WIKILEAKS ON 1970s YUGOSLAV SPYING

Two interesting documents have emerged in the recent batch of United States diplomatic cables to be released by international whistleblower organisation, Wikileaks:

The first is a 1973 US State Department cable detailing the Yugoslav government's fears of "extremist" Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian activities on American soil. We hear of the Macedonian Patriotic Organisation (MPO).

Link: wikileaks

CONFIDENTIAL PAGE 01 STATE 167086 DRAFTED BY EUR/EE:HGILMORE:GB 8/22/73 X22140 APPROVED BY EUR/EE:JABAKER, JR. S/CCT - AMBASSADOR HOFFACKER --------------------- 026189 P R 222157Z AUG 73 FM SECSTATE WASHDC TO AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PRIORITY INFO USINT ALGIERS AMEMBASSY BONN AMEMBASSY PARIS AMEMBASSY OTTAWA AMEMBASSY MADRID AMEMBASSY CANBERRA C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 167086 E.O. 11652: GDS TAGS: PFOR, PINS, YO SUBJECT: YUGOSLAV EMIGRE ACTIVITIES IN THE US 1. IN CALL ON DIRECTOR FOR EASTERN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS BAKER ON AUGUST 21, YUGOSLAV ACTING DCM STRBAC STATED THAT GOY IS CONCERNED THAT CERTAIN YUGOSLAV EMIGRE EXTREMISTS WHO MIGHT TRAVEL TO ALGIERS AT TIME OF NON-ALIGNED SUMMIT MEETING (SEPTEMBER 5-8) MIGHT ENGAGE IN HOSTILE ACTIVITIES AGAINST PRESIDENT TITO DURING HIS VISIT THERE. STRBAC CONVEYED REQUEST OF GOY THAT USG INFORM YUGOSLAV EMBASSY IN EVENT CERTAIN SERB, CROAT, AND CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL PAGE 02 STATE 167086 MACEDONIAN EMIGRE EXTREMISTS RESIDING IN US, WHOSE NAMES WERE CONTAINED IN LIST HE GAVE TO BAKER, SHOULD TRAVEL ABROAD SHORTLY BEFORE ALGIERS SUMMIT. STRBAC INDICATED GOY HAD MADE SIMILAR REQUEST OF CANADA, FRG, FRANCE, AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS INCLUDING THE GOA ITSELF. 2. STRBAC STATED THAT YUGOSLAV EMBASSY HAS COME TO CON- CLUSION THAT YUGOSLAV EMIGRE EXTREMISTS ORGANIZATIONS IN US ARE NOT GIVING UP THEIR ANTI-YUGOSLAVIA STRUGGLE. HE POINTED TO FOLLOWING EXAMPLES OF EMIGRE ACTIVITIES WHICH LED EMBASSY TO THIS CONCLUSION: A. AUGUST 15 ISSUE OF CROATIAN EMIGRE NEWSPAPER DANICA (THE MORNING STAR), PUBLISHED IN CHICAGO, WHICH CARRIES ARTICLE CALLING FOR CROATS IN US TO SEND MONEY TO VALENCIA, SPAIN TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THOSE CROAT EMIGRES WHO ARE PREPARING FOR "X-DAY", WHICH STRBAC INTERPRETED AS DAY OF TITO'S DEATH. (ARTICLE, AS WE READ IT, SUGGESTS MONEY MIGHT BE USED ALSO FOR ASSISTANCE TO DEPENDENTS OF CROAT HIJACKERS OF SAS PLANE WHO ARE UNDER DETENTION IN SPAIN.); B. FOUR MEETINGS OF EMIGRE ORGANIZATIONS WHICH WILL BE HELD IN US IN NEAR FUTURE: (1) MEETING OF NORTH AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR THE CROATIAN STATE (NACCS) IN CLEVELAND, AUGUST 24-26/ (2) MEETING IN CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 24, OF UNITED AMERICAN CROATIANS (UAC); (3) CONGRESS IN JACKSON, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEM- BER 1, 1973, OF BRANCHES OF SERBIAN NATIONAL DEFENSE (SND) ORGANIZATION, LOCATED IN WESTERN STATES; (4) CONVENTION OF MACEDONIAN PATRIOTIC ORGANI- ZATION (MPO) IN CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 1-3. 