigation in the privatization of the Novi Popovac cement plant. Instead of bringing that investigation to an end, and the perpetrators being convicted, in the proceedings that followed, they were practically amnestied, and the prosecutor’s office decided to close the investigation. Even when a new witness appeared in 2013 with new documents and evidence, due to the fact that he was an intermediary in corrupt activities, the prosecution did not open a new investigation. It is completely clear that it is a matter of protecting a corrupt chain that is known and connected to the top of the government, so it is completely clear that a globally known company privatized the cement plant through corrupt practices, which certainly had an impact on the concealment of corruption, but also indirectly on the concealment of crimes, because it was Milan Pantić who began to write most seriously about this privatization. His writing about this privatization caused workers’ dissatisfaction and the director at the time complained about the media’s writing and was promised to solve the matter. And the “matter” was solved. Our colleague was killed.

The then Minister of Interior, Dragan Jočić, stated during the investigation that Milan Pantić should not have been killed, but only intimidated, but it happened, he was killed. And then the rumor has it that Pantić was in a poor state of health, which would mean that he himself was guilty of the murder that happened to him, because if he had not been in a weak state of health, then it could be said that minor bodily injuries were involved and it would have been possible to shed light on the attack. Just to remind you that the same minister, when asked if it is true that he was convicted of robbing kiosks, answered “Is it possible that you’re asking me such a question on the day when Hilandar is burning” (monastery in Greece).

Still, Inspector Kecman managed to find evidence?

Veran Matić: Inspector Kecman managed to find evidence to identify the killers. The very process that followed gave strong indications that they were the perpetrators of the murder. When the findings and evidence were presented, it was completely clear that an organized criminal group had privatized a very profitable cement plant and on the way removed all obstacles, including the cement plant’s large debts to energy producers, which through court decisions, with pressure of the government, pardoned cement plants, i.e. transferred to the burden of the citizens of Serbia. The investigation led to a completely clear picture of the events that led to the journalist’s murder.

You presented some information publicly more than a year ago, and now you have additionally explained it publicly, but the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has not yet reacted and opened an investigation into this case – why?

Veran Matić: There is a lack of political will, and I don’t think it has ever existed. When we started working on solving the case of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, we had the strong support of the then First Vice-President of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and again it was very difficult, because, obviously, it was a murder organized by the top of the state security service, which managed to keep the service despite the large number of crimes in the nineties. But we also had a very determined prosecutor who led the investigation, a very strong investigative team, a successful strategy, and very quick results. This was followed by the filing of an indictment. All that time, there was an obstruction that culminated during the trial. In the end, the judicial panel made a decision that was fair at first sight – a total of 100 years in prison for all the accused, but they also included two errors in the explanation of the verdict, which they knew would be overturned at a higher court instances. And now we are waiting for the final verdict and we are not sure that justice will be done.

In the investigation into the murder of journalist Milan Pantić, we did not have a credible investigation. The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime did not want to accept to conduct the investigation. I cannot explain the lack of will and desire to solve this case, the refusal to examine all the collected evidence, to include all those who have knowledge of this murder, to open the case of predatory privatization. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that all actors are today  too rich and possess power that is stronger than that of the System. That the protectors of the participants in this privatization and murder are so powerful that they managed to secure protection in every government.

You said you thought the investigation into this murder would end in archives. It is always believed that things must be known and discovered at some point. Who, for so long, has no interest in shedding light on this crime?

Veran Matić: When you look at the photo of the place where the body of the murdered colleague Milan Pantić is, you will see the loaf of bread he went to get. You will see the modesty of a journalist who was just doing his job in the most honest way. And you will see, on the other side, a system that refuses to “process” the crime scene in the right way, literally all institutions and the prosecution and the Ministry of Interior, you will see the government of Serbia, in 2001, whose interest is to get money as quickly as possible for the budget, but also for their own income, because no one is naive to assume that they work for modest wages, we see a global corporation that is corrupting the entire path of the privatization process, through the subsidiary company, and with the help of mediators in Serbia, who want to testify, but no one takes notice of them, despite the reports… We see everything that is happening to OK Radio in Vranje today, where a local bully convicted of criminal acts walled up a radio station and no one can do anything to demolish the illegally built structure, where trials are postponed until the head of the mafia gets out of prison… I initiated the establishment of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists and I know how much energy we invested in each of the cases. After ten years of our work and two first-instance verdicts, we are still not sure that a just and final verdict will be passed in the case of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija. In the case of the investigation into the murder of Milan Pantić, we do not have the cooperation of the authorities to such an extent that I think that if we had brought the whole team to confess to the murder, we would not have had a verdict. We have to find a new way to resolve the investigation into the murder of journalist Milan Pantić, and we need international cooperation and help here.

In the case of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, the perpetrators were members of the deep state. Is that in question or a similar case here?

