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

211The Gulf War showed that there were ‘major gaps’ in the French monitoring network. This led to thedissolution of the Military Intelligence Service, which was replaced in 1992 by a larger service, theDirection du Renseignement Militaire (DRM). This service was to receive considerable Sigint capabilities,later strongly increased by the launch of the Helios spy satellite. The Sigint production was alsoincreased by a new organization, the Brigade de Renseignement et de Guerre Electronique, which was set up on1 September 1993. This latter service reported directly to the French Commander in Chief of theArmed Forces and was chiefly active in Sarajevo and Bihac. The former Director of Operations of thisservice, General Jean Heinrich, became the Head of the Direction du Renseignement Militaire. Heimmediately started the recruitment of some 300 new intelligence specialists. In 1995 the DRM hadsome 1600 employees. The accumulated expertise and its extensive network were also directed atBosnia.French resourcesThe service had excellent Sigint resources at its disposal, such as DC-8 Sigint aircraft and ‘sarigue’(Système aéroporté de recueil d’informations de guerre électronique), belonging to the 51st Electronique ‘Aubrac’(EE.51) Squadron, normally stationed at Evreux Air Base. This DC-8 flew countless Sigint missionsover the Adriatic in support of French ground operations in Bosnia. In addition two Transall C-160‘Gabriel’ reconnaissance aircraft were in the air over Bosnia, originating from the 54th ElectronicsSquadron stationed at Metz-Frescaty Air Base in eastern France. The C-160 Gabriel can interceptcommunications traffic and radar emissions at a distance of 800 km. This aircraft and the DC-8s wereused over Yugoslavia. Paris also had four AWACS aircraft at its disposal, as well as the Helios satellitewhich includes Sigint monitoring equipment and was built in great secrecy by the French companyMatra. 1119 The Direction du Renseignement Militaire had kept this secret from its European partners and, bythe same token, did not share this Sigint with them although they had made major financialcontributions to Helios. Finally, French Mirage F1-CR reconnaissance aircraft also flew Elint missionsover Bosnia. 1120Other European countriesBesides the United Kingdom, Germany and France, other European countries also conducted Sigintoperations in the former Yugoslavia. To date almost nothing has been known about this. One knownfact is that Italian monitoring stations were active during the war in Bosnia. To give one example, sometime before the attack on the enclave the Italian monitoring service, via a monitoring station in Italy,intercepted a telephone conversation between the mayor of Srebrenica and President Izetbegovic. Inthis call the mayor requested permission to evacuate the population, but this was refused byIzetbegovic. 1121 In 1995 the Italian Military Intelligence Service, the Servizio per le Informazioni e laSicurezza Militare (SISMI) operated a major satellite communications (Satcom) monitoring station inCerveteri outside Rome. Ten parabolic antennas listened in to communications traffic in the Balkans,the Middle East and North Africa. 1122 It also seems that elements of the 8th Battaglione Ricerca Elettronica‘Tonale’ of the Italian Army were active in Bosnia. 1123 Furthermore, the Italian Navy probably hadspecial trawlers for Sigint operations.1119 Guisnel, Pires, p. 156 and Lt. Col. R.L. Sargent, ‘Deliberate Force’, in: Owen, Deliberate Force, pp. 8-15 - 8-16.1120 ‘Les Avions-Espions Francais Gabriel et Sarigue’ (The French spy planes Gabriel and Sarigue), Air & Cosmos/AviationInternational, no. 1460, 21-27/02/94; ‘French Support Bosnian Elint Ops’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 14/08/95, p. 23and ‘French and US MilInt, Intelligence Newsletter, 07/12/95.1121 Confidential information (77).1122 Alberto Sisto & Francesco Sorti, ‘Echelon: Italia nel mirino,’ Il Mondo, 10/04/98. See also:http://www.privacy.it/nigro20010619.html and ‘L’Echelon segreta di casa nostra’, La Repubblica, 19/06/01.1123 ‘Abruzzo: Rischio smobilitazione per la stazione radar di Sant’ Antonio Abate’, Il Messaggero, 22/06/98.