Who's Eavesdropping On You, Cosic?

London, August 1992. A delegation of the FRY takes part in the Conference on Yugoslavia. Towards its close, "Balkan Express", the Belgrade weekly of doubtful reputation, specializing in scandals, announced that the entire meeting would be remembered by the attempts of Mihalj Kertes, with the assistance of Vladislav Jovanovic, to eavesdrop on Messrs. Major, Carrington and Hurd. Even though Kertes was sacked in the course of the Conference, and Jovanovic soon after, this spectacular allegation has remained without answer.

Belgrade, November 1992. VREME's sources report that the news has been passed on from "the highest public offices" that Yugoslav President, Dobrica Cosic, is being bugged. The news is worrying, and goes like this: At one of the last meetings of the Serbian President and the Yugoslav head of state, Milosevic calmly quoted a few sentences Cosic had said to some friends in a park. Soon after, the story was unofficially made public.

Officially, there has been no announcement regarding either of the above mentioned cases of eavesdropping. The state whose civil servants are engaged in bugging others (the state itself included) - is keeping a wise silence.

It is the duty of every federal minister to deny such things, explained one of Prime Minister Milan Panic's close associates to VREME's reporter. This was soon after confirmed by Pavle Bulatovic, Federal Minister of the Interior. To our questions, his cabinet coldly and officiously advised that "the federal minister knows nothing about bugging", so Panic's associate advised us to find someone "who wants to talk".

"Did Kertes really eavesdrop in London?", we asked a man close to President Cosic. He took a deep breath, then shrugged his shoulders and said: "His bosses deny everything." The same gentleman later informed us that of all the versions there are of the "Kertes case" (and some are really very paranoiac, e.g. the one of how Mihalj tried to set up "our own" spy ring in London), the one he believes the most is that of "Mihalj's attempt to show-off a little" and prove how he could do anything.

Apart from the fact that this is a confirmation that Kertes really did try to eavesdrop on the British officials (why, if it were not true, would he think about Kertes' motives?), the above mentioned statement of the federal administration makes another important point. It proves to the suspicious public that it has no illusions about its "natural environment", that it is well aware of eventual enemies within it.

Kertes is a police dunce, perfectly capable of being caught in an operation such as trying to "listen in on Major". That he himself is aware of this is made clear by the fact that he took along a professional with him to the London Conference. A certain Vlada Dragicevic of the Federal Police. This gentleman was once the "personal policeman" of the "Borba" journalists (he openly took note of all that took place in the editorial offices, all "in the line of duty"), and was then quickly promoted, to disappear from the public view for a while and reappear with Kertes in London.

As Dragicevic is an experienced policeman, i.e. someone to whom it is quite clear that you cannot put a bug under the table of the English just like that, the only explanation for his participation in the action, if there was any action at all, is that it was on the boss's (in this case, Mihalj Kertes) orders.

The other details of the story are proof of how out of his depth Kertes was. They say that the former federal minister of foreign affairs, Vladislav Jovanovic, carried the "bug" to the meeting with Major, Hurd and Carrington. If this is true, it is quite understandable. In the course of his diplomatic career, Vladislav Jovanovic certainly had to carry out "operational jobs" in the interests of the state. What is less understandable is that he was caught. For an operation such as the London one, a man would carry only a miniature tape recorder for the simple reason that even the most refined equipment has difficulty detecting it. In other words, for him to be caught, Jovanovic must have had a small radio transmitter instead of a tape recorder. According to the rules of the game, there's no way this little "tool" can be carried into "the heart of enemy territory". Because the "heart" is always equipped with adequate controls and it is simply impossible to go in undetected.

Therefore, if Jovanovic (or someone else) really did do this, either something was wrong with him or it was once again a matter of "carrying out orders". This means that someone wanted to follow the meeting with the British officials live. Completely crazy, and completely typical of an amateur policeman the likes of Kertes.

Often seen these days entering the building of the Serbian president (after alighting from a police BMW), Mihalj Kertes is also important to the story of the bugging of the Yugoslav president. While he was still high up in the federal government, Kertes signed the document whereby the building of the federal police became the property of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs. When this building was officially occupied a few months later, the biggest number of Serbian special police units were placed in front of the premises of the State Security Service and the technical services building - the two departments representing a thorn in the flesh of the republican police force.

The technical services building was added on to the federal police some time ago and houses the best bugging personnel and equipment in the country. Similar premises were supposed to be built into the new building of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but, according to our sources, this plan failed due to incompetence. From what is known, the republican police had no better luck in obtaining bugging equipment. According to the book "The Serbian Army" by Dobrila Gajic-Gasic, formerly in charge of the cabinet of General Simovic, the Serbian Minister of Defence, the Serbian government used to cooperate with the London branch of the American firm CCS (Communication Control System), well known for its shaky business and sale of the cheapest bugging and surveillance equipment.

Amongst other things, these are the reasons why it is suspected, even in Cosic's closest circles, that the neutralization of the technical services and State Security Services was the main motive for taking over the federal police building.

To make it even clearer, it is important to know that four police forces are engaged in the work of bugging. The federal and republican police, military counter-intelligence and the police force of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. In political circumstances such as ours, it is obvious that these police forces follow, control, bug and obstruct each other. This theoretically means that when anyone of any importance picks up the phone, he is automatically listened to by four operators (or tape recorders). Also, that these operators (or tape recorders) are in some way listened to or obstructed, by four other people or devices. And so on.

The small war between the police, of course, takes place in secret. It is also absolutely illegal (like all eavesdropping in most cases, except when carried out under strict directions on the order of an investigating judge), and therefore it is no wonder that information on it is strictly confidential.

The only traces that exist at the moment are a few unofficial statements and one official statement. It was in this way that we were able to find out from Cosic's associate that it was "possible that at the last meeting of the State Coordination Council, some information on bugging was given by Federal Minister Bulatovic". The minutes of this meeting are a state secret.

We also learned that it is "possible" that there is some "written evidence with data on bugging", just as it is "possible that such a document was personally given to President Cosic". The next "possible" is that which is added to by the words that "....it isn't the right moment for it to be made public". So - we are definitely being bugged, but have no official proof, said the Yugoslav president's close associate to us at the end of our talk.

The only official statement on bugging is the one given on Thursday by Nebojsa Covic, President of the Belgrade City Board of SPS. "The federal government is keeping SPS under close surveillance", said Covic, having previously emphasized that he had no information on the bugging of Dobrica Cosic and that "the allegations have not been verified".

It is indicative that Covic made his statement on the same day "Borba" published the story about the bugging in the park of President Cosic. If this means that SPS, frightened by the possibility of a "public hearing" on bugging, decided to attack first, we shall no doubt hear about it soon. It is interesting that on the same Thursday, vice-president of the Federal Executive Council, Radoje Kontic, in answer to a question about the bugging of members of the federal government, told reporters that " there was no knowledge of bugging".

Unlike Covic, a cool indifference is shown by other members of the federal authority talking to VREME who say that "anyone who has to rely on bugging, a strong police force and repression, usually has no political future". It should also be said here that members of Cosic's cabinet say that, as long ago as the seventies, they "worked out a method of combating surveillance and a system of safe communication" together with Cosic, so that they are not all that worried.

In any case, in order, for example, to listen in on Cosic in a park, it is necessary to use an "organ" (a series of microphones placed in tubes of different size) or a "parabolic mirror" with a microphone in the center, and an operator to "focus" on the mouth of the person being bugged. All this costs the earth, and then, afterwards, no-one with let it be known what Cosic or Milosevic have said. And maybe it was something interesting?