Andrija Hebrang

Back

Counter-intelligence Mined Graves

 

That the so-called Ustasha orientation of Croats was one of the

fundamental strategies used by Serb forces to prepare the

international public for the attack on Croatia was said also during

the Milosevic trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for

the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. The explosions which took place

in the Jewish Municipality in Zagreb and the Jewish cemetery at

Zagreb's central Mirogoj cemetery on August 19, 1991 were planted

by the former Yugoslav People's Army's Counter-Intelligence

Service (KOS), a former KOS operative said during the trial at The

Hague:

- The counter-intelligence (KOS) of the former Yugoslav army (JNA) in the early 1990s tried to destabilise Croatian authorities and foment animosity towards Croatia through intensive propaganda and terrorist operations, a former KOS operative said in the Slobodan Milosevic trial on Monday.

The mining of Jewish tombs at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery was staged as part of Operation Labrador, with a joint Jewish grave mined in August 1991, Mustafa Candic told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague in the trial against the former Yugoslav president, who is charged with war crimes committed in Croatia and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"The goal was to present Croatian authorities as pro-fascist and to instigate animosity among the Jews," said Candic, the 12th witness for the prosecution.

He also mentioned a terrorist operation planned against Zagreb's Jewish community which failed after the perpetrators were discovered and fled to Belgrade.

Operation Labrador was coordinated by Lt. Col. Slobodan Rakocevic from Zemun and led in Zagreb by Lt. Col. Ivan Sabolovic and Major Cedo Knezevic, said the witness.

Candic was employed with the Zemun headquarters of the air force's Counter-Operations Group (KOG). He left the JNA in February 1992.

Candic said KOS had a strong spy network in Croatia's State Security Service as well as among the then ruling Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ).

He described how television was used for anti-Croatian propaganda through Operation Opera. Footage of killed Croats from the Slavonija region was presented as Serb victims of Croatian crimes…(HINA.)

It is symptomatic that some Croatian media, repeating themselves,

analysed "terrorist operations by nationalists in Zagreb" but did

not publish a single commentary after the perpetrators of the

terrorist operation against the Jews were discovered! The trained

mental code was easily incited to use the media to write about the

Ustasha orientation of Croats, which was established during

Communism and transferred to younger generations through the

education system.

The roots of this manifestation are deep, which is also reflected in

a claim in the Great World Biography Lexicon (Ljubljana, 2002) that

"Franjo Tudjman was the president of the NDH!"