Captain Dragan through the eyes of DB

Daniel Snedden, later known as Dragan Vasiljković, appears in these documents, mostly Laufer's, quite early. It can be reconstructed that he attracted the attention of the State Security at the end of 1990 when he flew from Nuremberg (FR Germany) to Belgrade in his plane, that he had contacts in Bar from before (Vreme wrote about this) and that since then they have been working on him intelligence indicative line". Then a certain Gordana Đurić who worked for Nikola Šainović, who would become Dragan's first connection in Milošević's government, flew in with him. In a lengthy report from April 3, 1991, operative Dragan Filipović (better known as "Fića" and "F-2"; the irony of fate...) recounts in detail Vasiljković's (he is still Daniel Snedden for them) conversations with various people. In short, the captain becomes very interesting to them because of his connections with the "extreme wing of the SPO" (plainclothes journalist Dejan Lučić and one Aleksandar Pavić, a political scientist from the USA), with whom, Fića says, he agrees to get them weapons if they think they are violently overthrowing the regime. He also says that in January 1991 he traveled to the US to "establish contact with the CIA" about it. His earlier contact, however, was Srba Milovanov, known on Zvezdara as Srba Avijacija, then a deputy of the SPO, who immediately defected to the radicals and Seselj. I guess they knew each other through the airline line.

photo: Željko Jovanović

WHO IS KAISER BOBBY: Captain Dragan gets in touch with Nikola Šainović through Gordana Đurić. One way or another, Šainović connects him with Radmil Bogdanović as a more competent person for those jobs. This is where love begins: first, Srba Milovanov tells Captain Dragan that in connection with "that job in Kninska Krajina... he is no longer offering his services to anyone... Now I have spoken with the Minister of the Interior and that, in a way, has been left to me." Uncle Radmilo and Dragan met on April 3, 1991, and it was love at first sight. Srba has already arranged everything for him: an official car, a driver, "the minister of the interior is behind it". Dragan was promised a few dozen educated young police officers to train them in Knin, and everything couldn't be better. Captain Dragan reports to Gordana Đurić that "he has renewed hope for the salvation of Serbia, because he met very smart and professional people in the MUP".

Until November 1991, there is no more word about the Captain in these archives. No wonder: until September 1991, the captain (nothing more is needed) is the favorite of the Serbian public, an invincible hero who is guarded by Borke and Sneže, beautiful little boys, about whom comics like "Mirko and Slavko" are made, to whom Brana Crnčević brings plastic bags of steam to "Sumatovac", who is winked at by sly columnists on acres of newspaper pages, who takes pictures with middle-aged men and beauties; in general, the absolute pet of the Vaskoliki Serbia. What he did during that time is the subject of another and longer story, but about when the trial in Croatia takes place.

In the meantime, the SDB is introducing phone control measures and preliminary processing of Klara Mandić, along with intelligence indications on the Israeli service. Quite old-fashioned, they justify it with her alleged "sympathy for Israel during the 1974 war", connections with various Israeli businessmen and the unverified claim that her "brother works for the Mossad". They also mention the famous Society of Serbian-Jewish Friendship, which is best forgotten. Those two "lines of work" of the Service, Dragan and Klara, will soon meet.

In the meantime, the love subsided for reasons that we will talk about more when the trial of Dragan Vasiljković in Croatia comes. Briefly: The captain quarreled with Milan Babić and later with Milo Martić over war crimes and the future policy of the Republic of Srpska Krajina and was soon asked to leave that territory.

As expected, on November 6, 1991, the Belgrade Board of the SDB, above the signature of Franko Simatović personally (o tempora, oh mores! Well, weren't they war comrades and comrades?), suggests the secret monitoring of Daniel Snedden's telephone conversations from the telephone in the apartment where Klara Mandić lives, which can be seen from the previously approved measures of TKTR against her. The captain now has a suspicious face; "He got tired", as Ljuba Živkov would say. The reasoning is routine: he served in various armies; and has connections with various officers of Israel, Great Britain and Germany; and "allegedly had certain contacts with the CIA", but also with "some extremists from SPO". How? "He advocated connecting with foreign affairs, forming and arming paramilitary formations" (Bravo, Frenki) etc.; they picked up where they left off in April; they had no idea who Snedden was. Franki proposes the measure as "permanent", because the first measure of three months proved to be useful: "...we propose that from the expiration of the current solution, the measure will be applied as a permanent measure". Beware: "from expiration"! I don't know how legal it was back then; something doesn't seem right to me, but what about that?

As early as December 12, 1991, we have a report on the secret monitoring of telephone conversations of a person named Robert (for friends Bobby) Kaiser, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany and for some time a business and other friend of Captain Dragan (the measures were introduced on July 15, 1991). So he says: On December 11, Kaiser calls a certain Brian Hall in the US and inquires about the purchase of a certain larger amount of military equipment, and arranges to go to Atlanta, Georgia, and visit various companies in the area. Now, where does Bobby Kaiser fit in? With the Captain, because he introduced me to him in the summer of 1991 (there was also a certain Richard Schneider, the same as them, but he soon disappeared from circulation). That Bobby Kaiser is a descendant of Danube Swabians from Ilok (as he claimed) and came to Bačka Palanka in 1991, where he opened a store for hunting weapons and equipment under the company "Global Consulting". The bottom line is that the three of them (Dragan, Bobby and Richard) were flying in violation of EEC sanctions, importing obsolete electronic and other equipment and selling it for big money to these amateurs of ours from the Service and the Army. By the way, Dragan led that Kaiser around Krajina, where he enjoyed himself: he took a picture in a camouflage uniform, with a rifle of the "Galil" system and painted on his face, in that armored train of Blagoj Guska that "goes where there are no rails". That Bobby Kaiser soon moved away from Serbia and all Serbian countries and in the process took various other people's personal belongings, as the Captain later told us melancholicly.

