he Defense & Foreign Affairs Group of Publications, which started in 1972, circulate exclusively to senior government, defense, intelligence and industry officials in more than 170 countries worldwide. The Defense & Foreign Affairs periodicals include:

Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy (monthly print journal)Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy monthly journal — the official journal of the International Strategic Studies Association — in April 2006 celebrated its 34th anniversary as the only international, unclassified report dealing with global strategic issues from the perspective of Grand Strategy. Strategic Policy (originally called just Defense & Foreign Affairs) each edition has comprehensive analysis on topics of global strategic influence. From the beginning, the objective of the journal was to look at, and understand, the "big picture", but to do so in detail.The journal was founded by Gregory Copley and Dr Stefan Possony in San Francisco, California, in April 1972.This material — now read by some 170 governments at the highest levels because of its professional, non-partisan approach — offers unique insights and trend analysis. It was the only service to forecastREGULAR FEATURES: Each monthly edition carries comprehensive tables of recent international arms transfers, several pages of listings of key changes of governments worldwide, biographies of key leaders, defense industrial news, a column on psychological strategy, a column of news on defense — and strategy — related web sites and databases, and more. This is truly essential material for all involved in international security studies.

July 31, 1992

The Unspoken Concern Over Germany’s PathEuropean community (EC) politicians from many of the Community's 12 states — including Germany — are reluctant to discuss their very real concerns over the strategic direction which Germany is taking both itself and the EC as a whole. The reluctance to question some of Germany's recent actions is based on the embarrassment of most EC politicians to say anything which would revive memories of nazi Germany's aggressions which led to and included World War II. There is an almost universal consensus that discussing any issues which would automatically invoke parallels between today's Germany and Hitler's Germany of the 1930s and '40s would split the EC and once again make Germany an outsider. One German official told Defense & Foreign Affairs: "We must sublimate our 'Germanness' and become totally blended as a nation with Europe." The problem with this is that by becoming "Super Europeans," the Germans give the appearance of trying to become all of Europe, with the rights and interests of the smaller economies of the EC being totally subservient (and immaterial) to the German position. But the specific strategic policy questions which concern other Europeans and policy analysts in the United States and elsewhere include:

1. Unilateral and clandestine support for Croatia: Yugoslavia began its disintegration with the appointment of a Croatian head of the collective presidency a couple of years ago. The candidate, who was committed to the break-up of Yugoslavia, was heavily promoted by the EC. Many Yugoslavs agreed that each member republic should determine its own future, and -- despite the uncertainties inherent in any major transition -- the Yugoslav member states were on the way to determining a working arrangement which would have left some kind of customs

union, or confederation. This brief opportunity to achieve change more-or-less peacefully was lost when Bonn precipitately recognized the independence and sovereignty of Croatia, encouraging it to remove irrevocably any chance of a working confederation of Yugoslav states. German recognition of Croatia was its most decisive and unilateral foreign policy initiative since 1945.Germany has gone and continues to go further. It has either allowed or has provided, at a Government level, large numbers of German nationals to go to Croatia as mercenaries or advisers for the Croatian forces which are not only in Croatia, but which are controlling large areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Germany continues to provide significant quantities of former East German weapons systems, spares and ordnance to Croatia clandestinely, and in contravention of Germany law, via Hungary and other routes.German support for Croatia is a natural extension of the country's historical links with Croatia and its support for the wartime Ustaše fascist organization of the country's historical links with Croatia and its support for the wartime Ustaše fascist organization which has once again revived in Croatia and has used its symbols and remembrances of its own wartime exploits to threaten ethnic Serbs living in Croatia and hundreds of thousands of civilians in World War II -- was predictably defensive.There is now concern that Germany has dragged Europe, and possibly the US, into an intractable conflict in the Balkans, without considering the real objectives or reasons for such an action.

2. Germany's native efforts to undermine the US dollar: German Government officials have either provided, or have allowed to be provided, the tightly-controlled banknote printing paper to Iran to enable its mint to produce vast quantities of counterfeit, high-quality US banknotes. The Iranian distribution of vast quantities of forged US currency -- outlined and confirmed in the US Congress in recent months -- is aimed at helping Iran pay off some of its international debt while at the same time deliberately undermining confidence in the US dollar. The fact that Germany has supported this economic warfare against a NATO partner has shattered some US officials' faith in Germany after more than 40 years of alliance.

3. German involvement in nuclear and CBW proliferation: The German Government has done virtually nothing to stop German firms supplying the technology to states such as Iraq, Libya, Iran and others for weapons-related nuclear, chemical and possibly biological capability. Most senior intelligence analysts contacted by Defense & Foreign Affairs believe that the German Government has knowledge of the situation and could have controlled the transactions if it desired.

September 30, 1992

Fashion And Strategic Priorities Still Dictate Terms For State Recognition

Germany led the European Community in granting diplomatic recognition to an independent state of Croatia during the break-up of Yugoslavia recently. But none of the normal criteria, which have traditionally been applied to recognition of newly-independent states were, in fact, applied to the recognition of Croatia. It was difficult, then, for the rest of Europe -- and then the

United States, and so on -- to withhold recognition of Croatia, and then Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a result, it can now be argued that many other states, which have an equal or greater claim to true political independence, can pursue international recognition. Are they likely to receive it? Basically, it will depend on just who is doing the asking.

The break-up of the USSR into independent republics precipitated considerable debate within NATO states before they offered diplomatic recognition initially to the three Baltic states which broke away from the USSR. Things moved rapidly once the West's recognition of the Baltic states had been accepted by the USSR, and that empire itself had begun to dismember further into a loose association of republics which mutually accepted each other's independence. The West could then freely begin to recognize the former Soviet republics without fear of alienating the former Soviet (and later Russian) leaders who had once exercised control over the "new" independent entities.

The question was never raised, however, as to whether these states complied with the nebulous criteria which the West (or the United Nations) apparently established as to what makes a state acceptable and recognizable as an independent legal entity. Indeed, by accepting the USSR as a state, the West had specifically, for some seven decades, indicated that the member "republics" of the Union were not, in fact, recognizable as states.

Marshal Tito, when he led Yugoslavia for several decades after World War II, created administrative boundaries within his country which were never intended to represent legal borders for sub-states within the state of Yugoslavia. Indeed, these administrative lines on maps which Tito drew did not even represent the geographic boundaries of the ethnic groups they which they nominally -- for administration purposes -- represented. The sub-state of Yugoslav Macedonia, for example, did not represent the ethnic Macedonia of history. The borders of Croatia, or Serbia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, were not meant by Tito to represent the boundaries of a state.

And yet Germany, followed by the European Community and the West generally, recognized these lines on the map as diplomatically acceptable borders. Greece, to its credit, hesitated and opposed the EC's recognition of the Tito lines as representing legitimate, independent states. The US, too, was cautious, as it was about the recognition of much of the former USSR as newly-acceptable, and truly independent states.

But finally, the US and others have, without imposing any true legal, moral or historical criteria, accepted and diplomatically recognized the independence of all the former Soviet republics, and the former Yugoslav administrative areas. This wave of acceptances, or diplomatic recognitions, poses a significant number of problems for the world community. The first and most obvious is the fact that a significant number of other new states (or captive old states) can legitimately demand international recognition as to their true independence. The Tatars of Russia are one of several true nations within the former USSR who are demanding such recognition.

The Skills of India's Punjab are demanding international recognition of their independence, as are Indian-controlled Kashmiris. And virtually any of a hundred Indian states could equally demand such recognition. As could the Scots, the Welsh and the Navajos. And why not? They

have historical proof of their former independence and viability as independent states.

What, indeed, are the criteria for acceptance as an independent state? Control of one's own geography? Perhaps this is the strongest claim, but it may include allowance for conquest of that territory at some stage by conflict, which the tenets of the UN prohibit. Even so, the UN has ignored this tenet in the past, and will certainly do so again. Not self-determination, because most states do not meet this "requirement".

What is now more true than ever is that no state exists alone, in isolation or true independence. All are interdependent. All states, moreover, are the result of historical accretion of peoples, either by migration, evolution or conquest. The aborigines of Australia themselves displaced an earlier people.

So if today the independence of Croatia is accepted, or Azerbaijan, then so too must the independence of Transkei, Ciskei and Bophuthatswana, because they are now being threatened by renewed conquest by the African National Congress (ANC) which seeks to take over South Africa.

October 31, 1992

Illegal German Weapons to Croatia and Bosnia Fuel the Balkan Conflict

War in the former Yugoslav republics is being fuelled by a massive and complex pattern of weapons shipments to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, funded and organized by Germany. Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy has uncovered a widespread pattern of arms shipments which have been allowed to cross into Croatia and Bosnia with the tacit approval (and sometimes, apparently, direct support) of the governments of Germany and Austria, and possibly other states. As well, Germany has pointedly ignored the movement of German nationals into Croatia and Bosnia to fight against the Serbian residents of those two former Yugoslav states. All of the activity is in direct violation of German and Austrian law as well as being in violation of international embargoes against the supply of weapons to the conflict zone.

All of the actions support Germany's traditional ally, Croatia, against the Serbian populations still resident in what is now Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and against the rump of the Yugoslav Federation. The wide collection of information came to Defense & Foreign Affairs from diverse sources, including Defense & Foreign Affairs correspondents. Some, from other sources, came in written form in a variety of languages, without elaboration, often with only partial identification of some of the transactions, companies and weapons involved. GERMAN WEAPONS

October 4, 1991: A convoy of three truckloads of anti-tank weapons and 40,000 military uniforms arrived in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, from Bielefeld, Germany. Elements of the Croatian paramilitary forces have subsequently been found in German-made uniforms, and

supplied with very nutritious food from German military stocks.

Late October 1991: Four mobile workshops, six 155mm howitzers, and a number of 120mm mortars, along with70 US-made General Dynamics Stinger advanced, manportable surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), reached the port of Zadar, from German sources.

November 9, 1991: Two truckloads of GD Stinger SAMs and a quantity of blank jackets arrived in Karlovac, Croatia.

November 10, 1991: A truck with a variety of arms arrived in Zadar from Germany via Italy.

December 19, 1991: Pier 17 at the port of Rijeka was the site of unloading to 60 tanks (type unspecified, but believed to have been East German "T"-series tanks) from Germany.

January 8-9, 1992: Three MiG fighter aircraft, model unspecified, were received by the Croatian Armed Forces from Germany. The aircraft, from former East German stocks, included one new aircraft and two which had "previously been flown".

Mid-January 1992: Spare parts for Panavia Tornado aircraft were reportedly transported to Croatia from Germany in trucks. They were alleged to have been subsequently assembled and the aircraft (number unspecified, but believed to be more than one) are based now at Pleso airfield, Croatia.

Mid-January 1992: Weapons and military equipment worth about DM 5,000,000 were shipped to the port of Rijeka. They were in a container weighting 17.5 tons. The contents included night-vision sniper sights, night-vision field glasses, IC field glasses, optical sights for day shooting, radios for vehicle mounting, mobile radio sets, and a large amount of ammunition of various calibres. Three tons of these weapons were immediately sent to the 113th Brigade of the Croatian Army stationed at Sibenik.

January 14, 1992: Two truckloads of weapons (anti-tank rockets, mortars, Stinger SAMs) were delivered to Croatia. The weapons were reportedly purchased, source say, in Germany and Switzerland by the firm BHM from Basel.

