C. Wiebes - Intelligence en de oorlog in Bosnië 1992-1995. De rol van de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten - Engels

1808 March. It stated that ‘the VRS are clearly being resupplied across the Drina by helicopters’. Accordingto British diplomats, this claim completely contradicted the ICFY report of one week earlier. Theywondered why, if intelligence existed, it was not made available to the ICFY. British diplomatssuspected that this was ‘repeddling of others’ unsupported intelligence reports’. 928The BND and Netherlands MIS likewise reported on violations of the embargo against Serbiaand Montenegro by Romania and Greece. The Greek covert support to Serbia and the Bosnian Serbsduring the war in Bosnia is extremely well documented by the Greek journalist, Takis Michas. 929Russian and Ukrainian oil supplies to Serbia took place across the Danube. Hungarian cargo vessels,officially in transit to Romania, were also said to have actually been unloaded in Serbia, and the oilforwarded to the Republika Srpska. These services also reported that Greece violated the embargo bydrawing large quantities of electricity from Bosnia each day. Otherwise, this ran properly via Serbia toGreece, and the Greek state energy company paid $ 20,000 a month to Belgrade for using the electricpower lines. Furthermore, according to these services, the arms embargo was evaded on a large scalevia Macedonia. 930 Greek banks on Cyprus were also used and via these banks more than 770 millionEuros was spent by Serbia to buy arms from Russia and Israel. The Greek Central Bank would laterrefuse to cooperate with the Chief Prosecutor of the Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague, Carla DelPonte. 931 The trial at the Tribunal in The Hague against Serbia’s retired President, Milan Milutinovic,might perhaps bring more evidence to light as regards the Greek involvement. He apparently played apivotal role in the alliance between Greece and Serbia during the Balkan conflict. 932Much fuel was also brought in by train from Skopje. The British press accused Akashi of failurein this regard: ‘Akashi just wanted to push this into a black hole so we could forget about it’, accordingto an anonymous official. This reproach of Akashi is unjustified: UNPROFOR had no mandate tomonitor violations of the arms embargo or to enforce the embargo. 933 Finally, it is remarkable that noreport was made of smuggling of nuclear fuels to Serbia, although this country did have a secret nuclearprogramme. 934Other ‘donors’ to the VRSThe VRS also received support from the Russian mafia, who supplied arms and oil abundantly. Muchwould reach Serbia in transit via the Danube; payments were made from Cyprus. In the summer of1995, more than 480 Serbian companies were based on that island, a number of which had direct linkswith Milosevic. Oil, petrol, trucks, arms, ammunition, machine parts and consumer goods werepurchased through these companies. Each week, the trade was estimated at £ 6 million. The Russianmafia was also said to be involved with the sale of tanks from Red Army stocks. 935Israel is also alleged to have supplied arms to the VRS. The intermediary in this was JezdimirVasiljevic, a banker and a confidant of Milosevic. In October 1991, he reached an agreement withIsrael, and after that transactions went via the Croat Boris Krasni and the state companies Jugoeksport928 Confidential information (15).929 Michas, Unholy Alliance, passim.930 MoD, MIS/CO. No. 2694, Developments in the former Yugoslav federation, no. 66/92, 14/09/92 and‘Bundesnachrichtendienst: Handel mit Serbien geht weiter; Embargo wird umgangen’, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 21/07/92 andMarko Milivojevic, ‘The Balkan Medellin’, in; Jane’s Intelligence Review, Vol. 7 (1995), 2.931 Cees van Zweeden, ‘DutchBat in Srebrenica beschoten door Grieken’ (DutchBat in Srebrenica shot at by Greeks), RotterdamsDagblad, 22/06/02.932 Helena Smith, ‘Greece fases shame of role in serb massacre’, The Observer, 05/01/03.933 Robert Fox, ‘UN failing to halt sanction-busting trade with Serbia’, The Daily Telegraph, 12/05/94 and UNGE,UNPROFOR, Box 124, Akashi to Annan, Z-1106, 22/07/94.934 William C. Potter, Djuro Miljanic & Ivo Slaus, ‘Tito’s Nuclear Legacy’, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. 56 (2000) 2, pp. 63-75.935 Josef Bata, ‘serbiens geheime Auslandskontakte’, Aussenpolitik, No. IV, 1993, pp. 378-381 and David Williams, ‘HowRussian Mafia helps fuel Serbs’ campaign of slaughter’, Daily Mail, 15/08/95.