ASIO DELAYS OVER SPY FILE
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the nation’s counter-intelligence agency, has inexplicably delayed responding to a request for a file on a former communist Yugoslav diplomat who might be linked to the Croatian Six case.
Sasha Uzunov, an Australian independent film maker and journalist, has tried to obtain under Australia’s National Archive Act access to the ASIO file of the late Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne during 1978-79.
Any federal government documents over 30 years become open to the public. Exemptions can apply on the grounds of national security. However, ASIO has 90 days to respond to any request.
So far Uzunov’s request, made on 4 November 2011, has taken almost double that time.
“I’ve made other requests for files and ASIO has responded within a matter of weeks,” He said. “I don’t know why this has taken over 150 days, almost double the time, just for a simple answer of yes or no.”
Uzunov, who is producing a documentary film about Yugoslav spying on Australia soil, titled UDBa down under, believes there is strong circumstantial evidence to link Trajkovski to the Croatian Six Case.
One of Australia’s worst miscarriages of justice, the Croatian Six terrorism case in 1979-80, may have been perpetrated by Trajkovski, a master spy posing as a diplomat and who, would you believe it, not once but twice managed to outsmart Australia’s domestic spy catchers, ASIO, and even shook hands with an unsuspecting Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
Intelligence sources in Washington and in the Republic of Macedonia, one of the successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), have confirmed that Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Australia during 1978-79 was “hardcore UDBa (Yugoslav intelligence) and a key player in the Croatian Six set up.”
In 1988, Trajkovski with the same modus operandi, the use of agent provocateurs and exaggerated claims of anti-Yugoslav subversion, had a fellow Yugoslav diplomat removed from his post in Melbourne right under the nose of ASIO.
In 1991 legendary ABC TV investigative reporter Chris Masters dropped a bombshell on the Four Corners program about The Croatian Six case.
An agent provocateur set up members of Australia’s Croatian community in 1979. Six Croats were imprisoned on false charges of wanting to plant bombs in Sydney.
Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.
In fact, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police (successor of the Commonwealth Police) and the infamous and corrupt New South Wales Police Special Branch were all aware that Visimovic was an UDBa operative but suppressed the information during the trial of the Croatian Six. Moreover, the alarming thing was the Australian authorities let the man depart the country. This was during Malcolm Fraser’s tenure as Prime Minister (1975-83).
An UDBa hitman Vinko Sindicic was arrested in Scotland in 1988 after a failed assassination attempt on Croat dissident Nikola Stedul. At Sindicic’s trial it was revealed he “had been in Australia in 1978, working with another Yugoslav agent on a plan to link Croatian political activists with terrorism.”
Hamish McDonald, an award winning Australian journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, has been following the Croatian Six case. He had this write on the subject:
“In a new video, the Macedonian-Australian documentary journalist Sasha Uzunov says he has evidence Sindicic set up the Croatian six conspiracy with the main UDBa official in Australia, Georgi Trajkovski, who operated under diplomatic cover as Yugoslav consul-general in Melbourne.”
Links:
Previews of UDBa down under
EMAILS – Request for ASIO FILE on Dr Georgi Trajkovski (reference number 11/21566 – National Archive of Australia)
Subject: RE: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:59:41 +1000
From: ######@naa.gov.au
To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Uzunov,
Unfortunately we have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response.
As it has gone over the 90 days you do have rights of appeal which are outlined in the following link:
Sincerely, ######
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t 02 6212 3924
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Queen Victoria Terrace,Parkes ACT 2600
PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre
ACT 2610
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From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:31 AM
To: ######
Subject: RE: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Hi ####,
Its been over 4 months (120 days) and no response on this request?
cheers
sasha
Subject: RE: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:36:38 +1100
From: ######@naa.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Uzunov,
I refer to your request for an update on your request for ASIO files relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.
Unfortunately I have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response.
Sincerely,
###########
Reference Officer
Reference and Information Services
Access and Communication
National Archives of Australia
Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600
PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610 t 02 6212 3924 f 02 6212 3999
e ####@naa.gov.au
naa.gov.au
—————————————————————————————————-
From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 2 February 2012 7:14 PM
To: ########
Subject: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Dear #####
Just wanting to know any progress on my request?
cheers
Mr Sasha Uzunov
mob 0419 635 808
————————————————————————–
From: Sasha Uzunov <sashauzunov@hotmail.com>
Date: 4 November 2011 1:42:12 PM AEDT
To: ########>
Subject: RE: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Thanks ##### for the quick response.
Georgi Trajkovski was under ASIO surveillance between 1977, 78, 79. He was Yugoslavia’s consul general in Melbourne. He may have been a Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa / SDB) officer under diplomatic cover.
Cheers Sasha.
———————————————————————————————————
Subject: Your Inquiry – Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 13:06:41 +1100
From:
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ms Uzunov,
Thank you for your request for an ASIO file relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.
ASIO records are eligible for release under the Archives Act 1983 after 30 years, subject to exemption of any material of continuing sensitivity as prescribed by section 33 of the ACT. They are generally only transferred to the Archives in response to applications for access under the Archives act.
In order to submit an application to ASIO I need you to provide the following information about Dr Georgi Trajovski:
Date of Birth
Period you believe he was under surveillance (eg. 19XX-19XX)
State he was living in a time of suspected surveillance
Reason you believe he was under surveillance (eg. Membership of organisations, participation in events, etc)
Once I receive this information I will submit the application to ASIO, and I will contact you as soon as we receive a response. Please note this process can take up to 90 days.
Sincerely,
#########
Reference Officer
National Archives of Australia – Canberra Office
Telephone: (02) 6212 3924
Fax: (02) 6212 3999
Email: ######@naa.gov.au