3. STRBAC INDICATED THAT EMBASSY CONSIDERS IT POSSIBLE THAT INDIVIDUAL US CONGRESSMEN AND POLITICAL FIGURES MIGHT ATTEND ONE OR MORE OF THESE MEETINGS. HE ASKED THAT USG GIVE NO OFFICIAL RECOGNITION TO THESE MEETINGS AND THAT IT ADVISE CONGRESSMEN AND OTHER POLITICAL FIGURES AS WELL AS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ON STATE AND LOCAL LEVELS OF US POLICY OF SUPPORTING THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF YUGOSLAVIA. CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL PAGE 03 STATE 167086 4. AFTER NOTING THAT EMIGRE ORGANIZATIONS ARE FREE TO HOLD MEETINGS AND THAT WE CANNOT ASSUME THAT ALL THOSE WHO WILL ATTEND THESE MEETINGS WOULD USE VIOLENCE TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS, BAKER ASKED STRBAC TO OUTLINE PLATFORMS OF THESE FOUR GROUPS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THEIR POSITION ON USE OF VIOLENCE. IN REPLY, STRBAC SAID EACH OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS IS BENT ON DISMEMBERING YUGOSLAVIA AND ADVOCATES THE USE OF VIOLENT METHODS TO ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL. STRBAC DESCRIBED ORIENTATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL GROUPS AS FOLLOWS: NACCS AND UAC - DESTRUCTION OF YUGO- SLAVIA AND CREATION OF SEPARATIST, INDEPENDENT CROATIAN STATE; SND - DESTRUCTION AND DISMEMBERMENT OF YUGOSLAVIA AND CREATION OF A GREATER SERBIA; MPO - PULLING MACE- DONIA SR OUT OF YUGOSLAVIA AND INCORPORATING IT INTO A GREATER BULGARIA. 5. BAKER OBSERVED THAT SEVERAL OF THESE MEETINGS ARE SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE VERY SOON. IT IS POSSIBLE, THEREFORE, THAT CERTAIN POLITICAL FIGURES HAVE ALREADY ACCEPTED INVITATIONS TO THEM AND THAT IF THERE WERE ATTENDANCE BY ANY CONGRESSMEN OR LOCAL OFFICIALS THIS WOULD IN NO WAY REFLECT USG VIEWS. HE STATED THAT WE HAVE IN THE PAST AND WILL CONTINUE IN THE FUTURE TO MAKE KNOWN THE USG POSITION TO STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS AND CONGRESS- MEN WHO MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF IT OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD YUGOSLAVIA AND TOWARD ANY ATTACKS ON ITS INTEGRITY. WE COULD NOT, HOWEVER, TELL THESE OFFICIALS WHAT TO DO. BAKER STRESSED THAT US POLICY TOWARD YUGOSLAVIA REMAINS AS OUTLINED BY PRESIDENT NIXON: WE SUPPORT THE UNITY AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF YUGOSLAVIA. 6. MEMORANDA REPORTING OTHER MATTERS DISCUSSED BY BAKER AND STRBAC BEING POUCHED. DEPARTMENT GIVING TO FBI COPY OF LIST MENTIONED IN PARA ONE TOGETHER WITH STRBAC'S ADDI- TIONAL COMMENTS ABOUT PLACES OF RESIDENCE AND AFFILIATIONS OF PERSONS ON IT, REQUESTING THAT FBI ADVISE DEPARTMENT SOONEST OF ANY INFORMATION IT MIGHT DEVELOP WHICH SUGGESTS THAT EMIGRES ON GOY LIST PLAN TO TRAVEL TO ALGERIA. ROGERS CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL PAGE 04 STATE 167086 CONFIDENTIAL NNN
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The second document is another US diplomatic cable explaining the domestic politicking going on in Australia in 1973 after the execution of Australian-Croats involved in the 1972 incursion into Communist Yugoslavia. For our non-Australian readers, there was a push by the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), a splinter group from the orginal Australian Labor Party (ALP), for a Senate Committee:

link: wikileaks
extract:
DLP LEADER SENATOR GAIR HAS SOUGHT TO INTRODUCE MOTION TO ESTABLISH A SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE INTO WHETHER CIVIL RIGHTS OF AUSTRALIAN CROATS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED, EITHER BY OPERATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN POLICE OR BY AGENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF YUGOSLAVIA.
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Full cable:

