SOVIET EXPERT PREDICTED INDON CLASH WITH AUSTRALIA

De-classified Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) files on a leading Australian expert Paul Dibb reveal:

1987 - SOVIET EXPERT PREDICTED INDON CLASH WITH AUSTRALIA

In 1987, a visiting Soviet strategic expert, Kim Vladimirovich Malakhovsky, predicted that Australia would in the 20th century not face any external threats but would have a confrontation with Indonesia next century.

In 1999, at the twightlight of the 20th century and threshold of the 21st century, Australia was involved in a proxy war in East Timor in supporting its independence after 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation.

You can read more about the "expertise" of Professor Paul Dibb - link here and here

GEORGE SEITZ - RIP

GEORGE SEITZ (1941-2015), Member of the Victorian State Parliament for Keilor 1982-2010 (Australian Labor Party). 

George Seitz, Croat Australian and a long time supporter of the Australian Macedonian community has sadly passed away.

George gave me a lot of assistance when as a young reporter in the 1980s I began to investigate the activities of Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa /SDB) in Australia. His tips and names of key players led me to later find a lot of ASIO material in the National Archives of Australia.

He gave a lot of support to the late George Kostrevski, who established the independent AUSTRALIAN Macedonian Welfare Council, away from Belgrade's front organisation the Australian Yugoslav Welfare Society, sponsored by another Labor MP Dr Harry Jenkins senior and Labor Federal MP turned Yugoslav intelligence operative Lewis Kent. see link to Kent story here & here 

RIP

PUTIN CARD - played in Macedonia?

by Sasha Uzunov

Did the spectre of Russia or the Putin card save the Gruevski government in Macedonia from falling ?

British writer Aldous Huxley wrote "There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."

In politics and world diplomacy there are perceptions of reality in which the people or masses believe something to be true and therefore it is, even though it may be actually and physically true or not.

Regardless if you believe the Russian line that the West was going to take down the Gruevski government or divide Macedonia, the important thing is that Russian President Vladimir Putin ably supported by his wily Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked up a confrontation with the West and used the media effectively to do so.

Those perceptions, regardless if they were true or not, would have factored into the European Union's calculations in trying to diffuse the crisis in Macedonia.

If Gruevski had fallen, and the EU's deal on ending the crisis involves early elections in Macedonia is yet to be finalised, it would have given Moscow the "Ukraine template" it needed to hit Washington over the head with.

PM Gruevski has reiterated that he supports EU and NATO membership for Macedonia. The valuable lesson for any future Macedonian government is not to be naive and follow every single directive from Brussels nor to blindly accept what the Russians say.

Mature and responsble adults always retain a small sense of healthy scepticism towards their own government (either VMRO-DPMNE or SDSM) or a Super Power.

Sometimes your country's national interest coincides with either of the Super Powers: Russia and the US, sometimes it doesn't.

For all we know Moscow may have been 100% right about the West's intention for Macedonia or simply wrong.

See previous story for background to the Macedonian crisis - link 

MARTIN TRENEVSKI

TEAM UZUNOV exclusive: ASIO MONITORED MARTIN TRENEVSKI 

Macedonia's recent NATO ambassador Martin Trenevski, was a reporter for the then Communist Yugoslav state news agency TANJUG.

ASIO IS AUTHORISED TO ANNOUNCE - Martin Trenevski was monitored by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) during his stay in Australia as a correspondent/reporter for Communist Yugoslav state news agency TANJUG, equivalent to the Soviet Union's TASS news agency, from 1985-89.

TEAM UZUNOV put in a request many months ago and ASIO has given approval to declassify Volume 1 of Trenevski's file, meaning there is a Volume 2 still classified.

It also suggests ASIO concentrated a lot of attention and manpower in monitoring Trenevski's movements, phone calls, meetings an

d so on.

The file is due to be released by the National Archives of Australia within the next two or three weeks. TEAM UZUNOV does not want to speculate, not until it sees the file first, the reasons for Trenevski being put under Australian counter-intelligence surveillance.

