Published in Nacional number 653, 2008-05-19

Autor: Eduard Šoštarić

The general's blackmail

Zagorec's rifle not loaded

In the Austrian weekly News Vladimir Zagorec threatened the Austrians that he would disclose evidence of their complicity in smuggling weapons into Croatia during the 1990s

It is evident that Zagorec is running out of solutions to his complex legal situation when he is forced to make veiled threats to the country in which he has found sanctuaryIt is evident that Zagorec is running out of solutions to his complex legal situation when he is forced to make veiled threats to the country in which he has found sanctuary Former Croatian assistant defence minister and retired Croatian Army general Vladimir Zagorec told the Austrian weekly News last week that he would disclose evidence of violations of the embargo on weapons deliveries to Croatia during the Homeland War. Zagorec pointed out that there was no need for any great intelligence to know that Croatia had Austrian Steyr Mannlicher rifles, German G3 rifles from the Heckler & Koch Company, the German Armbrust, Argentinean howitzers, Russian MiG fighters and Mi-24 helicopters.

It is obvious that Zagorec is aware of his pending extradition to Croatia and that his statement was a desperate move and a form of blackmail with the aim of winning his freedom in Austria in return. Zagorec explained his move by his desire to protect his own life, which is absurd, because it would, in fact, be the publishing of secret documents that would anger the international weapons dealers and middlemen Croatia purchased arms from, which could put him in a very embarrassing and life-threatening situation.

If, on the other hand, Zagorec has this documentation and plans to disclose it, it is a significant blunder on the part of Croatian state bodies, who permitted him for years to amass a private collection at home of highly confidential documents, even if just copies. These documents should not be in Zagorec's possession, because the defence ministry was not his private company, and as far as we know, nobody in Croatia released him from the obligation to not reveal secrets. At the same time this is evidence enough to file further charges against Zagorec – for the unauthorised collecting of documentation and the publishing of their contents, protected by various levels of confidentiality, all the more so as these documents are, evidently, out of the country.
Besides that, if Zagorec claims exclusive rights on these documents, which cite details of the sale of weapons to Croatia, and if some of the cited documentation is not in Croatia, he could also be charged with suppressing evidence and obstructing the investigation of the State Attorney's Office, which is trying to establish where money disappeared from Croatia. Zagorec's threats that he would reveal from whom weapons were acquired for Croatia should not be taken overly dramatically, as the biggest channels through which guns were smuggled into Croatia have in fact been revealed in the Croatian and international media over the past ten years.



There is no doubt that Zagorec will try to exert the most pressure on the Austrian authorities with the disclosure of documents that would allegedly indicate the Austrians had violated the embargo. He already did so in November of last year in an attempt to influence a decision by a Vienna court on his extradition. He then claimed that Austria had assisted Croatia in its efforts to win independence through the acquisition of armaments. He said that the Croatian Army had used the SSG 69 sniper manufactured by the Steyr Company with Hirtenberger ammunition of Austrian production. He also stated that he had in 2000 submitted documentation to the competent Croatian authorities on the purchase of weaponry, and that a copy of the documents is deposited with his attorney. The Austrian news agency APA published at the time a statement from the owner of the Steyr-Mannlicher Company, Franz Holzschuh, who refuted Zagorec's claims. "Mr. Zagorec wanted at the time to set up a meeting with us, but it was cancelled in the meantime", said Holzschuh. Rudolf Gollia, the spokesman at the Austrian interior ministry, said that the ministry had not issued a licence for the export of war materials neither to Yugoslavia nor Croatia between 1990 and 1995. Requests for that kind of licence were not even submitted.

THE ARTICLE IN NEWS in which Zagorec justifies the possible disclosure of the documents, saying it was to protect his lifeTHE ARTICLE IN NEWS in which Zagorec justifies the possible disclosure of the documents, saying it was to protect his life Only a week later the News weekly ran a article by Kurt Koch in which they published documents that prove the delivery of weapons from Austria to Croatia in 1992 under the code names "Hans 6", "Hans 8", "Hans 9" and "Hans 10". According to his claims the drivers of the Croatian defence ministry delivered a total of 830 SSG snipers, over 68 thousand rounds of ammunition, and laser scopes from Austria to Croatia by way of the Ljubelj border crossing in Slovenia. Also published were account numbers, transfers and transcripts from the accounts of fictitious companies in Austria through which, the article states, the international trade of helicopters and rockets for Croatia was carried out. The weaponry was paid for in cash, visa cheques and through banks, wrote News. Payments for other big weapons transactions with other countries also took place through Austrian banks, as, for example, with the acquisition of Russian Mi-8 and MTV-1 helicopters worth 3.2 million US dollars.