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 01 CANBER 02682 140351 Z --------------------- 051542 R 140327 Z MAY 73 FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0921 INFO AMEMBASSY BELGRADE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE CANBERRA 2682 E. O. 11652: N/ A TAGS: PINT, PINS, PFOR, YO, AS SUBJ: YUGOSLAV EXECUTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS REF: CANBERRA 2462 1. BEGIN SUMMARY: POLITICKING IN AUSTRALIAN SENATE CONTINUES ON PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH SENATE COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE INTO WHETHER THERE HAVE BEEN VIOLATIONS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF AUSTRALIANS OF CROAT ANCESTRY. DEBATES IN SENATE HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY BITTER, AND RESULTING ATMOSPHERE IS SETTING STAGE FOR DOUBLE DIS- SOLUTION AND EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. END SUMMARY. 2. CONTRARY TO PREDICTION IN REFTEL, SUBJECT OF YUGO- SLAV EXECUTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS AND, MORE BROADLY, LABOR GOVERNMENT POLICY TOWARDS AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS OF CROAT ANCESTRY, HAS HAD NEW LEASE ON LIFE AND IS SIGNIFICANT ISSUE BEFORE PARLIAMENT. 3. SCENE OF ACTION HAS SHIFTED FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- TIVES TO SENATE, WHERE DLP LEADER SENATOR GAIR HAS SOUGHT TO INTRODUCE MOTION TO ESTABLISH A SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE INTO WHETHER CIVIL RIGHTS OF LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 02 CANBER 02682 140351 Z AUSTRALIAN CROATS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED, EITHER BY OPERATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN POLICE OR BY AGENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF YUGOSLAVIA. COMMITTEE IS TO HAVE SEVEN MEMBERS, THREE OF WHOM TO BE NOMINATED BY GOVERN- MENT LEADER IN SEANTE ( I. E., SENATOR MURPHY); ONE EACH BY LIBERAL, COUNTRY PARTY, AND DLP LEADERS; AND ONE INDEPENDENT SENATOR TO BE CHOSEN BY THREE INDEPENDENT SENATORS. GAIR' S MOTION IS LONG, DETAILED, AND CLEARLY POINTED AT CONDUCT OF SENATOR MURPHY IN HIS ATTACKS ON ALLEGED CROAT TERRORISM AND ON ALLEGED ACTIVITY BY YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA. 4. ISSUE CAME TO VOTE MAY 10, AND MOTION WAS DEFEATED 28 TO 27 WHEN THREE ALP SENATORS, WHO WERE " PAIRED" WITH THREE LIBERAL SENATORS WHO WERE ABSENT, BROKE THE " PAIRS" AND VOTED AGAINST MOTION. IF " PAIRS" HAD BEEN RESPECTED, MOTION WOULD HAVE PASSED BY VOTE OF 27 TO 25. LIBERAL, COUNTRY PARTY, AND DLP LEADERR IN SENATE HAVE DENOUNCED ALP TACTICS AS VIOLATION OF GENTELMEN' S AGREE- MENT, AND SENATOR WITHERS, LIBERAL LEADER IN SENATE, HAS ANNOUNCED THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER " PAIRS" UNTIL SNEATOR MURPHY, WHO CLEARLY ARRANGED BREAKING OF " PAIRS", APOLOGIZES. MURPHY HAS MADE CLEAR THAT HE CONSIDERS OPPOSITION PARTIES SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR DISGUISED ATTACKS ON HIM. 5. SENATOR GAIR HAS STATED HE WILL RE- INTRODUCE MEASURE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, " PAIRS" WILL BE OFF, AND SENATOR MURPHY LEFT AUSTRALIA MAY 13 TO PRESENT THE AUSTRALIAN CASE AGAINST FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE. HE WILL NOT RETURN, ACCORDING TO PRESENT PLANS, UNTIL MAY 26. MOST OBSERVERS BELIEVE GAIR' S MOTION WILL BE RE- INTRODUCED AND PASSED, EITHER THIS WEEK OR NEXT WEEK, AT LATEST. 6. COMMENT: EPISODE IS SYMPTOM OF STEADILY WORSENING RELATIONS BETWEEN LABOR AND OPPOSITION PARTIES IN SENATE. DEBATE IN HOUSE ON VARIETY OF ISSUES HAS BEEN COMPARATIVELY RESTRAINED, BUT DEBATES IN SENATE HAVE BEEN INCREASINGLY FOCUSED ON CONFLICTS OF PERSONALITIES. POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENTS, BOTH ON STATUS OF CROAT COMMUNITY AS WELL AS OTHER MATTERS, IS LIMITED OFFICIAL USE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 03 CANBER 02682 140351 Z THE SOLIDIFYING OF THE LINE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION PARTIES IN THE SENATE. THE DIVISION SEEMS ALMOST CERTAIN TO PRODUCE DEFEAT OF MAJOR GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION IN NEXT FEW WEEKS WHICH WILL LEAD TO DOUBLE DISSOLUTION AND EARLY ELECTIONS, PROBABLY AROUND THE END OF 1973. RICE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE NMAFVVZCZ