January 15, 1992: Five truckloads of arms and ammunition were unloaded at the port of Rijeka. They were transported to, and store in, the village of Kukuljanovo, 12 km from Rijeka.

March 12, 1992: A truck transporting small arms arrived at Rijeka and continued on via Sibenik to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Early March 1992: Croatian Ministry of Defence bought 90 military trucks from the surplus stock of the French Army contingent in Germany through a German firm identified as Weba or Vebeg. The delivery was carried out in three shipments by the end of March via Austria and Slovenia. The source said that the transaction took place with the knowledge of French and German authorities.

April 10-13, 1992: A further 60 tanks from Germany (again, believed to be former East German "T"-series MBTs) were unloaded in the port of Koper and stored in the warehouses of Kukuljanovo near Rijeka.

April 21-22, 1992: The Croatian Government signed a contract with a German supplier for the delivery of various weapons and ordinance totalling US$ 3-million in value. This deal was signed through the Zagreb-based firm, Jugoart, according to sources, which has offices in Vienna. Jugoart reportedly arranges for deliveries of military equipment to the High Command of the Croatian Army from various suppliers in Germany.

May 1992: During the course of the month, Croatia was supplied with 1,010 Stinger SAMs, 2,000 Armbrust anti-tank rockets, 47,100 AK-47 Kalashnikov automatic assault rifles with 500 rounds per weapons, 2,550 RPG-7 manportable antitank rocket launchers, and 60 MiG combat aircraft engines. These weapons and supplies were delivered to Croatia through Italy and via the border posts at Kozina and Sezana.

July 20, 1992: A shipment of 100 automatic rifles, two sniper rifles, 10 radios and 260,000 rounds of 7.62 mm rifle ammunition was delivered from Stuttgart, Germany, to Prozor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the use of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO).

July-August 1992: Sources claim that Fadil Lipovaca, a former manager of the Moscow office of the firm Union invest, Sarajevo, and now owner of the private firm Carinthia (headquartered in Ljubljana), paid some US$ 150,000 for the purchase of arms for Muslim paramilitary forces. Part of this sum was allegedly provided by the Government of Turkmenistan through Industry and Energy Minister Kerimov. As well, a man named as Edo Bolic, manager of the Moscow office of the Sarajevo firm Vranica, reportedly paid US$170,000 to buy weapons for the Muslim forces in Bosnia and Herzegovian. Payments were made to the account of the LHB-Internationale Hondelsbank AG, HTH-Unioninvest Import-Export GmbH, Frankfurt-Main, No. 748.301, BLZ 500 308 00.

Sources indicated that most of the purchases and deliveries of weapons and military equipment for Croatian irregulars were effected with the assistance of the German firms, FABA, FOGA and Franconia-Jagd. The Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank AG in Darmstradt were, in most cases, used for the deposit and transactions involving large sums of money intended for arms purchases. AUSTRIAN WEAPONS

October 7, 1991: An Adria Airways DC-9 transport aircraft landed at Sarajevo from Klagenfurt. It carried "large amounts" of Heckler & Koch (German-made) automatic rifles and handguns for the Bosnian Ministry of the Interior.

Early October 1991: Croatia's Ministry of Defense paid US$ 61-million into an account at the Austrian bank Die Erst Osterreichische Spar Kasse-Bank for the purchase of T-72 main battle tanks, and in late October, the Croatian ministry requested the Austrian firm identified as AWDM to provide Croatia with spare parts for these tanks.

Late October 1991: The Croatian Ministry of Defense bought, through a firm identified as Xandill International Ltd. Consulting, headquartered in Vienna, 3,500 automatic rifles and 30,000 handgrenades worth US$ 1,750,000.

July 27-28, 1992: Ten MiG-21 fighter aircraft and two Saab aircraft were relocated from Austria to Croatia.

The ammunition factory at Baden, Austria, has since the beginning of September 1992 reportedly delivered, on a daily basis, ammunition to the Croatian Armed Forces and to the Territorial Defence Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. HUNGARIAN WEAPONS

Weapons and military equipment from Hungary were exported to Croatia on several occasions in 1991 in a variety of aircraft -- including agricultural aircraft -- belonging to Croatia and Hungary. Between September 25 and 27, 1991, and October 6 to 8, 1991, an airlift was established between Beremend, Bilje and Osijek for the transport of small arms and ammunition aboard AN-2 aircraft and towed gliders. Hungarian authorities also provided security for these overflights by electronic jamming of Yugoslav air defence surveillance radars.

September-October 1991: A Hungarian, named by sources as Karol Gala, owner of the firm Universum SD, based in Budapest, allegedly brought into Croatia from Poland (via Hungary) two truckloads of arms and ordinance, including 200 RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers, 2,500 RPG-7 rockets, 2,000 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 2,000 handgrenades, and 600,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition for the AK-47s. The trucks were reportedly rented by a Prague resident, identified as Mikulas Nadasi.

End September 1992: Hungary allegedly delivered to Croatia a surface-to-surface missile system, known as R-300, for which the Croatian Ministry of Defence paid US$ 1.5-million through the Croatian companies INJA, Astra and Pliva. SWISS WEAPONS

Croatia purchased, during 1991, some 120 T-72 main battle tanks worth US$ 90-million through the Swiss firms Eram Bau Montage AG and F-S International LTS (Ltd.?) of Hong Kong. The transaction was carried out, according to sources, through the Austrian bank, Rossler Bank AG, in Vienna. The tanks, formerly in service with the Soviet Army, were supplied to Croatia during October 1991.

January 14, 1992: Two truckloads of arms -- allegedly including rocket launchers, mortars and US-made GD Stinger SAMs -- arrived in Croatia from Basel. The weapons were allegedly bought in Germany by the Basel firm, BHM, and their delivery itinerary was Basel-Zurich-Gotthard-Venice-Trieste-Pula. On the following day, January 15, four more vans of small arms ammunition came from Zurich via Hungary. 

CZECHOSLOVAK WEAPONS

Prague was one of the major centres of illegal supplies of weapons and defence equipment to Croatia during the second half of 1991 and the first half of 1992. Sources claimed that the following firms were involved:

Omnipol, Unimex, the "Bank of Bohemia", the Prague offices of the Swedish firms Scandinavia Invest and Abarent, the Prague office of the Swiss firm Computer Graphic Systems, two other companies from Switzerland, some Arab embassies (including the Syrian Embassy in Prague). Contracts were concluded for large quantities of defence equipment, including: 50,000 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 20,000 M-16 assault rifles, 70-million rounds of ammunition, 1,000 RPG-7 launches and 5,000 rockets, 100 "guided rocket" launchers. Negotiations are know to be underway in Prague for the supply of heavy weapons and aircraft.

February 1992: During February, and earlier, in late 1991, the Czechoslovak firm Omnipol allegedly supplied R-300 surface-to-surface missiles to Croatia, installing the weapons in the area of Kinkovo village near Slavonski Brod, Croatia. OTHER SOURCES

The Vatican Bank, in 1991, reportedly paid through the trust of the institute for the Dissemination of Religion, US$ 1,988,300, via the International Handel Bank in the Netherlands, for the purchase of weapons in Beirut on behalf of Croatia. [Croatia is Catholic; Serbia is Orthodox. -- Ed.]

November 16, 1991: Croatia shipped through the port of Gdansk, Poland, 16,500 AK-47 assault rifles and 5-million rounds of ammunition, 175 RPG-7 antirank rocket launchers and related rounds; 150 M-82 mortars and 3,500 rounds; M-120 mortars and ammunition. Total value US$ 12.5-million. Payment was allegedly through Lajbic Bank and Banca Nationale de Milano, of Italy.

November 1991: The ships Kumrovec and Kozara, owned by the firm Danube Lloyds, of Sisak, allegedly shipped arms and ammunition from Bulgaria and Romania to Croatia.

December 2, 1991: A large shipment of weapons was sent from Paris to the firm PRO in Zagreb, Croatia. The shipment was by four trucks bearing Greek registration.

Early January 1992: The Zagreb firm, Astra, contracted for the acquisition of weapons in Turkey to be supplied to Croatia and the civil defence units of Bosnia and Herzegovian. The purchases were worth DM1,600,000 and the delivery was made by sea.

Early January 1992: A deal was made to ship 250 anti-aircraft missiles and 25 launchers (unspecified type) to Croatia from Poland, with the agreement of the Polish authorities, according to sources. The Customs certificate for this shipment was issued in late January 1992, indicating a dealer from the Philippines as the buyer. The airline "General and Aviation Services", registered in Nigeria, was indicated as the shipper.

January 11, 1992: A vessel carrying weapons left the port of Junieh in Beirut. These arms were bought from the Lebanese Christian militia headed by Shamir Zhazhra. The weight of these weapons and equipment was estimated at between 2,000 to 4,00 tons, and included a range of supplies from small arms to howitzers. Lebanon, as one of the largest illegal suppliers of weapons to the Croatian forces, has so far exported US$ 20-million worth of defence items to Croatia.

Early January 1992: Croatia ordered from Chile 100 UK-manufactured Shorts Blowpipe manportable SAMs. These SAMs had reportedly been upgraded in Chile. The same order included 500 Mamba anti-tank rockets valued at US$ 2,056,298. The order was reportedly placed through the export company "Fabricas y maestranzas del ejercito avida Pedro Montt 1606". The indicated buyer on the end user certificate was a Sri Lankan firm, and Croatia made the payment through Banco Central de Chile.

January 23, 1992: A ship bound for Rijeka was loaded in the port of Odessa with assault rifles, guns, sniper rifles, mortars, anti-tank rockets, SAMs and ordnance.

Mid-August 1992: A vessel from Turkey entered the port of Split carrying arms for the Croatian and Muslim forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

August 15, 1992: A Turkish Air Force aircraft flying humanitarian relief to Sarajevo also brought an unidentified amount of weapons and other military equipment for the Bosnian territorial defence units.

August 23-24, 1992: Three Boeing 747s of the Iranian Air Force landed at Zagreb and Sarajevo airports carrying weapons in unknown quantities and types. United Nations (UNPROFOR) officials were allegedly unable to inspect the cargoes.

Mid-October 1992:I Two ships carrying weapons for Bosnian and Herzegovinan Muslims started their voyages from Istanbul on October 10, 1992, and it has been established that one of these ships reached the port of Ploce, Croatia, on October 13, 1992.

The Bulgarian firm, Kintex, reportedly mediates the sale of Russian-made weapons to Boznia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Through its brokerage efforts, 25 tons of weapons and ammunition are reportedly ferried each week from Bulgaria, via Romania and Hungary. A larger shipment of weapons and related equipment from Bulgaria reached Split on October 16, 1992, however. These weapons were for the use of the Zenica-based units of the Muslim Army in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The highest officials in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia are directly involved in the delivery of weapons to Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to sources. These include Prime Minister J. Drnovsek, Defence Minister J. Jansa, and Interior Minister I. Bavcar.

In the first part of 1992, these officials allegedly signed, through their agents, agreements with Jerko Doko, Bosnia's Defence Minister, and Ragib Merdzanic, adviser to President Alija

Izetbegovic, for the delivery of 30,000 AK-47s at DM500 each, 20,000 Italian Beretta 92 handguns at DM750 each, 6-million rounds of ammunition (for the rifles and handguns), and an unidentified amount of Motorola radio equipment, winter camouflage uniforms, four-wheel drive vehicles, and other military equipment.

