– newly released ASIO files reveal a clever Yugoslav spy plan and a powder keg of information from the mid 1970s. These revelations could put pressure on the New South Wales government for a judicial review of the 1980 Croatian Six set up.

By Sasha Uzunov

In one of the cleverest Good Cop, Bad Cop, Worse Cop Routines used, a three man Yugoslav diplomatic spy team lulled ASIO into a false sense of security and managed to create mayhem within Australia’s Croat and Macedonian communities as well as other Yugoslav emigre groups in the mid 1970s.

After a six month wait and a false start, ASIO has released two volumes on Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne Dr Georgi (George) Trajkovski. The files cover the 1975-77 period.

The ASIO files reveal a three man team made of Trajkovski, playing the part of loud-mouth, uncouth peasant; Petar “Pero” Lombardic, faithfull Trajkovski hatchet man and man-servant, and a third member, Anastas “Aco” Stojanovski, as the quiet back room plotter.

There is a veritable goldmine of information, an intelligence powder keg, revealing names of local people passing on information to the Yugoslav consulate in Hawthorn, Melbourne; ASIO wiretaps of telephone conversations; and surveillance of Trajkovski’s every move.

According to a 1976 ASIO report, an Australian government interpreter/translator heard Trajkovski boasting to a visiting Yugoslav Parliamentary delegation:

“that none of the Croatian or anti-Yugoslav clubs or societies in Australia posed a serious threat to the security of Yugolavia….the Consulate had successfully either infiltrated, undermined or obtained control of every society that had in the past been a threat.”

Other explosive revelations include:

An unsuccessful attempt to win over Canberra Croat leader Mario Despoja, father of future politician Natasha Stott-Despoja;

Trajkovski’s bullying of Melbourne Macedonian Orthodox Church leaders into coming under Yugoslav Communist control in 1976.

The bullying and physical intimidation was so bad that the leader of the St George (Sveti Georgi) Macedonian Church, Christos Pandelis Altis (aka Risto Altin, Chris Altis), a former brother in law to Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner, Paul Deliannis, went straight to ASIO headquarters to lodge a complaint.

Trajkovski’s gatecrashing, uninvited, to a Slovenian community function in Eltham;

Monitoring of the Muslim Bosnian community;

The setting up of a rival “Croatian” group, the Croatian Brotherhood Union of Australia, as a front for Yugoslav government activities;

Trajkovski’s mysterious disappearance, and losing his ASIO surveillance team, in Adelaide and missing a meeting with flamboyant South Australian Premier Don Dunstan in 1976;

ASIO confirmation of the existence of Victoria Police officer and counter-terrorism expert, Geoff Gardiner, who I wrote about in previous articles as being my source for Yugoslav spying activities in Australia.

Link to Geoff Gardiner story:
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1105/S00247/brave-cop-who-kept-victoria-safe.htm

Brave Cop Who Kept Victoria Safe
Tuesday, 31 May 2011