PLAY IT AGAIN SAMIR !

Team Uzunov puts the pieces to the puzzle over the 1979 Croatian Six set up -
Australia's real life Humphrey Bogart film noir detective?

1977 JAT Travel Agency bombing in Melbourne may have been a dress rehearsal?
Muslim Bosnian activists being spied upon

WAS BEGOVIC THE MISSING LINK?

by Sasha Uzunov

"Play it again Samir"

Enver Begovic (aka Jason Enver Ablon aka Frank Abalone), a controversial Melbourne private detective whose incredible life was straight out of a Humphrey Bogart film. For many years he ran the successful Inge Detective Agency. Photo credits. Above: ASIO file. Right: Herald and Weekly Times 1968.

A controversial Melbourne Private Detective may have been the link between a Yugoslav diplomat master spy, and a low level operative involved in the 1979 set up of six Australian Croats on false charges of terrorism.

The larger than life Enver Begovic, who spoke excellent English, arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1957 and within a year was running a successful private investigative agency.

Begovic, according to a file by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), called himself a Muslim Croat from Bosnia-Herzegovina, then a part of communist Yugoslavia. He died a few years ago.

In the late 1960s he became a powerful figure within the Australian Croatian community: known for throwing his wealth and influence around. At one stage he was President of Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club. But he later changed political allegiances and began referring to himself as a Yugoslav Muslim. ASIO files, which include transcripts of bugged telephone conversations, have Begovic passing on intelligence on dissident Croats and Bosnians to the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Dr Georgi Trajkovski in 1978-79

RAT-LINES? WAR CRIMINAL? DOUBLE AGENT? FRAUD? 

The private eye, born in 1924 or 1925, told ASIO officers of his fanciful past: claiming he was  conscripted into the German Secret Police (meaning the dreaded Gestapo or SS) during the Nazi occupation of his homeland during World War II; at the end of the war he claimed he was thrown into a Soviet Prisoner of War (POW) camp before escaping to Austria, where he later met his Austrian wife, Ingeborg. After his release he alleged that both he and his wife had worked for United States intelligence against communist agents.

A check by Australian authorities revealed he had served prison time in Allied occupied Austria and Germany for embezzlement and fraud, involving stealing a large sum of money.

According to a prominent US academic and former Naval Intelligence Officer, Dr John Schindler, Begovic fits the profile of an intelligence operative for the dreaded Communist Yugoslav Secret Police (UDBa), which began a campaign to discredit emigre Croats, Macedonians and other groups through false flag terrorist action. But what is puzzling is how  did a newly arrived migrant such as Begovic learn to speak excellent English before arriving in Australia and where did he pick up the skills and knowledge to run a detective agency?

In 1971 - Melbourne based private detective Enver Begovic in contact with the Yugoslav Consulate in Sydney and Yugoslav intelligence officers (ASIO file)

Another infamous UDBa operative during the 1970s was Zeljko Raznjatovic-Arkan, an armed bank robber in Western Europe and freelance assassin who after the collapse of Communist Yugoslavia became a Serbian nationalist warlord. Arkan later fell foul of his patron, Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and was murdered in a Belgrade hotel in 2000.

One major UDBa success was the Croatian Six case, which saw six Australian Croats Max Bebic, Vic Brajkovic, Tony Zvirotic, Joe Kokotovic and his brother Ilija Kokotovic, and Mile Nekic set up by Vico Virkez, real name Vitomir Misimovic, another UDBa operative--and arrested by New South Wales Police state police in 1979 and later convicted on bogus terrorism charges.