Representatives of the Bosnian Government paid for the weapons with funds donated by Islamic countries. At least 13,000 of the AK-47s have been delivered of the amounts ordered.

At the beginning of October 1992, Croatia concluded a business deal with Venezuela and Brazil, offering three oil tankers for two squadrons of Embraer Tucano turboprop training aircraft. A group from the Croatian Ministry of Defense was reported in Brazil in October and November with several pilots to test the aircraft.

Defense & Foreign Affairs has additional material on foreign mercenaries, defense transactions and other related intelligence on the violation of the international embargoes on defense materiel shipments to the combatants in the current Balkan conflict. Much of this material will appear in the next edition -- December 1992 -- of Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy.

October 31, 1992

Croatia Acts as the Nexus of a New Arms TradeUS Congressional sources have identified a widespread trade in arms and nuclear technology centered around the State of Croatia. Much of it has to do with the illegal acquisition of weapons, largely through Germany and Austria, for Croatia's own use in the war in the Balkans. But it also involves the trafficking of nuclear technology and radioactive materials through Croatia. US Congressional sources told Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy that a German woman, Rita Draxler, then operating out of Vienna, was one of the primary weapons suppliers to Croatia and Slovenia, smuggling the weapons in from Germany and Eastern Europe. Among the major deals she brokered, according to the sources, was a US$60-million deal, signed on September 27, 1991, for US-build General Dynamics Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and Euromissile (Franco-German) man-portable Milan anti-tank guided weapons. The weapons were allegedly shipped from Germany to Croatia, and payment was arranged through a Liechtenstein-based bank. The sources also said that Rita Draxler was also involved in smuggling radioactive materials.

In a separate deal, apparently involving Draxler, the major German defense firm, MBB, sold Armbrust anti-tank rockets to both Croatia and Serbia, using a Singapore end-user certificate. "For larger items from Eastern Europe, such as tanks, aircraft, etc., Draxler uses certificates identifying the items as historical pieces on their way to military museums," a Congressional report said. As well, in the early Autumn of 1991, Rita Draxler reportedly cooperated with a Croatian who identified himself as Marijan Sokolovic in a series of weapons deals with Poland, involving the shipment of 50 tons of weapons for Croatia. On that deal, the Zagreb Government could not come up with payment, but Draxler said that it would not be a problem if Sokolovic could arrange for Zagreb to instead provide assistance in the smuggling of uranium and plutonium as an alternative form of payment. As a result, Croatia has begun to emerge as a major

component in the international nuclear smuggling network from Europe to the radical states of the Third World. Croatia's primary role, according to Congressional documents, is to provide safe storage and false documentation to facilitate the shipment of materials.

According to the terms of the first deal, Sokolovic was to provide logistical support for the transfer of nuclear material from Siberia to Iraq. On the Russian side, the network was allegedly organized by senior officers of the KGB, led by Vitali Tarchuk/Fedorchuk, and the GRU led by Oleg Petrovsky. These men had access to nuclear materials including, allegedly, tactical nuclear warheads. All the weapons were allegedly stolen from CIS Army depots in Siberia, primarily from the Irkutsk area. Although Iraq was the network's major initial customer, Libya was apparently soon to become a customer. Marijan Sokolovic was reportedly in charge of the underground trade in nuclear materials for these networks, and arranged secluded and safe storage and inspection facilities in Sebenico, Croatia. From there, the material for Iraq, including key components for the nuclear weapons program of Iraq, was driven by truck to Baghdad via Bulgaria. The shipments are reportedly continuing. Bulgarian truck drivers working for the Somat company in the Summer of 1992 were reportedly suffering from several rare diseases attributed to prolonged exposure to "dangerous toxic cargoes", primarily "chemical warfare agents" and "highly toxic radioactive substances" which they had been transporting to Iraq from Germany, Italy and Croatia since the Spring of 1991.

The volume of nuclear traffic became so large by November 1991 that the network was having problems meeting delivery schedules, a problem complicated by repeated security failures. Italian intelligence, in mid-October 1991, intercepted negotiations for the sale of nuclear materials and bomb-making tools in Como [A measurement tool with traces of bomb-grade plutonium was also captured in a police raid]. The Italians also learned that one of the network's bankers, Karl Friederich Federer, kept a stockpile of 30kg of uranium and 10kg of plutonium in a Zurich bank vault. The uranium was seized on November 11, 1991, in suitcases in the boot of the car of Friedrich Refner, the honorary consul of Honduras, also reportedly a KGB agent in Swizterland. But despite this setback Sokolovic was able to ship another large plutonium load to Sebenico. His name was discovered during the Como raids and he was arrested in November 1991 in Vienna on his way to Croatia. When caught, he was carrying 2.8kg of plutonium. He was released in February 1992. Meanwhile Rita Draxler continued to attempt to sell the plutonium, which, she said, "could be used for weapons", and red mercury, on Sokolovic's behalf. Italian intelligence sources discovered continued activity related to nuclear materials going through Sebenico. Routine and growing involvement by Croatian authorities to provide safe haven for the shipments and storage has meant that there are now fewer interceptions. Rita Draxler reportedly "escaped to Germany" before she could be arrested. As well, the Congressional reports cite the involvement of a Croatian-born Canadian, Anton Kikas, who, in 1991, arranged Croatia's elaborate system for the clandestine purchase and delivery of South African-made Armscor weapons, using aircraft leased by Uganda Airlines Corporation.

October 31, 1992

A Sane Balkan Policy

By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS. Virtually ever strategic policymaker in the world must bear some blame for the developing war which is enveloping the Balkans as a result of the disintegration of the Yugoslav federation from its original boundaries. All of us? We have made this an issue for the United Nations, a global body, and all the peacekeeping and peace-enforcing which the Balkan conflict will entail. And yet we are once again allowing the merits of the situation to be decided by the international media, and, de facto, by the forces best able to manipulate images for the media. Thus far we have seen a runaway grasp on the media exercised by Croatia and its allies, particularly Germany. But we must not allow this to color how the rest of the world reacts to the Balkans crisis.

Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy has this month prepared some information on the illegal supply of weapons which is currently feeding the Balkan conflict. Principally, it shows how Germany and other states are providing massive weapons support to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, in contravention of domestic and international law. Next month we will detail the extent of foreign mercenary involvement in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, again an activity undertaken with the blessing of the German and other governments. Germany, it is true, has a traditional geopolitical role in the Balkans, as does Austria. But this should not blind the rest of the world which could be avoided or ameliorated by the judicious exercise of good intelligence collection, unbiased all-source analysis, and policymaking which dares to fly in the face of populist media reports.

What will happen if Greece sees no alternative to military intervention, for example, in the former Yugoslav state of Macedonia? How will this affect NATO? Two NATO states, Greece and Turkey, have different interests in the Balkans, both with historical and modern origins. Can Turkey stand by and watch Iran (and other Muslim states) attempt to seize the Islamic battle standard in the fighting in Bosnia, where many Muslims are involved?

Who among the European community or NATO policymakers is aware of the full Balkan mosaic, its historical and current attitudes. Why is the US prepared to allow Europe to take the lead on the Balkans crisis when Washington has traditionally been called upon in this century to restore the peace in Europe when it shatters into war? And why is Germany persistently prepared to support Croatian -- and Iranian -- attempts to inflame the overall conflict?

Defense & Foreign Affairs has never been afraid, in its 20 years of existence, to take an unpopular view in order to force a balanced argument of a vital strategic situation. In this current crisis, Serbia has consistently failed to make its case to the West of the United Nations. Its leaders, with the exception of the Prime Minister, were caught off-guard by the crisis. But does this mean that their situation should not be heard and understood?

December 31, 1992

Croatia’s New Armed Forces: From Creation, Straight into Operation

Complete details of the battle order of the new Armed Forces of Croatia are not yet known. Indeed, the complete connection between the official Armed Forces and the various paramilitary units in Croatia and the Croatian areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also not clear. However, the Armed Forces of Croatia were fully functioning and equipped when the state came into being as an independent state in 1990.

There are now 40,000 Croatian Army troops (as opposed to militia or Bosnian Croatian forces) stationed outside the State of Croatia. These troops, all deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in defiance of United Nations edicts on the presence of foreign (none-UN) forces in that country, comprise 10 to 12 brigades, at least 60 main battle tanks, and 80 heavy artillery pieces. The infantry units are heavily equipped with man-portable systems, including US General Dynamics Stinger surface-to-air missiles, Armbrust anti-tank rockets and Euromissile Milan anti-tank guided weapons. The Western systems were obtained against the ban on arms transfers to the region; mostly from Germany, or with German help.

The Croatian Armed Forces exceed 170,000 men, mostly in the appr. 77 Army brigades. Croatia has an available man-power pool of 1.888-million men between 15 and 49 years of age, with 43,000 more reaching military age each year. A small number of patrol vessels remained in Croatia; they were under repair when the Federal Navy withdrew to Montenegrin ports in Yugoslavia. Croatia inherited ship-building and repair facilities on the Dalmatian coast. The JNA Air Force withdrew entirely into the new borders of Yugoslavia after Croatian independence, leaving only airfield infrastructure. Croatia has, subsequently acquired at least two squadrons of MiG-21 combat aircraft and other military aircraft. Two main military airfields, one on Krk island, the other at the port city of Pula, have been closed to UN observers, but Defense & Foreign Affairs learned that these airfields accept daily flights bringing foreign mercenary troops to join Croats and Muslims in Bosnia. The military airfield at Zagreb also brings in such flights. Even during the peace process, on the night of December 29-30, 1992, 10 flight loads of troops came into Krk and Pula.

Part of the Croatian rationale for attacking garrisons of the JNA which had been stationed in Croatia at the time of independence was to seize weapons stockpiles before the JNA could withdraw.

Pres. Franjo Tudjman, a former general in the old JNA, actively participated in planning Croatia's new military policies and strategies as did Martin Spergelj, the first Interior Minister, also a former JNA general.

December 31, 1992

For Serbians, Fears of a German Axis Rise For The Third Time This Century

Serbs can cite strong feelings and many reasons for their concern over Germany's support for Croatia's new war against them. Associate Publisher T. W. Carr looks at the historical patterns

which led to the current Balkan conflict.

By T. W. Carr, Associate Publisher. Serbs have had to fight for survival as a people in every major European conflict this Century, from the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, through World War II, and again today. Significantly, the Serbs never began any of the conflicts, and in all of them, Serbian sentiment notes, their enemies always included a German, Croat and Vatican axis.

On each occasion conflict erupted during a period of German expansion, irrespective of whether policy was implemented by military, political or economic means.

Ante Pavelic, the extreme right wing nationalist who later became Croatia's first Fuhrer, stated in 1927 "How can Croatia -- full of western culture, Latin and German culture, Italian humanistic culture and German romanticism -- co-exist with the Orthodox, rough, savage and ruthless Serbs?"

Less than two years later he left Yugoslavia for Italy where he soon established his "Ustasha: the Croatian Revolutionary Organisation". It set up training camps and ran a campaign of terror and assassinations, including the murder of Yugoslavia's King Aleksandar during a visit to France. Ante Pavelic was tried and convicted in absence for Aleksandar's murder, yet Italy continued providing a safe haven for him and his Ustashi. When Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, Pavelic adopted the nazi racial policies which accorded with his views aired in 1927.

