SERBIAN SECRET POLICE HEAD URGES REBEL UNIT TO DISCONTINUE PROTEST

BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Hina) - The head of Serbia's secret police, Goran Petrovic, on Saturday night urged a rebel unit of Serbia's special police forces via state television to "abandon their dangerous adventure" and return to their regular duties. Petrovic said the unit, known as the Red Berets, had been manipulated for months with claims "made by some centres of power" that the Serbian authorities were preparing for the hand-over of some Red Berets to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Yesterday morning, around 30 Red Berets blocked the Novi Sad- Subotica road at Vrbas with armed personnel carriers, protesting against the arrest and extradition of Predrag and Nenad Banovic to the Hague tribunal and demanding the resignation of Serbia's Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic. The rebellion started late on Friday afternoon. The police said they had been "hoaxed" in connection with the arrest of the Banovic brothers because Mihajlovic and Petrovic issued them a spoken order to arrest persons who "committed serious crimes." The rebel police then said they would no longer heed arrest orders as long as Yugoslavia did not pass a law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal. They will not participate in the arrest of Serb patriots either, they added. Last night they said they would return to their duties but would continue to insist on Mihajlovic's resignation and refuse to participate in the arrest of Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The ICTY charges the brothers with crimes against Muslims in Keraterm, a Serb detention camp near Prijedor in north-western Bosnia, committed in 1992. Petrovic said the rebellion had been organised by the commander of the Red Berets, Dusan Maricic, whom he accused of "having betrayed his men in Republika Srpska." (hina) rml