Virkez, a Bosnian Serb posing as a Bosnian Croat, born in 1951 arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 1970, married a Croatian woman but later abandoned her and their child and moved to Sydney, eventually settling in NSW country town of Lithgow .

He moved in the same political circles as Begovic, a fellow Bosnian, as well as another Muslim Croat from Bosnia Ragib Avdic, a genuine anti-Yugoslav communist dissident.

According to Trajkovski's ASIO file, in 1978 the Australian government refused Avdic a passport in Sydney. Looking for help, he had naively asked Begovic, as a private eye with connections to powerful people, to pull some strings--all the while Begovic was feeding Trajkovski with intelligence. 

THE CROAT 6 SET UP- the Melbourne test run !

There is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Croat 6 set up was orchestrated from Melbourne, and in fact a test run was conducted in 1977-78 with a bombing of a Yugoslav travel agency office in Melbourne. When Yugoslav intelligence could not manipulate the Victoria Police Special Branch into blaming Croat terrorists the focus then moved to New South Wales where the Police Special Branch was more susceptible to accepting the existence of a terrorist conspiracy.

(above): A 1970 ASIO report in Begovic's file suggesting the bombing of the Yugoslav Consulate in Melbourne may have been the work of Yugoslav "agents" to portray Croats as terrorists.

On Saturday 3 December 1977 at 3.16am in the morning, a bomb went off in the JAT (Yugoslav Airlines) office in Exhibition Street, Melbourne, causing enormous damage but no casualties. Victoria Police Special Branch were called in to investigate but the Yugoslav Ambassador Aleksandar Sokorac complained that the authorities were ignoring "subversive" groups.

Before and after the bombing, there were false reports of planted bombs. According to an ASIO file on Trajkovski, on 25 August 1978, Victoria Police Special Branch Detective Geoff Gardiner investigated a break in at the JAT office but had found the lock to the office door had been broken from the inside !

In early September 1978, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, 19 Croats were arrested at an alleged military training camp near the southern NSW coastal town of Bega. Begovic was supplying information to the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Trajkovski. The question is why would a Melbourne based private eye be passing on information to a diplomat in Melbourne, when the incident happened in NSW and under the scrutiny of the Yugoslav consulate in Sydney?

Trajkovski's ASIO file - details a wiretapped phone conversation he had with Begovic over the Bega arrests.

In another instance, Trajkovski asked Begovic to write down the registration numbers of vehicles parked at a Croatian demonstration and identify their owners.

Begovic infiltrated an umbrella Croatian nationalist group known as HNV and attended on 30 September 1978 its inaugural national conference in Wodonga, Victoria, a town close to the New South Wales border. ASIO noted he was feeding information back to Trajkovski, especially about the unsuspecting Ragib Advic. (from Trajkovski's ASIO file).

On 8 February 1979 Vico Virkez went to Lithgow Police station in News South Wales and informed on the Croat 6, including Ante Zvirotic who had known Avdic.

On 10 February 1979 Trajkovski was in a frantic manner and tried to call the Yugoslav Ambassador Sokorac on the phone but the Ambassador was suspicious that his phone was not working at a time "when all sorts of things were going on."

On 14 February 1979 Jovo Juric from the Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra flew down to Melbourne to talk to Trajkovski over urgent matters.

On the same day, ASIO had noted that a mysterious character, probably a low level operative Todor Jovicic, codenamed Nikola, had flown out of Australia for good. He had been in Australia since 1969, a year before Virkez had arrived.

BEGOVIC AND TRAJKOVSKI GANG UP ON AVDIC - Lombardic in Sarajevo

In August 1978, Avdic was denied an Australian passport and had turned to Begovic for help.  From an ASIO phone wiretap, Trajkovski and Begovic were cracking jokes at his expense:

Begovic: "It appears that they (Australian government) are refusing him a passport. That is good...Yes, he called me last night seeking assistance (laughs). I told him to ring back in around a week."

Trajkovski: "Yes - you tell him you will do everything within your power. (laughs)"

In the same file, deputy Yugoslav Consul Petar "Pero" Lombardic was in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the then Yugoslav republic from where Begovic, Avdic and Virkez had come from. There is cryptic talk between Trajkovski and Begovic about things progressing well after Trajkovski had sent them things (not specified) to Sarajevo.