The ASIO file might not contain anything extraordinary or it might. But we won't know until we examine it first.

Title
TRENEVSKI, Martin Volume 1
Contents date range
1985 - 1989
Series number
A6119
Open with exception
Reason for restriction
33(1)(a)(d)(e)(ii)
33(1)(e)(iii)
Date of decision
27 May 2015
Physical format
PAPER FILES AND DOCUMENTS (allocated at series level)

The receipt for your request

MACEDONIA - THE UNCERTAIN ROAD AHEAD

THE ROAD AHEAD - so many questions still remain unanswered over the present crisis in Macedonia.

by Sasha Uzunov

Will it become clearer within the next 12 months or so ? We don't know If a numberr of issues will be put on the table by the European Union either officially or unofficially and that is will Macedonia be forced to change its name to please Greece and the Federalisation of Macedonia...as the price it must pay for entry into the EU…and for the ending of the present crisis brought upon by the Opposition Leader Zoran Zaev's claims of government corruption and illegal wiretapping of opponents. 

All of this remains speculation and may not occur but you can never rule out anything.

The intended or unintended consequences of the crisis is to have drawn world attention to every move Macedonia now makes and having to jump through impossible hurdles not placed in front of say Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania and Greece who all have bad records, probably far worse. Kosovo is a failed state, an economic basket case where one of its leaders Agim Ceku actually lives in Zadar, Croatia but commutes to Pristina, the Kosovo capital.

We can see an example of this double standard or inconsistency by EU financed Macedonian human rights activists who complain about say Homophobia but then give pro Serb cleric and homophobe Zoran Vraniskovski a free pass. It's as clear as day the blatant paradox.

All governments in Macedonia, regardless of whether they are VMRO-DPMNE or SDSM need to be held accountable. The problem is that society is divided by loyalty to a particular party and corruption sadly is nothing new. Under SDSM governments there were many cases of corruption, including the horrendous pyramid scheme scandal of TAT in 1997 and bugging of phone calls by the then Interior Minister Ljubomir Danailov Frckoski. In terms of investigations nothing happened. Likewise a number of scandals rocked the former VMRO-DPMNE government of Ljubco Georgievski. Nothing happened in prosecuting Georgievski. There has been corruption within the ethnic Albanian parties, DUI and DPA, as well.

In principle all politicians, including the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, and Opposition Leader Zoran Zaev and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti and DPA boss Menduh Thaci, must be scrutinised in Macedonia. Focusing on only one party but ignoring others is inconsistent by the EU.

The EU's unofficial policy is the principle of "least resistence" meaning it's easier to subvert Macedonia and to get it to change its name rather than deal with an obstinate Greece or aggressive Kosovar Albanian nationalists. We have web access to leaked US diplomatic cables by Julian Assange which reveal the threat of physical violence upon ethnic Albanians  by Albanian politicians if they don't vote for either DUI or DPA.

That's something Brussels doesn't want to talk about ! 

EU's NASTY SEXUAL POLITICS: contradictory?

One of the tactics used by those within the European Union for undermining a sense of Macedonian national identity has been to play the sexual or gender orientation card, as in gay rights in Macedonia.

In short the pro-EU supporters in Macedonia have painted their conservative opponents as savages but what is contradictory is the support for a pro-Serb nationalist cleric and homophobe Zoran Vraniskovski and his activities in Macedonia.

BELGRADE CAFE TRUMPS HELSINKI- the deliberate use of sexual politics to destroy Macedonian identity.

Contradictory: Macedonian homophobia is "bad" but Serbian "homophobia" is "good !"

Pro Serbian nationalist cleric and homophobe supporter Zoran Vraniskovski is given a free pass in Macedonia but Macedonian intuitions get attacked? Why the contradiction? Why no protest against Vraniskovski or outside the Serb Embassy in Skopje?