For 20 months after the outbreak of World War II, Yugoslavia walked a tightrope and stayed neutral until the Cvetkovic-Macek Government joined the Tripartite Pact on March 25, 1941.

Two days later, the Serbian General, Dusan Simovic, aided by British intelligence, headed a popular revolt against the Government's action.

Hitler reacted by diverting massive forces from the Eastern Front to attack Belgrade on April 6, using 450 bombers in a dawn raid. There were 51 divisions of Axis forces, supported by 2,170 combat aircraft, in the attack on Yugoslavia.

On April 10, the 14th Panzer division rolled into Zagreb enthusiastically welcomed by Croatians. Within hours, working to a well-prepared plan, Dr Edmund Vesenmager (Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop's envoy from Berlin) proclamed on Zagreb radio the formation of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) under Poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelic.

Seven days later the Axis forces controlled all Yugoslavia, and, in the punitive carve-up, Hitler and Italian leader Benito Mussolini created the ISC proper, allocating to it Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem and part of Dalmatia (the territory claimed today by Croatia).

In the meantime, only 36 hours after the panzers had arrived, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Azgreb, Alojzije Stepinac, endorsed the proclamation on behalf of the Church. Within a few days he issued an instruction to the Catholic clergy, ". . . to work with dedication for the fostering and promotion of the new Independent State of Croatia". Pope Pious XII then appointed Archbishop Stepinac as Senior Military Chaplain. A Catholic priest was subsequently

assigned to serve with every Ustashi military unit.

On taking office, the Poglavnik stated: "It is the duty of the Ustashi movement to ensure that the ISC is ruled always and everywhere only by Croatians, so that they are the sole master of all the real and spiritual good in their own land. Within Croatia there can be no compromise between the Croatian people and others who are not pure Croats; Ustashi must extinguish all trace of such people."

The campaign of ethnic cleansing had begun earlier, less than three weeks after Hilter's creation of Croatia. It commenced with the slaughter of prominent Serbs and leaders of the Orthodox Church. On May 5, 1941, the Bishop of Banja Luka, together with archpriests from Bosanska Gradiska and Dusan Subotic, were tortured in an attempted conversion. When this failed, all were murdered in cold blood. A similar fate was dealt to the Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia, Petar Zimonic, and to Sava Trlaic, the Bishop of Gomji Karlovac.

More than 200 Orthodox priests were slaughtered in rapid succession following the murder of the Metropolitan of Zagreb, Dositej Vasic. On August 24, 1941, Zagreb issued administrative orders concerning the arrest of the remaining Orthodox priests and monks. Perhaps the most significant example of state and church collaboration in thnic cleansing was Friar Miroslav Filipovic. This Catholic priest doubled as the commander for four months of Jasenovac, Europe's largest concentration camp located on 210sq.km. along the banks of the river Sava. [See story, page seven.] 1945: Escaping Europe

The genocide continued unabated throughout the war. Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were murdered with mediaeval ferocity. More than a million Serbs of all ages were butchered in their homes, in forests and in concentration camps. Another 250,000 were forcefully converted to Catholicism, and a further 300,000 or so were driven out of Croatia into the remote mountain areas of Serbia.

But as the war drew to a close in Europe, communist partisan leader Josip Broz "Tito" took control of Yugoslavia. Under cover of darkness, Ante Pavelic fled across the Austrian border into the British Zone, at that time under the control of Field Marshal Alexander. Europe was awash with refugees, more than 18-million, most of whom were displaced persons, but hiding amongst them were thousands of war criminals.

Tito wanted Pavelic, and in July 1945 he informed the British that Pavelic was hiding in their zone. The British replied stating "every effort is being made to find him". Tito responded month after month with specific allegations as to Pavelic's shifting hiding places: villas, monasteries. Irritated, the British Foreign Office rebutted Tito's allegations: "The allegations are ungracious and unfounded. At no time has Pavelic been in British custody, or his whereabouts known to the British authorities."

An internal Foreign Office memo was circulated indicating that "it is becoming increasingly clear that quislings are finding refuge under the wing of the church".

This was probably the outcome of an intelligence report on the activities of Father Traganavic, a Croatian Roman Catholic priest who held high office in the Ustashi Government. He was, although classified as a war criminal, permitted by the Allies to tour European refugee camps throughout the second half of 1945 and during 1946. Ostensibly his task was to render religious ministry to refugees, but in fact he was making covert contact with thousands of Ustashi hiding within the ranks of true refugees. He arranged for new Red Cross identity cards to be issued, and at the same time organised a political intelligence network to help Ustashi and other war criminals. US intelligence codenamed the network and its escape routes "ratlines".

In December 1946, an intelligence report from Austria admitted that Pavelic had been hiding in the British Zone, but had escaped with colleagues dressed as priests to Milan during May 1946. From Milan, using false identity cards, they had travelled south to the Vatican. Pavelic used a Spanish passport in the name "Don Pedro Gona". Gaining Red Cross identity cards was easy for Traganavic. Two validating authorities per country were appointed by the International Red Cross. In the case of Italy, one was the Vatican Refugee Committee.

The Vatican Refugee Committee was in fact the Brotherhood of San Geronimo, the Croatian Collegiate within the Vatican. Father Traganavic was the Secretary of the Brotherhood, and he was also the Croatian National Representative of the Red Cross. This was a strange double appointment for a man branded a war criminal by Tito's Government. A former Croatian Ustashi diplomat, Evor Omrechanan, based in Rome, is on record saying he had no problem in obtaining an identity card for Pavelic from the Vatican to enable him to make the journey from Milan to Rome.

By January 1947, the US Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) knew that Pavelic was being sheltered at the Vatican. A special agent called Gower infiltrated the San Geronomo Brotherhood and discovered that this Vatican Collegiate was doing much more than just harbouring Pavelic. Within its walls was a complete Ustashi unit where naxi salutes were given.

On April 11, 1947, the US CIC planned to capture Pavelic from a Vatican library or while en route in a Vatican car. However, Pavelic stayed one step ahead of CIC, thanks to a double agent planted in the CIC by Father Traganavic.

In July, the CIS again ordered that Pavelic was to be taken. One week later the operational order was countermanded, across it was a handwritten instruction "hands off".

Within days Pavelic had a Hungarian passport under the name of Pablo Eranias and a visa for Argentina. In Genoa, another priest, Father Fichanico, arranged a berth for Pavelic to sail to security adviser to Argentine President Juan Peron who subsequently gave visas to 35,000 Ustashi escaping from Europe thanks to the "ratlines" intelligence network organised by Father Traganavic and the Brotherhood of San Geronimo. FIFTY YEARS ON

The first convention of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on February 26, 1990, in Zagreb marked the rebirth of the Ustasha and the rehabilitation of the Independent State of Croatia. All

the killing and ethnic cleansing policy implementation flowed from that day in a re-run of the events of 50 years before.

On May 30, 1990, the HDZ was elected to power in the Sobor (parliament) and Dr Franjo Tudjman became President of the Republic. At an open air rally in Jelacic Square, the Archbishop Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, blessed a baby's cradle to symbolise the re-birth of the ISC.

On December 22, 1990, the Sabor proclaimed the independence of Croatia and summarily adopted a new constitution under which Serbs lost their nation status, regulated to a national minority.

The HDZ took a series of steps during 1990 to purify Coratia by eradicating the Serbian identity. The cyrillic script was banned, Croatian became the only official language, Serbian associations were abolished, literature was cleansed of Serbian authors and Serbs were not permitted to operate their own TV and radio programmes. On another front, Serbs lost their jobs in the police and security organs as well as in Government posts.

As the same time, World War II history was re-written and street names changed to glorify Ustashi by eliminating any trace of the genocide. T-shirts showing Ustashi symbols such as the infamous Black Legion went on sale to young Croatians.

Arms and defence equipment flowed into Croatia directly and indirectly from Germany. Mass arming of HDZ members took place, the police force was expanded and the National Guard was re-equipped as an Ustashi army. May 28, 1991, saw a nazi style rally of the "Croatian Armed Forces" at Zagreb football stadium.

Then the killing of individual Serbs started. Memories of 1941 stirred and the exodus began. The day after the rally, Serbs from Borovo Selo fled from Croatia. The killings, which started early in April 1991 at Plitvice, escalated during July, August and September. At Vukovar, Serbs were subjected to torture, rape, and murder for many months before the conflict was presented to the world as brutal aggression by the Yugoslav Army against peace-loving Croations. The murders are documented and proven.

Around 5,000 Serbs were rounded up and held in the Borovo footware factory complex at Vukovar. From this Croatian concentration camp hundreds of Serb men, women and children were taken out and slaughtered. Mutilated bodies thrown into the river were carried downstream into Serbian territory. These were recovered, photographed and their identities painstakingly discovered.

October 1991 saw the arrest of 20 Orthodox priests, including his Holiness Lukijan, Bishop of Slavonia, yet another replay of 1941 actions.

Having arrested their Bishop, Croatian authorities during November expelled some 25,000 Serbs from Western Slavonija. At the same time (October 29) the inhabitants of 24 Serbian villages were ordered to vacate their homes within 48 hours by the Croatian authorities in Slavonska Pozega. Seventeen of the Serbian villages were razed in Croatian ethnic cleansing operations

which drove another 10,000 Serbs into Bosnia.

No less than 189 villages in nine communes south of the River Drava were completely cleansed of Serbs during 1991 and early 1992.

Church destruction went hand in glove with the arrest of Orthodox priests and the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia. By the end of October 1991 alone, more than 70 churches were completely destroyed or severely damaged. [More than 300 have now been destroyed in the current fighting.] On September 28, Croatian paramilitary forces demolished the Baroque complex of the Pakrac Bishops built in 1732. They set fire to the seminary, and in the cathedral thy burnt icons and the bishops' library containing almost 6,000 books, many of historical importance. Fifty of the books dated back to the 18th Century and included a unique copy of a Sabornik, printed in Venice circa 1536.

As in 1941, it was Germany and the Vatican which brought Croatia to life, the second time by prematurely recognising Croatia as an independent state with the right to cede from Yugoslavia.

Both authorities pushed members of the EC and the international community into recognising Croatia. At the same time, both manipulated the mass media, presenting the Serbs as leftover communists trying to subvert the pro-Western democracies of Croatia and Slovenia.

Serbian officials tried to tell the EC and other members of the international community what Germany was doing in Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe.

Plans to build a superhighway in the north from Hamburg to St Petersburgh are aimed at giving Germany domination of the Baltic. A similar highway planned to link Budapest with Trieste and Rijeka via Zagreb is perceived to provide the infrastructure that gives the projected German economic "empire" access to the Mediterranean.

German law preventing foreign military action helped Germany stay out of the costly military operations of the Gulf War. The same will be true of any conflict in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. So the Balkans conflict costs Germany virtually nothing, while it drains the US and UK economies.

Serbs report that Germany is actively lobbying some 40 countries in Africa and the Middle East to support a forthcoming German bid to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

As far as the Serbs and Yugoslavs are concerned, the German Government started the present conflicts in Yugoslavia and has used its influence and media channels to help distort the truth and prevent a workable form of peace coming about. There is much evidence to support the Yugoslav point of view.