There is speculation that the whole Croatian 6 set up was hatched by Trajkovski in Melbourne via UDBa in Sarajevo.

"Where are the explosive detonators?" - Asks Yugoslav diplomat 

On 3 March 1978, a person within Victoria's Muslim Bosnian community called Atanas "Aco" Stojanovski, from the Yugoslav Consulate in Melbourne.

Person: "There is something - and I believe it has political connections. A man, who put detonators in Sydney - and I do not know where - was put on bail..."

Stojanovski: " Do you know where he put the detonators?

Stojanovski, in an earlier ASIO report on Trajkovski was named as the intelligence specialist who handled Croat informers. In 1978 he finished his stint at the Yugoslav consulate and eventually married a local Macedonian woman, Liilana Simonova-Stojanovska, now a prominent academic at Victoria University. They live in Melbourne. He may have the answers to the Croatian 6 case but no one in the media has ever contacted him for comment, except TEAM UZUNOV which sent an email to his wife on 10 December 2012 but had not received a response.

ASIO showed interest in Stojanovski's departure and personal life. 

ASIO RELEASE MORE YUGO SPY FILES

ASIO surveillance photo of Georgi Trajkovski from 1979. Pictured here leaving his 

consular vehicle, a Mercedes Benz. source: National Archives of Australia

by Sasha Uzunov

ASIO - The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has released three more dossiers, bringing the total to five so far, for Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne Georgi Trajkovski, believed to be the mastermind behind a covert operation to discredit emigre Croats and Macedonians during the 1970s.

ASIO, the domestic counter-intelligence service, kept a close watch on Trajkovski, who was Consul General from 1975-79.

According to this 1978 ASIO report, local Macedonians were not regarded as terrorists or posed a security threat. The report suggests that the violence within the community was caused by the Communist Yugoslav government's battle to take control of Australian Macedonian Orthodox Churches.

This same report reveals the struggle between the Yugoslav government and an apocryphally named Macedonian nationalist organisation DOOM (MLUM - Movement for the Liberation and Unification of Macedonia).

In 1976 the situation was worsened when Bishop Kiril (Cyril) was sent by Communist Yugoslavia to induce the local churches to hand over their assets to the Skopje patriarchy. (Photo: National Archives of Australia, 1973)

ASIO surveillance photo of Georgi Trajkovski from 1979. Pictured is his consular vehicle, a Mercedes Benz. Trajkovski is partly obscured at a fancy Melbourne restaurant at the time, Troika.

source: National Archives of Australia

Photo of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (1975-83), in the centre of photo, visiting the Yugoslav Consulate in Hawthorn, Melbourne in 1979 and holding a book. On his left is Trajkovski (numbered 4) and far left is Petar "Pero" Lombardic (numbered 8), Trajkovski's second deputy and hatchet man. Missing from the photo is Anastas "Aco" Stojanovski, first deputy. source: National Archives of Australia

More to follow on this story

ENTER THE DRAGANS & THE RED PRIEST !

Yugoslav spying in Australia
ENTER THE DRAGANS & THE RED PRIEST !
by Sasha Uzunov

It could easily be a plot for a Bruce Lee martial arts film or a Quentin Tarantino blockbuster but fact is stranger than fiction. Here in Australia during the early 1970s, clergy, petty thieves, ex-communicated communists, embezzlers, gamblers, bar room brawlers, and international con men were used by the Yugoslav communist secret police, the dreaded UDBa, to spy and intimidate dissident Croats and Macedonians.

According to a de-classified intelligence report compiled by Australia's domestic spies (ASIO), one method of "recruitment" involved the use of a pro-Yugoslav communist Macedonian Orthodox Christian priest, later de-frocked, who in 1976 offered to act as a character witness in a Melbourne court for a known street brawler of Macedonian background, Dragan "Dragi" Gastevski (aka GASHTEVSKI)--who was facing a criminal charge--in return for spying upon Macedonians and Croats.

ASIO was monitoring the Red Priest because of his pro-Yugoslav communist activities and opened a file on him.

In this ASIO document on Yugoslav diplomat George Trajkovski in 1976 the Red Priest and Gastevski are mentioned at the bottom of the page.

The ASIO report also details Yugoslav government intimidation of the Sveti Georgi (Saint George) Macedonian Orthodox Church in Fitzroy, Melbourne.

