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Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 1992 17:58:52 EST
Reply-To:     Eleni Horaitis <s893937@MINYOS.XX.RMIT.OZ.AU>
From:         Eleni Horaitis <s893937@MINYOS.XX.RMIT.OZ.AU>
Subject:      ASIO - Makedoviko
Comments: To: Macedonia <macedonia@husc.harvard.edu>
Comments: cc: hellenic discussion list <hellas@brownvm.brown.edu>

Apo 2 efnmerides tns Paraskeuns, ta parakatw. Suggvwmn pou dev
ta tupwsa vwritera, alla opws katalabaivete, o fortos ergasias
eivai megalos.

Episns, xtes tuxaiws eida eva documentary, pavw stnv Giougkoslabia,
kai ta aitia tou polemou ekei.  Edei3e eva xartn me tis diafores
eparxies,  kai elege tnv sustasn tou pln0usmou ekei. Eftase stnv
"Makedovia" kai eipe "67% Macedonians, 33% Albanians."


Episns, sto teleutaio ar0ro (parakatw) avaferetai kapoios Angelos Pateras.
Nomizw sas exw 3avapei gi' autov. O pateras tou eixe idrusei tov
sullogo Flwriviwtwv, edw stnv Australia, kai ntav proedros gia polla
xrovia, ws ELLHNAS. Twra, o parapavw kurios, xrnsimopoiei to aln0ivo
tou ovoma (dnl. Pateras), otav tov sumferei, kai ta alla pou xrnsimopoiei,
otav eivai sta dika tou kuklwmata (Skopiavo), eivai Tomev kai Tomevski.
Basika, autos eivai o av0rwpos pou faivetai apo oles tis pavtes, dnladn
radiofwvo, tnleorasn, efnmerides, ktl.

Auta apo suvvefiasmevn Melbourvn

Sas xairetw

Elevn

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The Age, 4-09-1992

ASIO disdowns report on Macedonian spying
-----------------------------------------

By Mark Matherell
Diplomatic correspondent,
Canberra

The director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation,
Mr David Sadleir, yesterday disowned what purported to be an ASIO document
describing the infiltration of the Macedonian community in Melbourne
by dissidents.

In an unusual public appearance by an ASIO chief,Mr Sadleir said the typed
document, headed ASIO - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, was a fabrication evidently
aimed at causing dissention within the community and presumably to discredit
ASIO.

The document said that the Macedonian community has been infiltrated "by
those parties for whom the sovereignty of an independent Macedonian nation
is unacceptable".

It said that infiltration operations had been chanelled through the Macedonian
language media. It named as "instruments" Mr Boris Trajkov of the SBS radio
station 3EA, Mr Nikola Tasevski and Mr George Vassiliou of 3ZZZ, and Mr Panko
Stamkoski, the editor of the "Macedonian Weekly Herald".

Mr Stamoski yesterday strongly dismissed the document's assertions and said
it was "a childish idea". He said that anyone who knew about his background
as a Macedonian and opponent of the former Yugoslav communist government,
and of his newspaper's articles, would realise that he would not take part
in such activity.

Mr Stamkoski said he found a copy of the document slipped under his office
door six weeks ago after returning from his first visit to Macedonia in
30 years. He had been interviewed by ASIO officers about the document and
asked who he thought might have produced it.

The document said that the monitoring of activities in Greek, Serbian and
Bulgarian communities substantiated evidence that there "has been penetration
through local agents within the Macedonian sector in Melbourne".

It said that he named journalists had collaborated with Mr Stamkoski and
"collectively targeted key events for the purpose of discrediting
local activities and their organisers".

Mr Sadleir, the former Ambassador to Beijing who was appointed to head
ASIO early this year, said that so far as ASIO could judge, the document
had not had much effect.

At a news conference outside the ASIO headquaters in Canberra, Mr Sadleir
said that ASIO had not ascertained who had produced the document. But he said
investigations into the matter were continuing.

Copies of the document had been "trickling out" during the past six to
eight weeks. ASIO first viewed the document as an amateur one-off attempt.
But after other copies turned up in the last fortnight, ASIO decided to
draw it to public attention as a fabrication, Mr Sadleir said.

AAP reports that Mr Tasevski and Mr Vassiliou said ASIO was incorrect for
publicly releasing the document without first contracting all of those
named.

Both men are on boards of organisations including the Australian Macedonian
Welfare Council. Both men denied they were subversives or anti-Macedonian,
and said they had tried to engender harmony and understanding within
multicultural Australia.

Mr Tasevski said he regarded the documents as character assassination. "It
really creates divisions, suspicions, and really challenges and questions
our integrity and puts in doubt our whole work...It seems a little sinister
that ASIO would wait so long before they would go public". He said he
believed Mr Sadleir only went public because it was raised in Parliament.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

HERALD - SUN 4-09-1992

SPY REPORT  "A HOAX"
--------------------

By Adam Connoly

Australia's top spy has made an unprecedented public appearance to discredit
a forged ASIO document aimed at inciting ethnic violence.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director David Sadleir called
a press conference yesterday to label the single-paper a fraud.

Titled '"Asio - Strictly Confidential", the document claims Greek, Serbs and
Bulgarian secret agents "infiltrated" Macedonian communities in Melbourne
after last year's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.

The document said secret agents gained access to the Macedonian language
media, naming the Macedonian Weekly Herald, public broadcaster 3ZZZ and
SBS Radio 3EA.

"They have proliferated disinformation aimed at destabilizing the present
Macedonian Government and its leadership," the document claims.

"(They) have now concentrated their operations on mobilising disaffection from
the Macedonian international lobby initiated in Canada."

The report said the activities did not pose a security risk to Australia but
they could provoke community unrest.

Mr Sadleir dismissed the document, which has surfaced several times in
Melbourne over the past two months, as a fabrication.

"It seems to me to have been a rather unsophisticated attempt to present a
series of assertions as an ASIO document," he said.

"We are not spying on any of these communities."

ASIO has launched an investigation into the incident and federal police
are conducting inquiries.

A spokesman for the Federation of Macedonian Associations, Angelo Pateras,
said the document was circulated at a meeting of 100 people at the Preston
Macedonia Social Club [omada podosfairou] on August 9.

"In the 1970s, Macedonian community groups were very much infiltrated by
(the Yugoslav secret movement) Ubda," he said.

"If it is proven that this document is false there must be a resurgence of
activity by these people."
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU