Indigo Publications, June 08, 2001
What Former Legionnaires Are Up To
SECTION: COMMUNITY WATCH; CROATIA; N. 407
HEADLINE: What Former Legionnaires Are Up To
A network of Croatian soldiers who served in the French Foreign Legion
appears to be involved increasingly in illicit operations. A few weeks
ago, col. Bruno Zorica, alias Zulu, who headed the Obuka, a special
forces unit in the Croat army (HV) during the war in former
Yugoslavia, was arrested for trafficking in arms.
Many of the ex Legionnaires continue to hold senior posts in the HV
while indulging in other operations of dubious legality.
Two of them, gen. Ante Roso, former head of special operations, and
gen. Mljienco Filipovic, boss of Croat special forces (Zdrug), came to
public notice following the recent murder of Vjekoslav Slisko in full
daylight in the center of Zagreb. He was shot by James Marty Cappiau,
a former Legionnaire who held double Croatian and Belgian citizenship
and was himself killed in the exchange of fire.
The case of Zorica has shed light on the existence of criminal network
within the army. Zorica took part in trafficking in both weapons and
explosives in deals with a highly political connotation. His close
associates and superiors in the military have been caught up in the
investigation against him.
These include not only Roso and Filipovic but gen. Ante Gotovina,
former inspector general of HV and an ex Legionnaire, as well as gen.
Zvinomir Skender, number two in the Presidential Guard (Zbor) and also
a former Legionnaire (he was a lieutenant colonel in the 13th DBLE at
Djibouti).
The arms involved in the traffic were seized in Slovenia. They came
from two HV arms dumps, one at Karlovac, some 60 km south of Zagreb,
and the other near Osijek in eastern Slavonia.
Other equipment in the dumps has made its way secretly to Herzegovina
at a moment when tension is increasing between Croats and Moslems
following the desertion of several thousand soldiers from the Croat
part of Bosnia's army who went over to the ultra-nationalist HDZ
movement.
The region has fallen prey to latent instability, and specially since
a demonstration by ultra-nationalist Croats at Mostar on May 1 that
was staged to protest against SFOR's move to take control of the Bank
of Herzegovina. The establishment was accused of financing rebellious
Croat militia.
"There are legitimate fears the situation in Herzegovina will worsen,"
a senior Italian intelligence aide told Intelligence Newsletter. "The
arrival of additional arms from Croatia is a bad sign, and specially
because the Osijek dump contained a lot of special weapons, automatic
rifles with silencers, sophisticated detonators and Russian Agram mini
machine guns."
He added: "In fact, the Herzegovina lobby still rules the roost in
Zagreb and has every interest in stirring up tension so that it can
continue trafficking in both Croatia and Bosnia. SFOR would be wise to
keep its eyes open if it doesn't want to face a new conflict between
Croats and Moslems."
Some local experts fear efforts by Vinko Zuljevic Klica, former
commander of special forces of HVO (Croat army in Bosnia) to take over
the Slisko clan could make the situation even worse. As for the
international aspect of the arms traffic in which Zorica and other
ex-Legionnaires are involved, it concerns several countries, including
Italy, Spain and France, and particularly Corsica where a lot of Croat
ex-Legionnaires maintain good relations both with the underworld and
with Corsican separatist movements.
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