ENTER THE DRAGAN 1 - Street brawler Dragan "Dragi" Gastevski (1946-2012), born in the village of Capari, near the town of Bitola in modern day The Republic of Macedonia, which declared its independence from communist Yugoslavia in 1991. Gastevski was facing a criminal assault charge in 1976 for beating up a pro-Yugoslav Macedonian community leader at Preston Town Hall in Melbourne's north. The Red Priest offered to act as a character witness.

Serving two masters? Caesar and God? 

The Red Priest, pictured here conducting a Macedonian Orthodox Christian Baptism circa 1970s.

After the fall of Yugoslav communism in 1991, the Red Priest was de-frocked for selling unauthorised souvenirs, such as crucifixes, without church permission.




Melbourne Macedonian community sources have told TEAM UZUNOV that Gastevski tried to throw his weight around in Sydney's Macedonian community but was run out of town and unofficially banned from ever stepping foot in the harbour city.

Gastevski was active in the Sveti Nikola (Saint Nicholas) Macedonian Orthodox Church in Preston and a close associate of pro-Yugoslav communist Georgi "George" Pisevski, a one time President of Sveti Nikola Church.

Georgi "George" Pisevski (1922-2012) was a Macedonian Partizan resistance fighter during World War II and a high ranking Yugoslav communist party member who after the war became a manager of a state owned company called ZIK Tetovo in the western Macedonian town of Tetovo, then under Yugoslav communist control. Pisevski served in the Macedonian Socialist Republican Parliament during the Yugoslav era.

He fled Yugoslavia in the mid 1960s and arrived in Melbourne, Australia, after embezzling funds from the state owned company. In order to be able to return to his homeland of Macedonia, he began working closely with Yugoslav diplomats in Melbourne.

Pisevski was named in an ASIO file belonging to Yugoslav Consul General Georgi Trajkovski (1975-79) who bragged about infiltrating and silencing anti-Yugoslav activities in Melbourne.

Trajkovski's ASIO file mentioning Pisevski.































An American expert on UDBa, Dr John Schindler, has uncovered in his research the links between the former Yugoslav communist intelligence service and criminals, who were used to carry out assassinations or attacks on emigre Croats in particular living in the West during the 1970s. Serbian militia leader during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, Zeljko Raznjatovic-Arkan, began as an armed bank robber in Holland and Belgium and also did work for UDBa during the 1970s.


ENTER THE DRAGAN 2 - WHO WAS THE REAL DRAGAN BUBEVICH / BUBEV ?

Dragan Bubevich aka Bubev or Bubevski (1925-2011) was involved in the Sveti Georgi (Saint George) Macedonian Orthodox Church in Fitzroy, Melbourne during the 1960s through to the 1980s and was present during the struggles by the church to resist being taken by the Yugoslav communist government in 1976 (see above ASIO file on the Red Priest and Gastevski).

Bubevich created this image of a Macedonian political dissident who escaped from Yugoslavia after being imprisoned by the Yugoslav communist authorities during the 1940s and 50s and had allegedly shared a prison cell with popular Macedonian non-communist leader and Partizan resistance fighter during World War II, Metodija Andonov-Cento, imprisoned on false charges during a communist show trial in 1946 at the behest of Yugoslav leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

There are conflicting reports over where and when Bubevich was born. His tombstone at Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne's north lists the village of Gjavato, near the town of Bitola, in the present day The Republic of Macedonia and the date as 25 January 1925. The mystery does not end there. The official Fawkner Cemetery records lists Bubevich as Bubevich and not Bubev as his tombstone.

Tombstone written in Macedonian (Latin script)

Here rests Dragan Bubev.
Born 25-1-1925
in the Village of Gjavato, Bitola.
Died 17-3-2011





A relative of the Bubevich family has told TEAM UZUNOV that Bubevich was indeed in prison but for extortion. He had kidnapped the young son of a fellow Macedonian villager who was working in the United States and demanded a ransom. Bubevich was imprisoned. One version has it that once his sentence was served he fled across the border into Greece and eventually made his way to Australia by boat.

However, an Australian External Affairs (later renamed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) document dating from 1945 had Bubevich claiming he was born in Perth, Western Australia on 25 March 1925 and applied to be repatriated to Australia.

