Special Operations Unit (Serbian: Јединица за специјалне операције, Jedinica za specijalne operacije ЈСО/JSO; or Црвене беретке, Crvene beretke {Red Berets}), was an elite special unit of the Serbian police and reported directly to the Serbian ministry of the interior. It was officially incorporated into the security system of the FR Yugoslavia in the spring of 1996, by merging paramilitary units which operated in Bosnian and Croatian wars under command of Željko Ražnatović "Arkan" (the "Tigers") and Franko Simatović (the "Red berets") and under the auspice of Jovica Stanišić, head of Serbia security service (Ресор државне безбедности, РДБ; Resor državne bezbednosti, RDB). From 1996 to November 2001, when members of this unit organized a public protest, it was formally under the competence of the RDB. The unit was finally disbanded in March 2003, after Serbian prime minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy in which some members of the unit were involved (Zvezdan Jovanović, officer of the JSO and Milorad Ulemek "Legija", former commander of the unit, were convicted on May 23, 2007 for their parts in this assassination).
