01. 04. 2004

B92 Crew Threatened Prior To Bomb Incident

BELGRADE, April 1, 2004 - Radio Television B92 wrote yesterday to Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic demanding that he personally ensure that there is a serious investigation into the placing of a bomb under a B92 crew vehicle in Raska at the weekend. The bomb was found on Saturday, March 27, under a crew vehicle being used to cover the events of March 17 in Kosovo. The vehicle was parked in Raska, just twenty metres from the local police station. Bojan Petrovic, the B92 technician who found the bomb, said that the crew had already been threatened in Raska. Petrovic said that on March 18, a man approached the B92 team on several occasions: “He started to make accusations – You’re Americans, you work for CNN, we know who you are, what you are. I got into the vehicle, and someone started to bang on it. I got out, thinking that our team had returned from Kosovska Mitrovica. The man then walked over and said he would set our car on fire.” Petrovic informed the police, who then suggested the vehicle be moved to the car park near the police station. There, on March 27, a bomb was found under the vehicle. B92 lawyer Slobodan Kremenjak notes that the police quickly released a statement playing down the significance of the incident. “In the police statement, which was released the same day, we can see that the police informed the public that the bomb was not dangerous, was not live and had probably been discarded by someone concerned that it would be found in their possession during an earlier search. “However, precisely because of the speed with which the statement was issued, I fear an investigation was not conducted that would probe all details of the case, particularly bearing in mind that the B92 team was threatened in Raska on March 18 and that the vehicle was then moved, on the advice of the police.”