2001 Special Operations Unit mutiny (Serbia)

2001 Special Operations Unit mutiny
Special Operations Unit blocking the highway in Belgrade
Date	9 November 2001 – 17 November 2001
Location	Serbia, FR Yugoslavia
Caused by	Arrest of the Banović brothers Cooperation with the ICTY Opposition to the Government of Serbia
Methods	Mutiny roadblocks
Resulted in	Dismissals of the heads of the State Security Service
Parties
Special Operations Unit Zemun Clan Support: President of FR Yugoslavia Democratic Party of Serbia Socialist Party of Serbia Serbian Radical Party New Serbia Government of Serbia Support: Democratic Party New Democracy Christian Democratic Party of Serbia
Lead figures
Milorad Ulemek Franko Simatović Dušan Maričić Zvezdan Jovanović Dušan Spasojević Miladin Suvajdžić Zoran Vukojević Zoran Đinđić Čedomir Jovanović Vladan Batić Dušan Mihajlović Sreten Lukić Goran Petrović Zoran Mijatović

On 9 November 2001, soldiers of the Special Operations Unit (JSO), an elite special forces police unit of the FR Yugoslavia State Security Service (RDB), also known as the Red Berets, raised a mutiny in response to the arrest and extradition of the Banović brothers, indicted for war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the group's opposition to the Government of Serbia headed by Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić.^[1] The mutiny ended on 17 November 2001 after certain concessions had been given to the Unit and the key figures in the State Security Service were dismissed.^[2]

The mutiny was the forerunner of major political upheavals in Serbia, one of which was the assassination of Zoran Đinđić in 2003.^[3]