 

December 31, 1992

STRATEGIC POLICY INTERVIEW: COL.-GEN. ZIVOTA PANIC

Yugoslavia Braces For A New Conflict Which Is Being Imposed From Abroad

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the new Yugoslavia, Col.-Gen. Zivota Panic, spoke at length with Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy about the threats of a war which is being wished on his country, regardless of any actions his own State could take.

Strategic Policy Editor-in-Chief Gregory Copley and Associate Publisher Bill Carr met this month with the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, Colonel-General Zivota Panic, to pose questions not answered -- or not asked -- in the Western professional and general media about the strategic situation in the Balkans. What the Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy discussions with Col.-Gen. Panic and many other senior and junior Yugoslav officers revealed was not, as has been widely stated in the West, that Yugoslav and Serb leaders doubted the West's resolve to act in the Balkan crisis. Rather, there was a general belief that the West would and could act, despite all credible intelligence which should ensure that there was no just cause for such action. There was also a recognition that if war was imposed on Yugoslavia despite all protestations and efforts to avert conflict, then the Yugoslav Armed Forces would prosecute the national defence on the widest possible canvas.

General Panic, the secession of some of the member republics of the former Yugoslav Federation has meant that there is no clear picture now -- as far as much of the international community is concerned -- as to what comprises the Yugoslav Armed Forces (JNA). Can you give some idea of how the Federal Armed Forces have changed in structure, size, equipment and mission from, say, two years ago?

As you know, the international community has recognised, as independent states, three of the republics of the former SFRY: Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The last contingent of soldiers of the former Yugoslav Peoples' Army who were citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, left Bosnia-Herzegovina on May 19, 1992. There are now no members of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia whatsoever deployed outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which today consists of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro.

In July 1991, formational strength of the former military force [ie: of the old Yugoslavia] was 165,592 soldiers and ground 40,000 officers. The peacetime strength of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia is now between 100,000 and 120,000, of which half are professionals.

Numerous changes have been made from the old military structure. We have a new defence concept. A qualitative personnel change has been implemented and instead of the four Military Districts, which we formerly had, there are now three Armies [Army Groups with geographic areas of responsibility] and two other, separate services, the Air Force (RV) and Air Defence Force (PVO) [as a single service], and the Navy. The territorial component of the Armed Forces has been abandoned, and the partisan echelon disbanded.

The Armed Forces of Yugoslavia is now composed of Serbian-Montenegran recruits and officers with high combat spirit and power, based on the best of the wartime traditions of these two peoples. So a number of essential conceptual as well as other changes -- personnel, organisation, legal and materiel and technical -- have already been introduced.

The basic task of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, then, is the defence of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

To what extent are the Federal Armed Forces still operating outside the new borders now generally accepted, at least for the time being of the Yugoslav Federation (ie: Serbia and Montenegro)?

Not only do they not perform combat operations, but there isn't a single unit or member of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia outside the borders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We have been emphasising this fact for some time now, but the media in the West keeps accusing us of participating in the armed conflict outside our country. It is clear from their reporting that the editors in the West do not wish to accept this fact.

There seems to be confusion as to the operations of the Yugoslav Federal Armed Forces, the forces of the Serbian republic, and the forces of Serbs living in Bosnia. Can you say what connections exist between these three sets of forces, including any joint operational or command structure or operations, and equipment sharing etc.?

The Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been living in that Republic for centuries, and make up more than 30 percent of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. They are spread over, and legally own, more than half of the territory of that Republic. [In fact, more than 65 percent -- Ed.]

The Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina have formed their own state -- the Serb Republic -- and their own armed forces in order to resist being forced to leave their land. The military arm of the Serb Republic [not to be confused with the Republic of Serbia in Yugoslavia -- Ed.] is fighting the Muslim and Croatian Armed Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia does not have any military formations in Bosnia or Herzegovina. So it is incorrect and senseless to speak about Yugoslavia's direct involvement in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Claims that (Yugoslav) Serbia is responsible for the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina are absolutely groundless. The help provided to the Bosnian Serbs by Yugoslavia is humanitarian, not military.

Neither Serbia, nor the Federal Republic Yugoslavia, are involved in that war. The war is not an act of Serbian aggression, but a complex issue involving competing religions and inter-ethnic and civil armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And the initiator of the conflict was the Croatian and Muslim coalition.

The new Armed Forces of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia have been acquiring

massive amounts of defence equipment since the Balkan conflict flared up. These acquisitions violate some international agreements and clearly have been undertaken clandestinely. But how have the Yugoslav Federal Armed Forces been able to get their equipment, ordnance, etc. during this period?

First, let me say that we have irrefutable proof with regard to the preconflict arming of military formations in the former republics of the (then) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the many violations of the arms embargo. The evidence has been made available to the relevant international bodies, including the most senior representatives of the European Community (EC) and the United Nations (UN).

Since the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia are not at war, out supply and procurement is done in the usual way from indigenous sources. Priority is given to those parts of the Armed Forces and to the weapons and equipment which are crucial for the defence of sovereignty and integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Is the defence industrial base which was well-known in the former Yugoslavia still functioning? And would you say that you are fairly well self-sufficient in defence materiel?

Yes, conceptually speaking, the existing military industry of Yugoslavia can satisfy the needs of the Yugoslav Armed Forces very quickly. Of course part of the military industrial capacity of the former Yugoslavia remained in the secessionist republics when the SFRY broke up. Some of that capacity has been destroyed; some of it has been rendered useless; but most of the capacity was moved to [within the newborders of the] Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

There are no particular difficulties in terms of skilled labour availability and no technical or technological problems with regard to continuation of production of current military equipment. And despite the current materiel and financial difficulties, as well as the sanctions, new projects for the production of ordnance are in the preparatory phase. One such project is the production of the new domestic tank, others include new missile systems, and so on.

Our people know that freedom is the most expensive commodity. Over the centuries our forefathers have sacrificed their lives for it, and today the people are prepared to defend Yugoslavia and their freedom with all available means.

Yugoslavia was, in the past, known to have conducted considerable research into nuclear, chemical and biological defences and, one would assume, into weapons in the NBC arenas. Can you give some idea of the current situation in Yugoslavia in the areas of defences and of weapons (if any) in the nuclear, biological and chemical arenas?

The former SFRY did not carry out research in the field of the wartime use of nuclear, chemical and biological combat means. All of our efforts were directed toward collective and personal protection in a hostile NBC environment. Yugoslavia's domestic industry, in fact, produces sufficient quantities of detection and protection systems, including equipment and organisations which are used for dealing with the consequences of hostile nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Has the current conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina led you to reconsider the Yugoslav Armed Force's operating rationale, strategies and/or doctrines? Were your forces prepared for such combat conditions?

I should say, firstly, that the defence concept of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia stems from factors which are not affected by the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our defence system is and Yugoslavia's entire military development is based on the analysis of all significant foreign and internal factors.

It is imperative, of course, that we evaluate the military-political position of the country within the context of the new ratio of forces in the world, on the regional level, and in the immediate neighbourhood. Naturally, the Bosnian experience of the former Yugoslav Army is carefully studied by the military of today's Yugoslavia.

To what extent have the Yugoslav Armed Forces been involved, if at all, in supporting United Nations humanitarian operations in the former Yugoslav republics?

The Armed Forces of Yugoslavia provide all necessary support to the humanitarian convoys which are sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, we can only support [international] aid convoys while they are on Federal territory (ie: Serbia and Montenegro). We shall continue to provide this support into the future.

Have the Yugoslav Armed Forces been put in a position to respond to the build-up of the Albanian Armed Forces on your border in December 1992?

I can assure you that the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia are prepared to respond to armed provocations and any attack, no matter who the potential aggressor may be, including the Albanian Armed Forces. We are fully prepared in all respects for an engagement of this type.

There has been discussion of UN-sponsored military action against Yugoslav territory, Serbia in particular, for alleged Serbian or Yugoslav actions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Could the Yugoslav Armed Forces respond to such threats? What would you foresee as the consequences of such a conflict?

We believe that the danger of foreign military intervention is still there. We are being subjected to continuous, unjustified pressures which are imposed on all sorts of excuses. But if there is military intervention, then we shall defend our freedom, independence and territorial integrity with all available means.

Our greatest resource is our people and their inexhaustible defence potential. We would certainly inflict unacceptable losses upon any aggressor. Clearly, we do not want a war, but we are prepared to wage it should it be imposed upon us, defending our homeland regardless of the amount of casualties. A potential aggressor would be faced with a million-man army, and the entire potential of the nation, including the millions of Serbs and Montenegrans living abroad.

Those who demand armed attacks on Serbia lack both the knowledge of the truer situation, and good military judgment based on an understanding of the history of warfare in the Balkans. Such people fail to comprehend that the battleground would not, I repeat not, be confined to Serbia and the immediate area around it. We too would have the ability to choose the battleground, and carry the fight by a variety of means wherever necessary.

Can you describe the morale position in the Federal Armed Forces at present? How badly has it been affected by the fact that -- as a multi-ethnic force -- it has been faced with the fact that the territory it was supposed to protect as a unified state is now engaged in internecine conflict?

The morale of members of the JNA is very high. The JNA is now very different to the multi-ethnic Armed Forces of the former SFRY, and now the biggest part of the Armed Forces is made up of Serbs and Montenegrans. And the fighting morale of the JNA is no longer based on the old communist values. Now it is based on patriotism, the very best war traditions of Serbs and Montenegrans, on professionalism and on loyalty to the new state.

Only the positive experiences of the old Yugoslav Army are being taken up by the new JNA.

How has Yugoslavia's current inflation level affected your operational capabilities?

Obviously, the grave economic situation in our state, accompanied by the high rate of inflation, affects our defence capabilities insomuch as the defence budget is eroded in real purchasing power. But we are striving for maximum efficiency and a rational structure with the existing means available to us. The Armed Forces have been reorganised to ensure that inflation does no significantly affect operational deployment.

We are obviously fortunate in that we can draw on maximum civilian support during this crucial time.

To what extent have you detected the presence of foreign mercenary forces as operational cadre, or trainers/advisers, operating in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia and/or Macedonia? Similarly, have there been any really disturbing clandestine inputs of foreign military aid or equipment into those states?

The presence of mercenaries in the armies of the breakaway republics was documented by the former Yugoslav People's Army with many films and video recordings, statements given by captured mercenaries, along with witness testimonies. Evidence was sent to our State bodies, particularly to the State Commission for the investigation of war crimes and genocide. The Commission passed this information to various international organisations, including the UN.

Unfortunately, the new Army of Yugoslavia is not in a position to collect evidence about this, since the war is being waged outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

It seems that the involvement of Germany in the Balkan crisis is constantly mentioned in articles in the West. From the historical viewpoint, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and more recently nazi Germany Slovenia and Croatia -- which are primarly of Catholic faith. How do you see things

now, in the light of those historic precedents, and the German involvement in the current conflict?

Certain European countries are tyring to achieve domination over the territory of the former SFRY. The strategy of indirect approach has so far employed all the available political, economic and propaganda means short of direct military conflict. We have been exposed for some time now to low intensity conflict doctrine as a component part of this indirect strategy.

At this point I will not comment on the German strategy in Europe. However, Germany's involvement in the destruction of the former SFRY is obvious. I would like to remind you that Germany applied strong pressure on EC member countries to recognise Slovenia as the first independent state in the territory of the former SFRY.