Bubevich made the extraordinary and highly contradictory claim hat he had fought with the legendary Macedonian Partizan hero Stif Naumov (Naumof) during World War II. He then escaped to the mountains until the end of the war before crossing over into Greece and fighting against ELAS, the Greek Communist resistance, even though ELAS had fought the Axis and was a de-facto ally of the Macedonian and Yugoslav Partizans. Bubevich further claims he joined the British in Solun (Salonika) and eventually arrived in a refugee camp in Italy.

This probably was an attempt to curry favour with the British. The document does not indicate whether Bubevich was "repatriated" to Australia. TEAM UZUNOV will apply for Bubevich's immigration records through the National Archives of Australia to unravel this mystery.

A  Stojan Bubevic, the father of Dragan, is mentioned in Australian naturalisation papers. He lists his place of birth as Giavato, Bitolj, which prior to World War II was under the Serbian monarchy of Yugoslavia but refers to Gjavato, Bitola.

VIETNAM DRAFT DODGER FOR HIRE

A relative of the Bubevich family has told TEAM UZUNOV that Dragan Bubevich in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War offered to "fix for a friend from his village with the Australian government not to conscript his 20 year old son, newly arrived in Australia, for military service in Vietnam." It is alleged Bubevich demanded and was paid $500, a huge sum back in the mid 1960s for migrant workers.

However, the scam was exposed when the Commonwealth Police (forerunner of the Australian Federal Police) came knocking on the young man's door for ignoring his national service call up.

It has been further alleged that Bubevich had dealings with ethnic related organised crime groups in Melbourne and worked as an informer for Yugoslav intelligence, UDBa.

He at one time was a part-owner of an inner city pub in Melbourne during the 1980s.

(end)

UPDATE: Friday 27 September 2013

BITOLA - World War II - 70 Year mystery? Did Dragan Bubevich betray or help Macedonian Partizan hero Stevan 'Stif' Naumov in 1942? Or was Bubevich a clever conman who told an elaborate story?


Going through an old story of mine on Dragan Bubevich, a controversial figure in Australia's Macedonian community I made the realisation that there is loose circumstantial evidence at best to link Bubevich to Naumov. It would be great if we could access the Macedonian intelligence files on Naumov and Bubevich to see if my hunch or theory holds any water.

I came across an old Australian Immigration file in the National Archives of Australia - www.naa.gov.au - in which Bubevich gave a statement in 1945, whilst in an Italian refugee camp. How he ended up there no one knows or why?

Bubevich made the extraordinary and highly contradictory claim hat he had fought with the legendary Macedonian Partizan hero Stif Naumov (Naumof) during World War II. He then escaped to the mountains until the end of the war before crossing over into Greece and fighting against ELAS, the Greek Communist resistance, even though ELAS had fought the Axis and was a de-facto ally of the Macedonian and Yugoslav Partizans. Bubevich further claims he joined the British in Solun (Salonika) and eventually arrived in a refugee camp in Italy.

According to Bubevich's claims:

In November 1941 together with Naumov formed a partizan resistence movement.

In April 1942 Bubevich claimed he was arrested by the Bulgarian (occupying) police and imprisoned for three months in Bitola because of his involvement with Naumov, who then organised his escape from jail three months later.

What we do know is Naumov did in fact organise a Partizan detachment, Pelister, in April 1942, in the Bitola/Prespa region.

On 12 September 1942, in the village of Bolno, in the Resen/Prespa region and about 20km east from Bitola Stif Naumov was discovered in a private house by Bulgarian police. He and his comrades committed suicide to avoid certain capture and brutal torture at the hands of the Bulgarian police.
Did Bubevich tip off the Bulgarian police?

Bubevich, was from the village of Gjavato, close to Bitola and about 10km from Bolno across the mountains or 20km by road. Bubevich's first wife was from Slivnica in the Resen/Prespa region. So the area would have been familiar to him.

For a man with limited education and poor village background, Bubevich's story in 1945 contains some interesting facts about Naumov in April 1942. 

Later when Bubevich migrated to Australia he would make the extraordinary claim that he did jail time in communist Yugoslavia as a political prisoner and had shared a cell with Macedonia's greatest heros, Metodija Andonov Cento, partizan resistence leader locked up on false charges in 1946.

Moreover, Victoria Police knew of Bubevich's links to organised crime in Melbourne, especially in the Dandenong area....


Photo of Stevan "Stif" Naumov - link to wikipedia