Trilateral’s New Puppet Prime Minister of Slovenia?

After Mario Monti has been installed the head of a “technochratic” government of Italy and Papademos the head of a “technochratic” government of Greece, Slovenia’s president Danilo Türk has nominated Marko Voljč as his candidate for Prime Minister of Slovenia. Like Monti and Papademos, Voljč is a member of the Trilateral Commission and has not been elected in any democratic elections.

Voljč is Türk’s second choice candidate for Prime Minister, after his first candidate, the former mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, was rejected by Slovenia’s parliament. Türk’s initial plan was to nominate Janković a second time, but the latter withdrew his candidacy amidst allegations that he was the subject of a criminal investigation by the state prosecutor general, the police and Slovenia’s anti-corruption agency at the instigation of Slovenia’s tax autorities. The latter allegedly suspect Janković of tax evasion, defrauding of creditors, abuse of public office and money laundering. In an unprecedented diplomatic move, the U.S. ambassador to Slovenia, Joseph Mussomelli, had publicly expressed reservations of the U.S. administration regarding the suitability of Janković as prime minister and allegedly warned leaders of other political parties against joining a coalition with him prior to the parliament’s vote. Rumour has it that the Americans “know all about Janković’s business dealings in Cyprus” and his alleged connections with cocaine smuggling mafia. Not long before Janković’s candidacy, Austrian authorities had arrested Alenka and Mihael Karner, two Slovene citizens, at the request of the American DEA for their role in the sale of illegal substances. The Karners had been involved in many property deals in Ljubljana involving the obtaining of planning permission while Janković was mayor and allegedly had many business dealings with Janković. Janković, often referred to by bloggers by his nickname “Mafijanković”, is known to the public as the father of Jure Janković. The latter was caught on tape by journalists ordering the hit on an investigative journalist Jaka Elikan, who was at the time investigating the business dealings of Electa, a Cypriot company owned by Jure Janković and his brother Damijan Janković. Electa’s primary “business” allegedly consisted of buying land without planning permission in Ljubljana and obtaining planning permission while Zoran Janković was mayor. Electa bought, for example, a plot of land at Jesenkovo for 277,000 EUR and signed heads of agreement with a Bruno Filipič to re-sell it for 32 million EUR after the land was granted planning permission. The agreement, however, was not completed because Filipič was arrested for trafficking the ingredients to manufacture heroin.

Janković’s rise to prominence in Slovenia’s national politics was precipitated by the fall of the previous government of Slovenia in November 2011. This was caused in a large part by the numerous affairs of the former Interior Minister Katarina Kresal. Kresal was alleged to be a user of cocaine (Miss Kresal had been publicly challenged to submit a sample of her hair for testing and refused to do so), was linked to the suspicious death of society doctor Saša Baričević, the forgery of nearly 500 signatures by her mother Frederika Kresal, the corrupt leasing of the Interior Ministry’s premises from Miss Kresal’s personal friend and numerous other affairs. Kresal was eventually brought down by the report of the anti-corruption agency, just as the head of the former (and currently still acting) Prime Minister’s cabinet was before her. During her tenure, Miss Kresal frequently dined with Mr Janković, such dinners having on occasion been followed by the dropping of police investigations of Mr Janković.

Türk, Janković, Kresal and Voljč are members of Slovenia’s left wing political elite, the three men among them having already been influential during Slovenia’s pre-1991 communist days.

In parliament, Janez Janša, leader of the right-wing opposition, enjoys more support.

Is an EU Member State Sponsoring International Terrorism?

At the end of 2010, Igor Omerza, a Slovene economist, attempted to access the archives of UDBA held in Slovenia to conduct research for a book he is writing. UDBA was the secret service of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, roughly equivalent to the East German STASI or the Soviet KGB. In a 2002 ruling, the Supreme Court of Slovenia ruled UDBA to have been a criminal and terrorist organization. It once collaborated with the Italian mafia and Carlos the Jackal and murdered a number of Yugoslavian political emigrants in North America and in Western Europe. In 1979, two agents of the Slovene branch of UDBA were caught in Austria when the terrorist attack they were plotting went wrong and the bomb went off prematurely, injuring them.

Mr Omerza

A law of 2005 declassified UDBA archives and opened them to the public. They now reside at the Archive of the Republic of Slovenia. Dr Dragan Matić, the Archive’s Director, refused Mr Omerza’s request to access the archive. Dr Matić claims he consulted SOVA, the present-day secret service of Slovenia, about Mr Omerza’s request and SOVA told him to deny Mr Omerza’s request. Zvonko Černač, Chairman of the Parliamentary Security Services Oversight Committee, which has the legal authority to access all the secret service documents, whether currently classified or not, launched an enquiry. SOVA refused to co-operate with the enquiry and has denied the Committee access to the contentious documents.

Dr Matić

Numerous eminent Slovene jurists have been unanimous in their opinion that both SOVA and the Archive are acting illegally. As UDBA archives are open to the public, the Archive must by law allow access to any member of the public and neither the Archive nor SOVA has any discretion in the matter. The Archive having consulted SOVA at all, by itself is highly unusual. By refusing to co-operate with the Parliamentary Committee, it is alleged, Dr Matić and Sebastjan Selan, Director of SOVA, have committed criminal offences. Complaints to that effect have been lodged with the Prosecution Service. Mr Černač has complained on national television that SOVA is treating Parliament with contempt and has carried out a coup d’etat. The last statement was echoed also by Janez Janša, the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Černač: Slovenia's secret service has carried out a coup d'etat

The Cabinet and Prime Minister Borut Pahor are backing SOVA, although they too, implicitly acknowledge that SOVA and the Archive are acting unlawfully. They have drafted emergency legislation which has been submitted into a fast-track parliamentary procedure. Parliament will consider the legislation on Monday 31 January 2011. The legislation, if approved by the Parliament, will legalize SOVA’s behaviour and will apply retrospectively. The measure has trumped everything else on the Government’s legislative agenda, including emergency measures needed to deal with the economic crisis.

The Government’s official explanation is that the measure is needed to protect the national interest, that Slovenia’s image internationally would suffer, and that certain Slovene citizens living abroad would face prosecution in their countries of residence if the information being requested were made public.

The Premier: must close the archive in order to protect Slovenes living abroad.

It is believed the documents contain information about the involvement in international terrorism by people who are still alive and are today powerful political leaders on the political left, as well as possibly by Slovene citizens presently living abroad. One of those named by the media as potentially liable to be embarrassed by the disclosures is the country’s President, Danilo Türk. Specifically, questions have been raised about the extent of his knowledge and involvement in the terrorist attack on Austria in 1979.

At issue is the question of whether SOVA is a successor organization of UDBA, or whether UDBA was a criminal and terrorist organization which served a totalitarian Yugoslav regime of the past, while SOVA is a legal organization serving a new democratic country of Slovenia. At issue is also the current role of Slovene citizens now living abroad whose position could be compromised by the disclosures.

Whatever the contentious documents contain, it is clear that some big skeletons are hiding in UDBA’s cupboards, skeletons which are of concern not only to Slovenia, but should also concern the international community.