As a follow-up to what you just said, are you worried by the fact that the Secretary-General of NATO is a German [former Defence Minister Manfred Worner] who publicly stated that NATO was ready to intervene against Serbia despite the fact that, on the previous day, such a policy was met with disapproval from the NATO ministers who are supposed to set policy?

Certainly such a statement is cause for concern. The Balkans have had very unpleasant experiences as a result of earlier German expansionism. The Germans, too, have had unpleasant experiences in the Balkans. Of course today German law precludes the deployment of German forces in such areas as the Balkans.

I would say that some people pay insufficient attention to history, or have difficulty remembering it correctly, so at this point I would say that it is at least unbecoming for a German [Manfred Worner] to make such provocative statements.

Personally, I cannot believe that there could be such a level of military dilettantism as to head to a global, or NATO, involvement in a war in the Balkans, particularly in Serbia. The laws of war are known, and such an intervention in Serbia would inevitably lead to an uncontrolled spread of chaos to the rest of Europe. The question is, does NATO want peace or an expansion of the war?

Serbia and Yugoslavia do not want war, but they have forces to defend themselves. The fact that the initiative of the NATO General Secretary was not met with general approval of the Western Allies speaks enough for itself about the illogical statement regarding an intervention against Serbia.

Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic visited Bonn on November 26 in order to explain the Yugoslav position regarding the Balkan conflict, and on December 1 the Berlin daily Neues Deutschland criticised Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel for "missing the opportunity to correct the unilateral policy in relation to the Yugoslav crisis". The newspaper also said that "the open antagonism toward Prime Minister Panic weakens his peace efforts". Do you agree with the criticism and the assessment by the German paper?

I really do not know what would happen in the case of changes in leadership of Yugoslavia under the imperative of the general international pressure. In principle, the Armed Forces are not

engaged in such calculations; they conduct their own affairs. I would comment on the position of the German paper in question only as to the assessment of the pressure option and its effects. The policy toward Yugoslavia is tragically one-sided, regardless of the people who hold the key positions in Yugoslavia.

There has been much talk in the Western media of "the Serbian concentration camps", and this produced a profoundly negative effect on world public opinion. Did the Yugoslav Armed Forces have any role with relation to "the concentration camps"? Are there now, or were there before, any camps in Serbia?

Allegations are not the same as facts. If there had been any camps, then such camps existed in the territories which are now controlled by the other two warring parties [ie: Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina]. We have evidence which proves that wretched Serbs were photographed behind the wire fence and that then their photographs were shown to the world with the explanation that they were Muslims in Serbian camps.

I can assure you categorically that there are no camps in Serbia. The Armed Forces of Yugoslavia have nothing to do with "the camp affair". Those are ill-intended allegations the aim of which was to discredit the Yugoslav military.

So what is the truth about "concentration camps" in the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina? In other words, camps controlled by Bosnian Serbs. Television programmes in Britain and the United States, for example, seemed so real, and the reporters concerned seemed genuinely to believe what they saw.

Well, I've already answered that question, without any intention to find excuses for anybody. We must be worried over the selective -- I would say totalitarian -- model of information which brainwashes the general public by satanising only one side, in this case the Serbian side. Does it seem logical to you that only Serbs are the guilty ones in such a large conflict?

The Jewish humanist and Nobel Prize winner, Eli Wiesel, recently visited Yugoslavia in order to see for himself on the ground the truth about the camps. Was that an attempt by Serbs to improve their image? What places did Mr Wiesel visit in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina?

Mr Wiesel visited those places which he thought were of key importance for his own research. I think he managed to get a more realistic picture about what is going on in the former SFRY. The Serbs did not try to retouch the picture about themselves; they only tried to correct the distressing impression [of them] and to eliminate the institutional hatred which seems to be felt for the whole Serbian people in some quarters.

In this era of mass crimes, where the victims are also Serbs (as well as others), only the Serbs are portrayed as criminals. I hope that Mr Wiesel had sufficient information to see that this is not the case. Actually, he said himself that he had expected the Croats and the Muslims to allow him access to the many camps in which Serbs are kept and massacred. [He was denied access. -- Ed.] It would be good -- desirable -- and most of all necessary and just that the world hear about that, too, and that the world takes a stand on the Croatian and Muslim crimes, which are enormous.

A recent report prepared for the US Congress said that the Bosnian Muslim leader, Mr Izetbegovic, in his Islamic Declaration, claimed that "there can be no peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and the non-Islamic faith and non-Islamic institutions. The Islamic movement must and can take over power as soon as it grows stronger morally and in size, and not only in order to destroy the non-Islamic authorities, but also to build the new Ismalic authorities". Under these circumstances, how do you think that peace can be achieved in Bosnia-Herzegovina?

The key points in Mr Izetbegovic's Declaration prove that his national concept is beyond reconciliation with the presence of the non-Islamic people who, incidentally, comprise more than half the total population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is the key to the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not "Serbian aggression" or the "genetic expansionism" of the Serbs. I must repeat that the struggle in Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of survival of the Serbs who have been living there for centuries.

Co-existence is possible, provided that Mr Izetbegovic, with the help of the international community, realises that the extreme essence of his Declaration will not be tolerated.

The same US Congressional report contains evidence of Mr Izetbegovic's ties with fundamentalist Iran and it says that "Mr Izetbegovic made a deal with Tehran which, before any escalation of conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina starts, it is imperative that the sympathy of the West is won. For that reason, the Muslim special forces had carried out terror actions against their own people". Is the JNA familiar with such acts?

Such actions [by the Muslims] are not only known to the JNA, but to you also. The British newspaper, The Independent, published the classified report by UNPROFOR which stated that the massacre at the bread queue -- widely televised in the West -- was ordered by the Muslim top leadership "in order to win sympathy". [The attack was carried out by Muslims, according to the UN, against Muslims, and presented as televised evidence of a "Serbian attack" on Muslims in Sarajevo. -- Ed.]

The UN discovered the true perpetrators of this crime, but, with the exception of the brief mention in such papers as The Independent, the world has overlooked the truth. The graphic television image of the "Serbian attack on the Muslim bread queue" remains with most people.

The killing of the three French soldiers was also hushed up, despite later evidence that it was committed by the Muslims, not the Bosnian Serbs.

Does all of this mean that the West will persist in debasing its reputation by continuing to sympathise with what is in reality a cruel fanaticism on the part of the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina? And within that context the West threatens to use force against those people, the Serbian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have been forced to defend themselves. Unfortunately that appears to be the case.

General Panic, the Yugoslav Government has so far failed to win the sympathies of the West, as

you have noted. Events charged with emotion, such as the claim that "Serbs mortared the bread queue", and that Serbs attacked a burial party with sniper fire, and the murder of US ABC news producer David Caplan, have been largely ignored by the Western media. That silence has clearly contributed to the pressure on those who are to decide on military intervention against Serbia. How do you counter, or resist, such negative publicity?

We have not given up the battle of trying to win the understanding of the West. It has not been a media war, but rather the imposition of political concepts. What was the good of irrefutable evidence in our favour? Either such evidence was not heeded, or it was held back before important -- and, for Serbian people, tragic -- decisions were taken, and then just forgotten.

What more could the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia have done with regard to the staged "mortaring" of the bread queue but offer the analysis of its experts who said that such effects could not have been caused by a mortar round, but by an explosive charge which had been planted earlier on in the Muslim quarter? Please, you tell me what influence could the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia have had on the situation where the official document by UNPROFOR was ignored and kept secret by the international institutions in a most immoral way?

Why did not the truth get coverage in the Western media? It is a question which should be rather put to you than vice versa.

The fact is that journalists and editors hate to go back over a story, and particularly hate to admit that they were used or duped. That is understandable. But the monstrousness of the killing of one's own people -- as the Muslims did to Muslims in Sarajevo -- merely to provide false images to the media should arouse the anger and horror of every journalist and editor.

We have not, as I said, abandoned hope of seeing balanced coverage of the situation. This will be an important factor in seeing balanced policymaking on the Balkans by world' leaders. It is for that reason that those struggling to push the Serbs from their lands in Bosnia and Herzegovina fight so hard to ensure that truth and balanced reporting are the first casualties of this war.

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, and the television camera mightier than the missile.

Gen. Panic,thank you for your replies to our questions.

 

Regional Ethnic Composition of Bosnia and HerzegovinaRegion Total Croats Muslims Serbs Yugoslavs Others

Tuzla 915,777 84,197 506,891 255,312 47,182 22,195Banja Luka 799,192 82,195 206,397 444,658 44,541 19,401Sarajevo 708,389 71,201 365,490 197,035 62,424 22,239Zenica 525,269 143,137 267,114 73,764 31,397 10,360Doboj 443,051 116,973 138,825 155,965 23,177 8,111Mostar 427,471 193,523 116,991 92,526 18,488 6,191

Bihac 286,369 6,761 204,370 65,674 7,076 2,428Gorazde 124,368 254 69,407 50,872 1,755 2,064Livno 91,342 57,934 12,081 19,370 1,552 379

4,321,228 756,175 1,887,566 1,355,176 237,592 93,368

Source: 1991 Census

 

December 31, 1992

Hiding GenocideCroatia has resumed its "liquidation" of Serbs, while arguing

that "ethnic cleansing" is a Serbian creation

"The Big Lie" technique is alive and well. Croatia has used the media and skilful image manipulation to hide its renewed genocide against the Serbs while at the same time ensuring

that Serbs are themselves wrongly accused of the same type of crime, and more.

Editor-in-Chief Gregory Copley reports from the Balkans. Twice before in this Century there have been well-documented attempts by the Croats to destroy the Serbian people, and to obliterate their culture, religion and memory. It first began, during the upheaval of the Austro-Hungarian Empire — of which Croatia, but not Serbia, was part — with World War I. Then, after a period of apparent Balkan harmony under the first Yugoslavia — the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes — it resurfaced with the invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia by Italy and Germany. Nazi Germany of April 10, 1941, proclaimed Croatia an independent state for the first time in its history, and installed a neo-nazi puppet Government of the Independent State of Croatia (known in Serbo-Croatian as Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska: NDH).

Between 1941 and 1945, the Ustaše NDH Government of Poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelic systematically killed as many as one-million Serb men, women and children. Serbian historians claim that as many as two-million Serbs have been killed by Croatia in this century. Population figures over this century give credence to the latter claim. Documented evidence confirms the approximate accuracy of the World War II deaths. From the beginning, the Pavelic Government repeated: "There can be no Serbs or Orthodoxy in Croatia." NDH official Dr Milovan Zanic said at a meeting in Nova Gradiska on June 2, 1941: "This will be a country of Croats and none other, and we as Ustaše will use every possible method to make this country truly Croat and purge it of the Serbs. We are not hiding this, it is the policy of the state and when it is carried out, we will be carrying out what is written down in the Ustaše principles."

Today, the newly-independent State of Croatia has adopted the same symbols as the Ustaše puppet nazi state. In many instances its military and para-military units have adopted the same uniforms of the 1941-45 Ustaše Black Legions. And the killing has begun again. The dispossession has begun again. The NDH puppet Government, with the full support of the nazi

German occupying Army, destroyed some 450 Serbian Orthodox churches in World War II. The newly-independent State of Croatia has either directly or indirectly supported the destruction of more than 300 Serbian Orthodox churches — many of which had been rebuilt on the rubble of the World War II sites — in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Between 600,000 and 800,000 ethnic Serbs have fled from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to Serbia to come under the protection of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA).