Serb Patriach Irinej who is Vraniskovski's spiritual mentor:

"...the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, his holiness Irinej, explained to the masses that floods are God’s will, and a reminder to Christians of God’s anger for the Gay Pride Parade in Belgrade. Irinej did not explain why God did not punish homosexuals and their supporters from Belgrade, instead of sending flood to innocent people in the western part of the country. His holiness also didn’t explain why God flooded Bosnia and Croatia for the sins of the Serbian gay population. We don’t know how many of the victims are homosexuals or their allies, but we have seen some great humanity in this region, often mentioned in the past as a region of war. Maybe that’s the biggest problem of church officials, because in wars and disasters people are in despair and need salvation, so priests need enemies. In the past the enemies were communists, Muslims, Catholics and today the archenemies are gay people. The church’s logic is simple. Floods are God’s will, and he is angry at the organizers of the Gay Pride Parade. Therefore, every good Christian in Serbia must eliminate every gay person she/he knows. The last statement is the real message of Irinej."

Helsinki Watch boss in Macedonia Mirjana Najchevska defending Vraniskovski:

Quote:

"It's absolute nonsense in the framework of international articles and European conventions," says Mirjana Najcevska, president of the Macedonian chapter of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

The committee filed their case with the European Court of Human Rights last month after Macedonia's highest court upheld a law forbidding the establishment of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the country. The committee's action was also prompted by ongoing police and mob harassment of Vraniskovski's followers."

Najchevska has been on the front foot, at the behest of her EU handlers, to play the gender card against conservative elements but in trying to undermine them she has been happy to contradict her self in supporting Vraniskovski-- supported and paid by the Serbian state to destabilise Macedonia by having it dragged through human rights commissions--and his battles against the Macedonian authorities.

So the issue is not so much about gay rights but more a wedge or a political hammer to be used in bludgeoning opponents with.      

JOINING THE EU WON'T SOLVE MACEDONIA'S PROBLEMS

Why does Macedonia want to be another EU basket case like Greece?

The fundamental problem is not traditional Macedonian culture but getting Macedonians to think for themselves, invent technology. The problem lies with the remnants of what I call the Belgrade Intellectual Cafe lifestyle, a leftover from communist times when Macedonia was a part of federal socialist Yugoslavia before declaring independence in 1991.

You have an educated elite who have these unrealistic expectation of getting a state-subsidized or life or an EU scholarship or grant.

Sweden is a member of the EU but it still makes things such as cars, mobile phones, etc etc.

You can't build an economy and an elite which draws its income from scholarships or grants. You need to produce something or offer something such as tourism, technology etc etc.

You can only have so many EU funded journalists and activists in the country. What about 99% of the population that will not get those jobs? What do they do?

You need to get more young people into science, information technology etc.

South Korea was at one stage poorer than the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (when it was within SFR Yugoslavia). South Korea is now an advanced economy because its elite doesn't sit in cafes drawing scholarships.

Question how many members of Macedonia's elite have invented something? Or run a successful business?

1973 - Serb leader says Croats set up

Australian-Serb community leader in Canberra says Croats set up by Yugoslav government over "terrorist" bombings !

The Canberra Times - 24 March 1973.

Croats 'given bad name' - INCIDENTS BEING STAGED'

A leading member of the Australian Serbian community said yesterday he was convinced that Croatians in Australia were being given a bad name to appease the Yugoslav Government over genuine opposition to the Belgrade - regime.

The Serbian leader, who at first agreed to the use of his name, said later he had been advised he could be victimised if it were published.

A statue of the Yugoslav World War II Chetnik leader. General Mihailovic  outside the Serbian Church in Forrest was guarded during the visit this week of the Yugoslav Prime Minister. Mr Bijedic, because of fears that it might be attacked.

The statue was bombed about two years ago. The Yugoslav Embassy has complained of its presence in Canberra.

'"It was guarded because we feared that Yugoslav communist agents in Australia might bomb it and use this as an excuse to attack the Croats", the Serbian leader said.

