BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Hina) - The scandal caused by the murder of a former senior official of Serbia's secret police which has been rocking the Serbian political scene for days and threatening to seriously destabilise the ruling DOS
coalition, flared up on Tuesday following new claims that "a parallel secret service" was being formed at the office of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. Today's issue of the Belgrade weekly Nedeljni Telegraf claims that Kostunica was trying to establish a parallel state security service with the aim of strengthening his own position in Serbia as well as to appoint the murdered former secret service official, Momir Gavrilovic, head of the secret service. The weekly carries an interview with Gavrilovic's wife who has confirmed that her husband visited the office of the Yugoslav president on several occasions and met the President in person once. She has also confirmed that her
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Hina) - The scandal caused by the murder of a
former senior official of Serbia's secret police which has been
rocking the Serbian political scene for days and threatening to
seriously destabilise the ruling DOS coalition, flared up on
Tuesday following new claims that "a parallel secret service" was
being formed at the office of Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica.
Today's issue of the Belgrade weekly Nedeljni Telegraf claims that
Kostunica was trying to establish a parallel state security service
with the aim of strengthening his own position in Serbia as well as
to appoint the murdered former secret service official, Momir
Gavrilovic, head of the secret service.
The weekly carries an interview with Gavrilovic's wife who has
confirmed that her husband visited the office of the Yugoslav
president on several occasions and met the President in person
once. She has also confirmed that her husband told her the meeting
tackled exclusively personnel issues in the state security
service.
Gavrilovic was killed on August 3, only a couple of hours after he
had a long meeting with Kostunica's associates at the Yugoslav
president's office. The Belgrade paper Blic, which quoted
anonymous sources from Kostunica's office, was the first to publish
the news about Gavrilovic's visit to Kostunica's office.
Those sources also told the paper that Gavrilovic had allegedly
handed to the office documents on connections between some
officials in the incumbent authorities and organised crime
circles. The identity of the sources and the names of those
Gavrilovic allegedly incriminated were not published.
Due to public pressure, Yugoslav President Kostunica addressed the
public via television last week, confirming Gavrilovic had visited
his office and talked to his associates "complaining about the high
level of crime in society."
Based on this statement, the prosecution in Belgrade requested the
office of the Yugoslav president to submit said documents in order
to launch an investigation. However, the office did not submit the
documents incriminating individuals from the current authorities
but forwarded the prosecution written statements by the officials
at Kostunica's office who spoke with Gavrilovic, as well as a
transcript of the talks.
Gavrilovic's wife has confirmed that her husband made no mention at
all about the alleged corruption of senior state officials. She
reiterated that her husband discussed exclusively his return to the
service and his request that he be appointed head rather than deputy
head of the state security.
Citing an anonymous coalition official, Nedeljni Telegraf says
that "the head of Kostunica's office, Ljiljana Nedeljkovic, and
advisor Gradimir Nalic, who cannot stand the fact that he was not
appointed Serbia's Interior Minister, participated in
disseminating false information."
The paper quotes the same source as saying Kostunica did not know
the information about Gavrilovic's visit to his office would leak
out and that after an unexpectedly strong reaction of the Serbian
government, Nedeljkovic called him saying he should cut short his
holiday and address the public."
For the first time since the scandal broke out, Serbian Interior
Minister Dusan Mihajlovic addressed the public on Tuesday saying
the police were already investigating the murder but "will not
participate in resolving political disputes caused by some other
people, who now cannot deal with their own political intrigues."
Mihajlovic also accused "certain politicians" of being engaged in
the establishment of parallel centres of power. He refused to
comment on the claims of Nedeljni Telegraf and called on reporters
to engage in "investigative journalism and establish who is trying
to create parallel centres of power."
(hina) rml