Austrian historian Freidrich Heer noted in 1968 that what happened in NDH Croatia was the result of "archaic fanaticism and pre-historic times". Pavelic, he said, was "a singular murderer of the 20th Century". Pavelic is today lauded as a hero of modern Croatia; his picture (and that of 19th Century Ustaše ideologue Ante Starcevic) adorns the T-shirts of a generation of Croatians who were unborn at the end of World War II.

Pavelic had noted: "The Slavoserbs are the rubbish of a nation, the type of people who will sell themselves to anyone and at any price, and to every buyer . . ." By June 12, 1941, the movement of all Jews and Serbs in Croatia had been restricted, but by then the mass killings had already begun.

Croat writer Mile Budak declared in Gospic on July 22, 1941: ". . . We shall slay one third of the Serbian population, drive away another [third], and the rest we shall convert to the Roman Catholic faith and thus assimilate into Croats. Thus we will destroy every trace of theirs, and all that which will be left, will be an evil memory of them. . . . " The Roman Catholic Church, far more zealous in Croatia than elsewhere in the world, did not fight the nazis as they did in Poland, but embraced them and the Ustaše. Croat catholic priests, in clerical garbs and out of it, joined in personally as killers in the concentration camps of Croatia.

Today, it is with more than a hint of concern that Serbs see the Catholic church offering apparently unlimited support to the new Croatian Government and its Ustaše principles, despite the 1963 apology of the Roman Catholic church in Croatia for the atrocities of World War II. "It is actually in this country that many of our Orthodox brothers were killed in the last war because they were Orthodox," said Alfred Pihler, Catholic Bishop of Banja Luka in his 1963 Christmas pastoral letter to Roman Catholics. "And those Christians were killed because they were not Croats and Catholics. We admit painfully such a terrible fallacy of those people who had gone astray, and beg our brothers of orthodox faith to forgive us, the same as Christ forgave us all on the cross."

It is significant that, in the 1991-1992 conflict, there has been no similar flood of Croatian refugees from Serbia (Yugoslavia) to Croatia, as a counterbalance to those Serbs (and others) who have been fleeing from Croatia. Indeed, so many Croatians have fled to Serbia after opposing the new Ustaše juggernaut of the Franjo Tudjman Government of Croatia that organizations such as the Association of Croatian Journalists have been set up in exile in Belgrade. And yet the world has not heard anything of this.

Croatia, in two world wars, fought on the side of Germany against the Western Allies (while on both occasions Serbia fought with the Allies). Today, modern Croatia is regarded as a creature of the West, while what is left of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) is regarded as a hostile

vestige of Tito's communist administration. Why, or how, can such a massive thing as the attempted genocide of a whole people, be misrepresented so that the victims, rather than the oppressors, are called the criminals? Can such a misrepresentation be the result solely of accidental misinterpretation of the facts? It is not possible.

There is no doubt that the genocide against Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina resumed immediately after Germany forced the European Community, in 1991, into the premature recognition of what is now Croatia. Defense & Foreign Affairs correspondents have seen irrefutable evidence of the facts. It is precisely because of the renewed genocide against the Serbs that those ethnic Serbs whose ancestors lived for centuries in Bosnia-Herzegovina, rebelled and began protecting their villages and their lives, rather than once again face slaughter or deprivation of their lands.

Defense & Foreign Affairs has had the opportunity to match many of the photographs and videotape of the war dead which have gone out on the news networks worldwide during the past 18 months. In virtually every instance, the Western media has captioned the pictures of dead as being Croatian, or Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In many instances, families of the dead have come forward to identify the victims as ethnic Serbs slaughtered by Croats, or sometimes by Muslims.

Virtually every piece of news footage and photography which emerges from the conflict zone comes out through the Croatian capital, Zagreb, or Muslim-controlled Bosnian outlets. Western media chiefs have been warned off accepting "propaganda" from what is purported to be the "vile, neo-communist authorities" of Belgrade, the capital of both Serbia and Yugoslavia. Western television, including the Eurovision exchange, has consistently refused to accept anything emanating from Belgrade. Defense & Foreign Affairs has seen the evidence of this, too.

It is significant that the only television satellite uplink in Yugoslavia when the state was prematurely broken up was in Zagreb, so it was Croatia which was able to corner the outflow of television pictures. Belgrade's links into the European satellite system were then relegated to second status, and so today it must switch frequencies constantly in order to broadcast. As a result, Serbian-speaking audiences and listeners in Western Europe generally cannot find the Serbian or Yugoslav broadcasts, and, on top of that, there seems fairly good evidence that Germany is attempting to jam, or interfere with, the broadcasting which does find an occasional channel.

Croatian expatriates have had a long time to establish themselves in the West, and gain a good grasp on some levers of power. The exiled Serbs, many of whom fled Yugoslavia after World War II because of their opposition to Tito's communism, were harried by Tito's intelligence services wherever they went, even in Australia. Croatian exiles, however, were left largely undisturbed by the communist intelligence services, largely because Tito himself was a Croat. Today, as a result, Croat nationalists find themselves in respected posts in respected Western organizations.

Christopher Cviic is a classic example, supposedly an impartial Balkan expert in the Royal Institute of International Affairs. From this vantage point he is invited onto BBC programs to

give the Institute view on the Balkans, only to reinforce a rabidly anti-Serb, anti-(new) Yugoslav viewpoint. The fact that the prestigious institute was used in 1991 to publish Cviic's tract, Remaking the Balkans, is testament to the subversion of respected bodies to achieve pro-Croatian aims.

Edward Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, noted: "Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer may ascribe to himself; if any merit can be assumed from the performance of an indispensable duty." Diligence, accuracy and balance have been removed from the current writings on the historic events now underway in the Balkans. Part of this is due to the fact that journalists have a natural tendency to report mostly that to which they can have easy access; believe most readily that which has been laid out for them in forms, and through channels, with which they feel comfortable. Traditionally, when one journalist, or only a small number, works harder, takes more risks, strives more to understand the broader picture, and reports a view contrary to that of his editorial cousins, he is not hailed for his achievement. He is castigated for breaking ranks with the accepted line, the accepted truth. A journalist who admits (in the light of later-discovered truths) that his work may not have been all that it should fears most and first the wrath of his editor. The editor himself rejects correction (for fear of losing credibility, a news medium's only asset), unless the laws of libel force such apology or correction. And in war there is no libel. Better to sustain a lie than to lose circulation, viewers or listeners, by a revision of the view.

Perhaps this accounts for the apparently consistent effort to ensure that the Serbian and Yugoslav message is not allowed to compete with that of other vested interests?

It is clear that Croatian strategic aims have been considerably advanced by the increasing persecution of Serbs, Serbia and Yugoslavia in the current Balkan conflict. Indeed, Croatia's grand strategy is considerably advanced by ensuring that a confused image appears in the minds of the international policymaking audience (and the media which influences it) as to the differences between Bosnian Serbs, Serbia and Yugoslavia.

To begin with, Croatian strategic objectives have been historically stated, and are today re-stated, to include the elimination of all Serbs from what the Croatian leadership believes to be its territory. Croatia's territorial objectives are stated, whenever possible, as the recreation of the boundaries of the 1941-1945 so-called Independent State of Croatia, which subsumes virtually all of Bosnia-Herzegovina and much of Serbia. Additionally, modern Croatia will not abandon the gift which Yugoslavia's communist Croatian leader gave it: virtually all of the Dalmatian coastline and key ports. The World War II division of spoils gave this to Italy; today, with no historic precedent to justify it, the land has been recognized as Croatian.

The propaganda to remove Bosnian Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina enables Croatian forces to consolidate their hold over as much of that newly-independent state as possible. The militias of Croatian Bosnians together with some 40,000 Croatian Armed Forces personnel have been consolidating their control over much of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the expense not only of the Bosnian Serbs, but also of the Bosnian Muslims who are themselves ethnically and linguistically Serb.

The campaign of genocide and terror against the Bosnian and Croatian Serbs helps reduce the Serbian populations of those two states, helping to ensure Croatian dominance. The campaign to claim that the genocide is Serbian in origin and that the victims are Croats or Muslims puts the Serbs on the defensive and builds the case for Croatia to have the international community guarantee Croatia's status quo and its expansion in the Balkans.

The late 1991 battle for Vukovar was portrayed in the Western media as a battle between heroic Croatian defenders against overwhelming Yugoslav (ie: Serbian) modern military might. Significantly, as in World War II Germany when the concentration camp ovens kept burning as the Allied forces swept toward them, Croats in Vukovar from June 1 to November 23, 1991, were busy exterminating those Serb families who had not been able to flee. It was for this reason that the JNA — the Yugoslav Army — fought back into Vukovar.

At least 1,000 Serbs, mostly women, old people and children, were shot, knifed, axed or bludgeoned to death systematically, one-by-one, in two main centers; one the Borovo Footwear Factory, the other the Rowing Club of Vukovar. Many of the bodies were dumped into the Danube, left to float down to Belgrade. And in many instances, the Croats took pictures, or recorded the deaths. One visiting Croat female journalist, during the Vukovar fighting, unfamiliar with firearms, asked one of the young gunmen to cock a pistol for her so that she could feel what it was like to kill a Serb. She shot, indiscriminately, an old Serb woman who was standing under Croat guard.

One Serb, Branko Stankovic, was captured after being wounded in the leg by Croat forces. He was taken to a hospital where he was forced to make a television broadcast for Croatian television, saying how well he and other prisoners were being treated. He was then taken out and killed. Photographs of his tortured, mutilated body were subsequently found. So, too, were a significant variety of specially made implements for torturing and killing.

Vukovar has seen it before: Between August 8 and September 16, 1942, some 10,000 Serbs were killed and scores of thousands more were tortured by their Croat captors.

But the Vukovar tragedy of 1991 is but one of thousands of new killings which have occurred during the past year or so of independence in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. There were similar atrocities in the Croatian town of Gospic in mid-October 1991. And in Glina, another World War II massacre site revisited by Ustaše in December 1991. And Kupres. There, 1,036 Serbs were killed in World War II under the orders of the Ustaše (who killed 889 of the Serbs), by Italian troops and by German troops. A still unknown number of Serbs were butchered by several Croatian military formations, the HOS, ZNG and foreign mercenaries, in early April 1992.

What is significant is that the slogans of the Croats are those of the Ustaše of World War II and pre-World War II. The weapons used for ritual killing are also, symbolically, virtually the same. The knife is a favorite, and many special knives were made during the Vukovar killings. These, along with the Serb victims, were found later.

Many Serbian villages and towns were razed during the past 18 months in Croatia and Croatian-

held parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Even in Zagreb, where no fighting officially took place, more than 100 Serbs had been killed in 1991 alone, and the Orthodox churches there damaged or destroyed.

Journalists and analysts looking at the overall situation in the Balkans today must ask why in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina hundreds of orthodox churches have been destroyed, while in Orthodox Serbia no Croatian institutions or Catholic churches have been attacked. The answer is that in Croatia — as has been historically documented — there is widespread Croatian Catholic xenophobia aimed at the Orthodox church and Serbs, whereas there has been no such xenophobia against Croats or Catholics in Serbia or Montenegro.

