SLOVENIAN ARMY OFFICERS DO NOT LIKE PAPARAZZI

Secret meeting of two high Slovenian army officers with president of the SDS Janez Jansa, because of the presence of a photographer ended in a fight

AIM Ljubljana, 14 October, 1997

The police brought charges against J.J., former (dismissed) minister of defence, nowadays deputy in the Slovenian parliament and president of the Social Democratic Party (SDS), T.K., former high officer of territorial defence of Slovenia and the first commander of the special brigade of the Ministry of Defence called MORIS, dismissed for involvement in civilian affairs which the army must not be involved in, even if ordered by the minister to do so, who is nowadays secretary of the Social Democratic Party, R.K. and B.M., superior officers of the Slovenian army, both employed in the Ministry of Defence, and M.S., director and owner of enterprise Tisa, for violation of public order and peace, demolition of other person's property and suspicion of unauthorized taking photographs. The latter refers to M.S., and everything else to the others who are all former officials but who still have ambitions for the future.

What has actually happened and who is concealed behind the listed initials in the news published in the "black chronicle" of Slovenian dailies?

At the inn called Livada (Meadow) at the outskirts of Ljubljana (as Janez Jansa, i.e. J.J., stated) he had a meeting with friends to celebrate his birthday at lunch. It does not matter that quite some time has passed since his birthday, but they had all been terribly busy, it does not matter either that Livada is not only far from everywhere, but also a restaurant with no specific image or reputation even among those who are not regular guests of any restaurant, so it is mostly empty and therefore as if cut out for discreet meetings of all kinds. Invited guests at the lunch were Tone Krkovic (T.K.), Rado Klisaric (R.K.), Boris Mikuz (B.M.), former organizers of the so-called manoeuvring structure of national protection (MSNZ) at the time of preparations for the struggle for independence of Slovenia when the main task was to prevent armament of territorial defence of Slovenia ending up in warehouses of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). It is obvious that Klisaric and Mikus had been quite busy that day too, because they arrived at the birthday lunch directly from work, in uniform. In fact, their working hours had not passed yet, it was about one o'clock in the afternoon. There is a rule that officers of the Slovenian army, which is depoliticized, must not meet leaders of political parties in uniform and during working hours. As private persons they can, of course, keep company of anyone they please, but in uniform and during working hours, this is an offence. Not far from the restaurant is the enterprise Tisa owned and managed by Milan Sercer (M.S.) who also gave a contribution to the "cause" as an ordinary member of the MSNZ. Sercer had graduated secondary forestry school in Postojna. When he saw his former commanders, Sercer took out his camera and made a few shots. Jansa approached and asked why he was annoying them while they were eating, and said that he should join them for a drink. Krkovic started to snatch away his camera, Klisaric joined him, Mikuz withdrew. The camera ended up in the river Ljubljanica, Sercer was beaten up, although not too badly, and Krkovic and Klisaric also had a few bruises to show. It turned out according to them, that Sercer had attacked them, and that they actually meant no harm, but were just annoyed by the "paparazzo". It turned out that an amateur photographer and forester beat up two heroes of the Slovenian war for independence.

The police raised charges and everybody believed that this was the end of it. But, not when Jansa is concerned. Jansa filed a complaint to the parliamentary commission for supervision of intelligence and security services because of suspicion that Sercer worked for one of the intelligence services of the Ministry of Defence - civilian security information (VIS) or intelligence security service (OVS) which used, without authorization, "special means and methods against officers of the Slovenian army". The commission is still in session, it interrogated the minister of defence Tito Turnsk, who labelled the fight at the inn "disgrace in Livade", but also denied that any military intelligence or security service had had anything to do with this affair, because "jobs such as this are done for us by SOVA" (civilian intelligence service of the Slovenian government). When this possibility failed, Jansa detected a new contribution to the theory of conspiracy against him ever since he was dismissed from the post of the minister of defence: even if there had been no official investigation, he claimed, it was conducted at the request of the director of counter-intelligence department of the ministry of defence, Brane Lukac. Like Server, Lukac had completed the forestry school in Postojna and knew him well. Lukac was using Sercer, Jansa claimed, because he had either given him a sign to take a photograph of the four men at the inn Livada, or he had by mere coincidence come to the neighbourhood for a drink, but in any case he had acted by instructions of the head of the counter-intelligence department.

The parliamentary commission, although it had not yet completed its work, filed a demand to intelligence services to "increase protection of intelligence data connected with this case". Rade Klisaric is the head of the commission of the Ministry of Defence which is investigating possible irregularities in purchasing of arms in Israel. The decision of the parliamentary commission leads to the assumption that Klisaric had been informing Jansa and Krkovic about its findings, as the leading personages of the Social Democratic Party. The Social Democrats, but especially Jansa and Krkovic know only too well that attack is the best form of defence, so they are defending themselves by "illegal use of special methods and means". This defence is in the style of "hold the thief", because on television Krkovic said loud and clear that he knew that Klisaric's report contained all kinds of things about the role of president Kucan and the then minister of defence Jelko Kacin who had visited Israel before purchasing of the arms took place. He could have found this out only from Klisaric, because the report has neither been completed nor published. But we are closer to the explanation of this "new conspiracy" now. When all Jansa's attempts failed to accuse Kucan, first, that he had initiated the trial to the four, then that he had surrendered arms of the territorial defence, that he had been the participant in the Maribor scandal, and numerous other minor and major accusations which all dispersed like soap bubbles and deprived Jansa of the little reputation he had had left, nowadays, at the beginning of the campaign for new presidential elections, Jansa cannot step out of his "circulus vitiosus" which begins and ends with Kucan.

A known psychiatrist, in an informal conversation at the recent congress of psychiatrists in Ljubljana, commented on the situation by saying the following: "The men who participated in the latest scandal at 'Livada', as well as numerous other participants in the political process or at various post in the administration, have come to power and become influential thanks to the role they played in those ten days of the war. If it had not been for that, they would have remained village dandies and at worst would have robbed a petrol station after a fight at the pub. They are simply men incompetent for the posts they hold and the jobs they are doing. Since they can do nothing right, they are experiencing a failure after failure, and seek the pretext in the alleged conspiracy against them. A conspiracy can be organized only by those who are superior to them, and that is why persons such as those concerned in the latest affair can do nothing but make up conspiracies against themselves, because they believe that others are unjustly at the posts that belong to them".

Zoran Odic

AIM