Veran Matić: In two first-instance verdicts in the Ćuruvija case, it was determined that the mastermind of the murder was the head of the secret service, and that the organizers were two of his closest associates employed by the secret service, and the executor, who is on the run, is a member of the reserve staff of the Department of State Security of the Ministry of the Interior. So, it was not a deep state then. They became that when democratic changes took place. They were given the opportunity by the new authorities for several months to burn the documentation, to hide it, to copy it, and all these years, that documentation, instead of being available to the public, as in the case of East Germany, is in the hands of the leading people of that service for decades, surely serves to blackmail all those who were in some way collaborators of the service, and who are  active in the political and social life of Serbia. That deep state was created due to a lack of lustration, a radical confrontation with the bad legacy of  Slobodan Milošević’s regime. That is why today we have a renaissance of the that system of values in the public life of Serbia. That deep state integrated into the system immediately after the changes and it has been ruling from the shadows for years, especially when it is necessary to protect the symbols of evil of the 1990s, to protect acquired and multiplied property, and especially when it is necessary to protect from prosecution people who committed criminal acts and crimes in the 1990s. Therefore, the deep state structures didn’t only protect the accused, but also in many areas of life,  successive governments.

The militarization of Serbian society has been going on for decades. Today, we have results that are visible every day, when we read the news that a woman, a wife with a child was killed, and sometimes a male murderer committed suicide, and we have a culmination in a mass murder in a school shooting, and then in nearby villages. It is a product of that militarization, lack of lustration, confrontation with the past, lack of decontamination of society. Demilitarization is not only the confiscation of weapons, and at the same time the continuation of hate speech and aggression in political life through the media.

Demilitarization means the introduction of a culture of peace, non-violence in every segment of society, but also the decontamination of society, which also represents a clear broad action to deal with the evil past.

It is important to underline who Milan Pantić was.

Veran Matić: In my mind, Milan is an “old-fashioned” journalist, a correspondent from the province of a major national media, a journalist working for a chronicle, which was once very respectable, which demanded high professionalism and ethics. In the country, such journalists have been given space for a primal struggle against injustice, against local pathologies, corruption, with great exposure because every day they meet and know all the actors of the texts and news they write, usually without any protection, which, on a larger scale, journalists and media in the capital possess. His texts that we read, even when he signed them under a pseudonym, are a very vivid chronicle of all events in Jagodina and its surroundings. Today, there are almost no such journalists and no such journalism, the killers succeeded in that, too. If we fail to solve this murder case, it will have even stronger implications for the future of journalism.

What kind of help do you expect from international organizations and journalists?

Veran Matić: We received a lot of help from international organizations in the form of support. To date, we have not received any financial assistance which is very important in these investigations. Our experience is important and we will not be able to use it if international organizations do not support the continuation of investigations and the creation of new models of journalist protection and prevention. Times are changing and it is necessary to do much more than before in order to prevent violence against journalists, not only in solving old murder cases. International organizations must join their forces, I mean professional organizations, but also the Council of Europe, UNESCO and others, in order to form teams for effective international assistance in cases in which journalists are threatened or in cases in which assistance is needed in investigative actions, because 85 percent of murder cases remain unsolved. Serious support budgets for prevention and investigations must be established. The Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists, although a state body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, has not cost the Serbian budget anything in the past ten years of its existence. Each of us paid our own expenses, there was no compensation for the hours and days of dedicated work. The inspectors did not receive any additional funds, they paid the additional costs themselves. I think that helped us get the result. But we could have achieved better results. These jobs are so important and noble, and in order to face with new challenges, it is very important that there are secured funds from the European Commission and numerous foundations. At the moment, in Serbia we have at least ten very experienced investigators and journalists who have dealt with investigations into the murders of journalists, who can help in any other case. And if there was a global activity on this issue, we could help others and vice versa.

We are still threatened

“There were a lot of obstructions in the work of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, and we solved them in different ways. I often had to intervene with the Prime Minister, and then with President Vučić, in some cases we managed to solve the obstructions that way. What was the most difficult part were the threats, especially towards the leading inspector in these cases, Dragan Kecman. At one time, I was in a safer situation, because I had 24/7 police protection, and Kecman had no protection, because he is part of the police system. When we learned that there were threats and announcements of the liquidation of Kecman – the police and his superiors did not react. We had to face those threats in different ways, including by taking personal initiatives, meeting with those who were marked as a threat. Today, Kecman is retired, without recognition for his extraordinary achievements in work, but not only without recognition, he is also completely unprotected from all those we talked about in this interview, those in the deep state, those whom he managed to bring to justice through judicial epilogues… Kecman presents an unused potential. He has many qualities, especially for the issues we are dealing with. We are still in danger, without the system accepting it in a way that would make us safer, not only those of us who deal with these investigations, but also all those journalists who, through their work, uncompromisingly expose social anomalies and individuals who seek to corrupt the entire society”, Veran Matić, Chairman of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists concludes.