n August 1990, Milan BABIC contacted Slobodan Milosevic to complain about the treatment of
Serbs in the area around Knin. Milosevic directed Milan BABIC to meet with the President of the
SFRY, Borisav Jovic. On 13 August 1990, Milan BABIC and other leaders from Knin met with
Jovic and told him about the problems that the Serbian community had with the Croatian authorities.
Jovic said that he would give the Serbs in Croatia his political support and that they would have the
support and protection of the JNA in their struggle. This assurance was later repeated by Milosevic
himself on other occasions.
Milan BABIC originally viewed President Milosevic as the leader and protector of all ethnic Serbs
in Yugoslavia. Milan BABIC sought the assistance of Milosevic in protecting the Serb population of
Krajina and was assured by Milosevic that they would be protected by the JNA. The trust which
Milan BABIC had placed in Milosevic was undermined in March 1991. Milosevic showed him a
proposed western border of a new Serbian state on a map, which he understood was agreed to by
Milosevic and Tudjman, dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina. Milan BABIC was stunned because he
perceived this to be contrary to the interests of the SAO Krajina and everything that Milosevic had
told him before about protecting them.
From August 1990, a parallel structure started emerging in the Krajina comprised of members of the
Ministry of Interior of Serbia, the State Security service of Serbia, the SDS in Croatia and
policemen in the Serbian municipalities in Croatia which ultimately answered directly and
exclusively to Slobodan Milosevic. The central figures of this parallel structure in Serbia, aside from
Milosevic himself, were Jovica Stanisic from the Serbian DB and his subordinate Franko "Frenki"
Simatovic.