More than 40 percent of the population of Serbia is non-Serbian, and there has been a history of multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural cooperation which has not prevailed in Croatia. Indeed, where Croatia's Government today intimates that there were excesses in Croatia during World War II, it also says that there were similar excesses by Serbs in Serbia at the same time. The truth is that Croatia, when it greeted its German "liberators" with open arms on September 10, 1941, began its own campaign of extermination of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. On the other hand, the extermination of Jews and Gypsies in Serbia was carried out virtually entirely by Germans or Yugoslavs of German background.

Today, the bodies of Serbs still float down the Danube into Serbia. Today, Serbians and Yugoslavs are ending their 50 years of silence — demanded and enforced by Tito — about the World War II anti-Serb genocide. A project to record "Genocide Against the Serbs, 1991/92" was began by Miss Bojana Isakovic. The project, currently a massive display of documents, photographs and artifacts, has become a tragic focal point for displaced Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, who bring photographs or reports of missing family members to the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, hoping to find news of their kin. Many burned corpses have, through painstaking forensic research, been identified as a result of information brought to the center.

On more than one occasion, Serbs living outside the Balkans, some in Germany, have seen television of "Croats (or Muslims) butchered by Serbs and have recognized their own (Serbian) family members wrongly labeled as Croats or Muslims. The pattern has been too consistent to have been accidental. Similarly, the many stories alleging rapes by Bosnian Serbs of Muslim women in Bosnia-Herzegovina have clearly involved carefully staged performances by non-Muslims dressed up as Muslims. Rape (on all sides) is one of the byproducts of all conflicts, but the clear staging of these events by Croats has been significant.

The United Nations has already said that now, after proper research, it knows that several major incidents were staged by Bosnian Muslims or Croats so that they could be blamed on Serbs. These include the famous (televised) mortaring of a Muslim bread queue in Sarajevo, undertaken by Muslim forces against their own people when television cameramen had been alerted. The attack was blamed on Serbian forces (now disproved) and, despite the UN findings, has never been refuted by Western news media. Another, similar incident occurred (as verified by the UN), when Muslim snipers shot at mourners attending a Muslim funeral in Sarajevo, for the benefit of specially-placed TV Cameramen. The UN has also said that the shooting down of the Italian Air Force G-222 supply aircraft near Sarajevo was the work of Coats, not Serbs as originally blamed.

The Western media has not corrected the story.

Today, trucks bearing United Nations relief supplies rumble down through Hungary and across Yugoslavia (in safety) and then into Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is only there that they come under fire and then mostly from Muslim forces. Ironically, the Muslims counted on Croatian military support during their conflict to gain supremacy over the Bosnian Serbs. Time and again, Croatian forces helped the Muslims right up to the point that direct conflict was initiated against the Bosnian Serbs, and then Croatian forces withdrew to leave the Muslims exposed. And this despite the many occasions (World War II included) that Muslims helped the Croatian genocide against the Serbs.

The accounts of Croatian genocide against Serbs in World War II, assisted by both local Muslim leaders and by many Catholic priests, have been absolutely verified by international observers and acknowledged by the Vatican. When Dr Franjo Tudjman proclaimed the new Croatian state in 1990, it was a new Ustaše state, with all the old symbols (including the red-and-white Ustaše chequerboard shield), and in the presence of a papal representative and Muslim leadership. Tudjman, at the first convention of the Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica: HDZ), on February 26, 1990, said, in the presence of more than 100 Ustaše war criminals who had escaped the law courts and fled to international havens after World War II: "The Independent State of Croatia [ie: the World War II state] was not only a mere Quisling creation, but also an expression of the historical aspirations of the Croatian people for an independent state of their own and recognition of international factors — the Government of Hitler's Germany in this case."

The use of Ustaše symbols and slogans had the same effect on modern Serbs as if, today, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had used swastikas and the red, white and black of the nazis to proclaim the new unified Germany. And yet the Western world, ignorant of the Balkan history, paid no attention to this highly-charged local symbolism.

Indeed, Bavarian German Catholics, while indignant and upset at the rise of neo-nazism in Germany, have sent massive monetary aid to the new Croatian Ustaše, who have openly proclaimed their identity with the Ustaše Administration of 1941-1945 and its fervent support for Hitler.

Tudjman delivered a speech to the Croatian Sabor (parliament) on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic of Croatia on December 22, 1990. In the Constitution he proposed, and which was adopted, the Serbs lost their nation status within Croatia, and were relegated to the status of a national minority. The official war against the Serbs had been resumed.

Even before Croatia became independent, the Croatian Minister of Internal Affairs, Martin Spegelj, advised his colleagues: "We are in the war with [ie: against] the Army [Yugoslav Army: JNA]. Should anything happen, kill them all in the streets, in their homes, through hand grenades, fire pistols into their bellies, women, children . . . We will deal with [the Croatian Serb town of] Knin by butchering."

The premature recognition of Croatia's independence by Germany, without consultation with the

other EC state, also saw the fact that a substantial Croatian Army had been created well in advance, fully equipped with German-supplied uniforms and weapons. The suddenness of the situation deprived all the states of the old Yugoslavia the opportunity to negotiate their separation and to define their boundaries along proper historical, geographic and, if necessary, ethnic lines. The Croatian militias (there are several) attacked the JNA, the Yugoslav Army, which was still in its barracks in Croatia, ensuring that there could be no orderly withdrawal from Croatia.

That was not the case in the former Yugoslav state of Macedonia, where consensus allowed an orderly and peaceful withdrawal of the JNA back into the new Yugoslav borders.

But in Croatia, the new leadership wanted (a) to initiate conflict against Belgrade and therefore the Serbs, (b) to begin the process of rolling Serbian and Bosnia-Herzegovina borders back to the World War II borders, and (c) to seize JNA military assets. At least two brigades of main battle tanks and two brigades worth of armored personnel carriers were successfully seized by the Croats through this stratagem of unilaterally declaring war on the rump Yugoslavia and the Serb peoples (both in and out of Serbia). Today, the impact of "The Big Lie" which accuses the Serbs of Genocide in the current Balkan war is the equivalent of looking back at 1939 and demanding sanctions against the worldwide Jewish population because "German Jews had begun a campaign of genocide against the German people". History will show that the massive deception against the Serbs was not only unjust; it also helped allow the wholly avoidable genocide which has occurred against the Serbian people for the third time this century. And it also was the major cause for the conflict which rages today.

Croats, Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims are ethnically indistinguishable; they are all of the same Slavic stock. This highlights the irony of one people, the Croats (sometimes aided in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Muslims), setting out to annihilate its twin, the Serbs. The most outstanding difference to which most observers would point today would be the fact that Croatians define themselves by their Roman Catholicism; Serbs by their adherence to the Serbian Orthodox Church. But that is too simple. The two peoples were raised in different, albeit adjacent, territories, Serbia being traditionally independent, and Croatia for many centuries part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Croatians have also nurtured for much of this time a dream of a greater Croatia, extending well into lands held by Serbs and the Serbs who had been converted to Islam under the Turkish invasions. This has created a Croatian mentality which is widespread and which resents the very existence of the Serbs.

It is significant, and proven repeatedly through history, that Serbs have not been raised with similar nationalistic or territorial ambitions. It was in this Century always the Serbs who were prepared to surrender land and prestige (not to mention power) for the good of the greater Yugoslavia. But, during the Kingdom and then the post-World War II republic, Croats always referred to themselves as Croatians first and Yugoslavs second. Serbian culture held, during the Yugoslav era, that it would have been in poor taste to boast first of being Serbian and to relegate Yugoslav status to second place. The Serbs have not sought geographic or cultural dominance within Yugoslavia. Most Serbs within the Republic of Serbia and within the new Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) are not seeking to embrace the ethnically Serbian areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina into Serbia or Yugoslavia, even though they are almost universally reluctant to turn

their backs on their co-ethnic brother across the border.

And yet the JNA cannot go into Bosnia-Herzegovina or Croatia to protect Serbs from the attacks which were started respectively by the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croatians. Today, Croatia admits having its troops [40,000 of the] in Bosnia-Herzegovina, alongside the Bosnia-Herzegovina Croat militias. All three so-called ethnic groups (Muslims, Serbs and Croats) in Bosnia-Herzegovina drifted into what is now, for the first time, an independent state, artificially created by Austro-Hungarian cartographers and by Josip Broz Tito, the late Croatian head of Yugoslavia. And, save for the barbarities which came alive in World Wars I and II and in 1991-92, all lived and shared the land with reasonable equanimity.

Croatia's leaders, and Croatian warlords who roam freely with their militias throughout Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, are today given complete power by the West and particular by Western media.

The story is bigger than this, and more complex. The tragedy of the genocide which continues against the Serbs is bigger and more vulgar than there is scope here to indicate. The reversal of the blame for the state of affairs is more than tragedy. It is of strategic importance on a near global scale.

A micro-state, Croatia, is dragging much of the world into what could be a major, protracted conflict, by making the United Nations an ignorant party to its strategic objectives. The geopolitical aspects are of significance: Germany's reluctance to recognize that Croatia's new leaders and body politic are a throwback to an era for which Germany has itself had to atone for a half-century is because Germany does not wish to surrender this "open route to the Mediterranean" which can pass through Croatia. Russia itself sees long-term geopolitical gain in supporting Serbia as a stalking horse to the South (and Yugoslav leaders are most reluctant to invoke Russian support for fear of attracting the unwanted em-brace of Moscow, resisted for so long even when Yugoslavia was, under the Croatian leadership of Tito, a Western from of communist state).

Perhaps the most ironic image which Franjo Tudjman invokes is that he, and the new Republic of Croatia, are "part of the West, part of Europe". Tudjman's "democratic" nation is becoming a one-party state, in a reversal of trends in Eastern and Western Europe. It has become a neo-nazi Ustaše state, harkening back to the last division (rather than the new unification) of Europe. And it stiffly resists tendencies to move toward a market economy; less than 10 percent of the GNP is generated by private industry. It is overwhelmingly a nationalist-socialist state, while blindly pointing at what is the new Yugoslavia as the rump of a sort-of communist state. Indeed, in Yugoslavia today there is considerable momentum toward a broadly-based mixed economy in a pluralistic society, the reverse of trends in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But the greatest deception perpetrated on the international media is the fact that the Croatian Administration has purged all of the Croatian media of any opposition (let alone Serbian) elements, at the same time that the Western media were led to believe that the Serbian media were universally controlled by Serbian President Slobodan Miloševic. And yet in Serbia most television and press would consider itself to be freely in opposition to, or at least critical of, the

current leadership.

Will the prevailing official and media views of the Balkan crisis ever come into balance? Will this information war create a major conflict?

Attached Illustrations on Original printed version of this story: Cover Photo, A Serbian victim of today's campaign of genocide by the Croatians. Mira Kalanj, a Serb economist from Gospic, Croatia. Killed and burned by Croatians in the raid of October 16-18, 1991. Pictures 1 and 2, The remains of some of the 218 Serb victims of Ustaše "pit murders" of July 30, 1941. The victims, from the town of Rujan, were mostly women and children, and were thrown into the Ravni Dolac pit in the Dinara Mountains. Fourteen victims survived the 50m fall and were saved after spending 45 days without food or water. Branimir Milosevic-Milic, a Serb boy of 11, was killed with two bullets to the brain, when Croatians began rounding up and killing Serbs in Vukovar in late 1991.