PLANTING PUMPKINS: Dragan Vasiljković, however, appears in Klara Mandić's phone conversations during the summer of 1991, but by her processing line and phone number. Thus, on August 23, 1991, Dragan talked to a Slaviša from Krajina about the political situation; before that, a party is held around his stay in Belgrade, where many will come, including Vuk Bojović. In the information from April 1994 about Dafina's affairs, Klara Mandić is mentioned in the context of taking some 50 million marks to Cyprus, which was discussed here earlier. Captain Dragan appears for the last time in these archives on July 25, 1992, as part of the summary information about the events in Eastern Bosnia from the Center of DB Valjevo: "In Bratunac (it says so...) Captain Dragan also came on three occasions and talked with government representatives (it is not said which governments). A certain Pupe, Captain Dragan's man, a month ago took a group of twenty people from Bratunac to their camp near Skelan for training that lasted about four weeks. Derikonjić Miroslav, the president of SDS Bratunac, was also involved in making the training arrangements. Later in the information, "Mitrović Pero and Spasojević Dušan (not ours; This one is from Bajina Bašta.), who present themselves as employees of the MUP of Serbia... During one stay at the Militia Station (Bratunac, maybe), Mitrović boasted in front of a group of citizens that he was in the company of Captain Dragan, who gave him permission to liquidate about 100 Serbs in this area, in order to restore order... Ten days ago, Mitrović went to Skelane with Captain Dragan, since when he did not come to Bratunac."

Dragan, therefore, hung around Eastern Bosnia, which he confirmed in an interview with "Vremen" journalists in 1993. Then, we will repeat, he was "disgusted by war crimes" and by having to "save Muslims from the Serbian knife". But we will talk about that another time, when the time comes.

Now, from this perspective of Udba, it can be seen that political pragmatism is a serious matter. Dragan was very suspicious of them - until he approached them, even while he was selling them outdated electronics for good money. When they parted ways politically - well, then under measures immediately. Whoever plants pumpkins with them, they bang on his head.

To end this boring and sad story: I hear that the director of the BIA, Saša Vukadinović, is very dissatisfied with this radical publication, because in this way there is a danger of "de-conspiracy" (revealing) of the names of the Service's workers and collaborators, since in many cases we are talking about small communities , so it can be easily done. He is right to be angry: it is about revealing official secrets. No one is preventing him from filing criminal charges against the editorial board of "Collected Works of Prof. Dr. Vojislav Šešelj" who broke the agreement with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and added their Laufer documents - if we may.

Bokana for the minister!

The great leader of the "White Eagles" has been going through this record only since June 1992, through the line of contacts with an emigrant Đorđević from Chicago, to whom he explains that he was in Bosnia and that the leaders of the Republika Srpska are "living intelligence, proven and selected people". , Velibor Ostojić, Aleksa Buha and that. "Banja Luka must be an experimental city of Serbian brains"; says Bokan. Alex Buch, however, suspects that "he may have been set up by the police". In another conversation, with a certain Takić from Bosnia, Bokan says that some people suggested to him that the "White Eagles" led by him, Bokan, establish power in Bosnia and become Bosnian special forces.

Thank God, nothing came of it, but on October 7, 1992, Bokan talked to a woman from Pale. He tells him that he is sending him "50 fighters, hardened in the war with Croats and Muslims and that each is a beast in his own way, and to take care of how they are treated and that the promised demands in terms of monetary compensation are necessarily fulfilled". Otherwise...

In these archives, Dragoslav Bokan is mentioned again - and it was not until the beginning of June 1993. Namely, the Savski venac department of the Belgrade RDB Center learned "from a reliable source" that on June 1, 1993, Public Security searched the premises of something called " Serbian Fatherland Association" and seized one M-70 automatic rifle, one Shpagina automatic rifle (M-41) and 200 bullets. Four (!) security guards of that Alliance said that the weapon belonged to Dragoslav Bokan. The militia tried to find him at his father's and mother's, then at the swastika, but he was not there.

Already on August 13, 1993, however, the RDB liaison from Zaječar contacted Bokan in order to find connections in the Army, but those connections turned out to be inappropriate. The agreement with connections from Republika Srpska (Sonja Karadžić and Biljana Plavšić) is to "push Dragoslav Bokan to a ministerial post in order to gain political legitimacy... It is particularly noteworthy that negotiations are being conducted with the Serbian Orthodox Church, with, as they say, the elders of a monastery on Hilandar that certain help should be given to a party in Serbia. Funds in the amount of 100 to 500 thousand marks are mentioned, so in connection with that Dragoslav Bokan should travel to Mount Athos," says CRDB operative Zaječar.

Let's also add that a little later Dragoslav Bokan was arrested in Novi Sad for unlawful deprivation of liberty and attempted extortion against a local businessman, but this was lost in the judiciary at the time.