“UDBA down under” – documentary film about Communist Yugoslav spying in Australia.
FILM’S SHOCKING ALLEGATION: COMMUNIST TORTURE CHAMBER IN CANBERRA
Mr Nikola Stavrevski, who runs a successful photography business in Melbourne, has revealed in a camera interview for an upcoming Australian documentary film, that he saw what appeared to be a torture chamber in the old Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra, the Australian capital.
Mr Stavrevski, also the editor of a popular news website for the Australian-Macedonan community known as Informator, agreed to make his shocking allegation on camera for the documentary film “UDBa down under”, directed and produced by Melbourne independent film maker Sasha Uzunov, which details the former Communist Yugoslav regime’s use of its secret police to discredit emigre Croats, Macedonians and other dissidents.
Mr Nikola Stavrevski agreed to make his allegations on camera for the documentary film: “UDBa down under.” Photo by Sasha Uzunov 2012.
Mr Stavrevski was invited by the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to Australia, Mr Pero Stojanovski, to photograph the handover-takeover ceremony of the former Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra by the Macedonian government in July 2011. Serbian diplomatic officials handed over the keys.
After the collapse of Communist Federal Yugoslavia (SFRJ) in 1991, the various diplomatic missions were split up amongst the successor states, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.
“Ambassador Stojanovski told me,” Mr Stavrevski said, “that I wasn’t permitted to photograph a particular room inside the embassy. This room had been left closed up and unused for many years.”
“When we opened the door to have a look inside, I was shocked at what I saw,” Mr Stavrevski.
“The room was sound proofed, dark, and had a bathtub in the middle with a wooden rack used to to either tied down or secure something.”
He said that he immediately got the impression it had been a torture chamber used by the then Yugoslav Embassy and its secret police, UDBa.”
“Ambassador Stojanovski said to me that it was a delicate matter at the moment and that in due course the matter would be revealed in full detail.”
Mr Stavrevski further alleged in the filmed interview that he knew of Australian-Croats and Macedonians who had been “kidnapped” off the streets in Melbourne and Sydney and tortured by UDBa officers during the 1970s and 1980s.
Ambassador Stojanovski later became the centre of controversy over a legal dispute with his then girlfriend Lidija Dumbaloska over a failed relationship.
Link: Sydney Morning Herald article:
www.smh.com.au/national/exlover-menaced-diplomat-20110101-19cin.html
Film details
UDBa down under (45 minutes running time) – release date: late 2012 / early 2013.
An Australian a documentary film about the Yugoslav secret police (UDBa) in Australia, with a release date in early 2013. Directed and produced by Sasha Uzunov/Luke Leon Media. Interviewed on camera are Croatian and Macedonian community leaders, ex-Australian state police officers involved in counter-intelligence operations, and former spies both here in Australia and overseas.
The trailer/preview of UDBa down under – Yugoslav spying in Australia.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMIDTPyGe0&feature=share
Sasha Uzunov’s film making resume:
Director/Producer
Timor Tour of Duty (Documentary film) 2009
Brave Love (Short film) 2011 –
Kate’s Screen test (Short film) 2012 –
UDBa down under (Documentary film) – 2012/13
Cameraman
Afghanistan: Outside the wire (Documentary film) – Canadian Cable TV News (CPAC) 2011.
Hamish McDonald
Respected Australian journalist Hamish McDonald’s recent article titled, Framed: the untold story about the Croatian Six, in the Sydney Morning Herald, dated: 11 February 2012,
www.smh.com.au/national/framed-the-untold-story-about-the-croatian-six-20120210-1smum.html
McDonald in the longer e-book version (kindle) of his article writes:
“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.”
Who was the Croatian Six Mastermind? article by Sasha Uzunov.
http://teamuzunovmedia.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/croatian-six-mastermind.html”