"I fought with Mihailovic during the war against the Germans and the Italians who occupied our country and against their allies.

"I believe that incidents have been deliberately staged by the Yugoslav secret service in Australia in order to bring suspicion against the Croats.

"I have no time at all for Croat extremists but I believe that the Yugoslav communists have arranged many of the incidents for which they have been blamed.

"Once they have convinced the Australian Government to wipe out the Croat opposition to them they will start on the Serbs, the vast majority of whom also oppose Tito and his methods".

The Serbian said it appeared that many of the bombing incidents being blamed on Croats were the work of other parties. Large numbers of Croats working in construction and allied industries knew how to use explosives to get their full effect.

One particular explosion in Melbourne which had received great publicity he believed to have been "staged". The explosion had blown outward from its reputed target. Any skilled Croatian explosives expert would have known how to direct it inward, so as to destroy the property.

Link:  To Canberra Times story (archive)

MILOS CURCIC

TANJUG IS AUTHORISED TO ANNOUNCE AGAIN: Milos Curcic 

By Sasha Uzunov

We broke the story some time ago about a Yugoslav Military Counter-Intelligence agent (KOS) posing as journalist by the name of Zoran Pavlovic who was on a visit to Australia in 1976.

Link: 

He came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) which noted:

"Pavlovic has visited Australia previously...Pavlovic is a former Army man..."

There was a second Yugoslav intelligence (UDBA or SDB) operative. His name was Milos Curcic, who arrived in Australia in 1969 and worked as a correspondent for TANJUG, the official Yugoslav state news agency.

Curcic was a curious fellow, a wanderer who spent time in Austria, Germany and even Iraq in the late 1960s undertaking some interesting tasks.

He has the dubious distinction of being sacked by both pro-Yugoslav newspapers in Australia, Novosti and Nova Doba, before starting up his own short lived paper called Jedinstvo (Unity) in 1972 and which folded about 1975.

Where he got the funding remains a mystery but sources in the Melbourne Macedonian community have told us that there where some naive Macedonians who kicked in some bucks to Curcic.

In an interview with prominent Serb journalist Marko Lapusina, Curic made the extraordinary claim:

Link: 

"Pre dolaska australiskih ustaška u BiH, na planinu Radušu 1972. godine, gde su hteli da izvedu ustanak i stvore novu NDH, objavio sam spisak 80 ustaša na petom kontinentu i njihove veze sa tajnom službom ASIO - seća se Ćurčić. - Zbog toga sam u Hrvatskoj proglašen za najopasnijeg jugoslovenskog novinara, koji „ruši Jugoslaviju, bratstvo i jedinstvo“.

Kaže da ga je zatim saslušavala australijska tajna služba ASIO. Pitali su ga: „Vi ste prozvani kao komunistički agent? Da li se bojite smrti?“. Odgovorio je: „Nije me strah. Ubićete me ili vi iz ASIO ili jugoslovenska SDB!“.

Curcic claimed he published a list of 80 "Croatian terrorists" who in 1972 planned an attack in the Radusa mountains in the then Yugoslavia.

He further claimed that these Croats were being backed by ASIO. We now know this not to be true because of ASIO's acquiescence to UDBa/SDB in its set up of six Croats on false terrorism charges in Australia in 1979-80.

Curcic fits the role of agent provocateur/trouble maker used effectively by UDBa in destroying opposition abroad, rather than the Western stereotype of a debonair covert agent.

It was something that ASIO had trouble understanding. We tracked down the ASIO files in which Curcic is named, and not suprisingly Curcic admitted to ASIO he was an UDBa / KOS operative. It was met with disbelief.

The curious character, TANJUG correspondent Milos Curcic, came to the attention of ASIO in 1972-73...over his role in Yugoslav intelligence operations against Australia's Croat community.

Curcic also claimed he infiltrated the emigre Albanian community in Europe.