The News weekly was also provided with an invoice signed by then defence minister Gojko Susak, a request seeking funds from the finance ministry and letters in which his associate Biljana Sucic (now Terezija Barbaric) ordered three Croatian banks to transfer funds to Austria to the account of a firm from Graz called the Hemerson International Trading Company, for which the author of the article claims that it was only the fictitious name of a company. There are still payment confirmations and the serial numbers of the helicopters, and a bill dated 23 July 1993 according to which the sum of 3,240,000 US dollars was transferred to account number 0188-03221/00 at the Creditanstalt-Bankverein bank's branch office in Graz at a Griesplatz address.

Even though these were Russian helicopters, the payment cited "construction elements for destroyed houses in the Republic of Croatia". Payment was made via three banks at the order of the RH Alan Company. Zagorec, then, even a year ago tried to exert pressure on the Austrian authorities so that the Austrian justice department would ensure that he not be extradited to Croatia. There is, however, no direct mention of the Austrian government and there is no evidence of its complicity in the violation of the embargo, which does not suit Zagorec.

As far as the procurement of arms from Argentina is concerned, the trial of former Argentinean President Carlos Menem starts on 8 June. He is charged with smuggling guns to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995, so that is a well-known issue. According to the indictment Menem is suspected of having sold 6,500 tonnes of weapons between 1991 and 1995, which were shipped to Ecuador and Croatia by way of Venezuela and Panama. Menem signed three contracts that permitted the delivery of rifles, cannons, howitzers, rockets and ammunition. The export of the weaponry was carried out on several occasions by way of shipping lines and the Croatian shipper Croatia Line, but flying the Panamanian colours.

In Argentina the loading was supervised by Croatia Line representative Ratko Mihovilovic. One of the ships was stopped by the Italian police after it passed the Strait of Otranto, but was released at the urging of the Austrians. The last shipment, in late 1994, included 39 containers. At the Croatian military parade held at Zagreb's Jarun in 1995 a part of the Argentinean weaponry that had been purchased, such as howitzers, cannons and the like, were shown to the public, and it could have been concluded even then that Argentina had illegally sold arms to Croatia, thereby violating the UN ban on the import of weapons to the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

In November of 1994 former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman visited Chile and Argentina. Tudjman then conferred the Order of Duke Trpimir on Croatian emigrant Andronik Luksic, and in return received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from Chile and was presented the plaque and keys of the City of Santiago de Chile as an honorary citizen. It is known that a large shipment of weapons left Argentina in December of 1994, only a month after the visit by Croatian President Tudjman to Argentina and Chile. Nacional's sources have told us that three shifts were active in the Port of Rijeka when the ships made harbour.

JOSEF ROTHAICHNER a German arms dealer who took part in the procurement of the S-300 rocket system: there have been no big secrets in the arming of Croatia for some timeJOSEF ROTHAICHNER a German arms dealer who took part in the procurement of the S-300 rocket system: there have been no big secrets in the arming of Croatia for some time The unloading from the warehouses to trucks was carried out by outside labour, refugees for the most part, and not by the employees of the Port Authority. Shipping agents and hauliers were paid by way of a Trieste bank, but were not paid in full. It is estimated that about 120 trucks operated by various hauliers took part in the transport of the weaponry from Rijeka to the Croatian interior. Zagorec is trying to influence Germany too by citing the G3 rifles manufactured by Heckler & Koch. The German company, however, has no connection to the violation of the embargo on the import of weapons to Croatia, as those rifles were at the time very widely distributed around the world, and could have been acquired anywhere.

Likewise, Zagorec speaks of the German Ambrust armour-piercing rocket system. Although a German product, Croatia also acquired this weaponry by way of intermediaries and arms dealers, and not from Germany, but rather from Singapore. When is comes to airplanes, helicopters and the S-300 anti-aircraft system, here too there are no secrets. One of the largest weapons exporters to Croatia was Zdravko Zubak's Winsley Company. Among the most valuable good procured through the Winsley Company are Mi-24 helicopters, MiG-21 fighter planes, the S-300 anti-aircraft rocket system and 7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifles. Croatia ordered and purchased the S-300 rocket system, and even three times paid for the transport of part of the 5V55R rockets for the system. Six sets with four rockets each were delivered, for which 11.5 million dollars were paid. In the acquisition Zubak engaged his partners, the Czech Petr Pernicka and the German Josef Rothaichner. It is evident that Zagorec will have to make quite an effort to say something new about the violations of the embargo on the import of weaponry to Croatia, because everything he is announcing has actually been already published on several occasions in various print media and there have, for all that, been no charges filed anywhere, with the exception of the Argentinean case, or complicity indicated on the part of a government for direct participation in violations of the embargo.

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