UDBA
Encyclopedia
The Department of State Security (Serbian
: Uprava državne bezbednosti, Croatian
: Uprava državne sigurnosti, Cyrillic: Управа државне безбедности, УДБА; Macedonian
: Управа за државна безбедност, УДБА; Slovene: Uprava državne varnosti) was the secret police
organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
.
Although it operated with more restraint than other secret police agencies in Communist Eastern Europe, the UDBA was nonetheless a feared tool of control. It is alleged that the UDBA was responsible for the eliminations of dozens of enemies of the state within Yugoslavia and internationally (estimates about 200 eliminations and kidnappings). Eliminations vary from those of notorious war criminals (e.g. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić
and Ante Pavelić
) in Spain
and Argentina
to those of the Croatian emigrant and scholar Bruno Bušić
on October 16, 1978 in Paris
.
/Informbiro
; and bureaucratic aspirations. In 1945 and 1946, for instance, the UDB was organized into districts. In 1950, when the administrative-territorial units were abolished as authorities, the UDB was reorganized again. During this period the intelligence and security activities concentrated less on intelligence and more on internal security. There was an emphasis on collectivism, brotherhood, social harmony, loyalty, and tolerance towards those with different views. Deviation from this set of values became an immediate issue for security services.
Later, the use of force was mitigated and when the process of "decentralization of people's power" began, intelligence and security services underwent further reorganization in order to decentralise power and increase effectiveness. The Act on Internal Affairs and the Decree on Organization of State Internal Affairs Secretariat regulated the intelligence security authority as the prerogative of the State Security Directorate within the Ministry of the Interior. The following reorganization addressed issues relating to the competence of the federation (state security, cross-border traffic, foreign citizens, passports, introduction and dissemination of foreign press, and federal citizenship).
in 1968, Hrvatsko proljeće (Croatian Spring) or "MASPOK" (mass movement) in Croatia
in 1971, an incursion of a group of nationalists (Raduša, 1972), and a revival of nationalism in Kosovo
, Serbia
, Macedonia
, and Slovenia
. The most significant event abroad was the invasion of the Warsaw Pact
troops into Czechoslovakia
in 1968.
These were the circumstances at the time the first act on internal affairs of the individual republics was adopted in 1967. According to this act, internal affairs were handled directly by the municipal administrative bodies and the secretariats of internal affairs of each republic or by their provincial bodies. This was the first time since 1945 that republics gained control and greater influence over their individual security organs and intelligence security services.
The State Security Service (SDB) was defined by law as a professional service within the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs (RSUP). Naturally, most of its competence remained within federal institutions, as prescribed by the Act on Handling Internal Affairs Under Competence of Federal Administrative Bodies (1971), which determined that the federal secretariat of internal affairs coordinate the work of the SDB in the republics and provinces. Further steps were taken with the transformation of state administration, adoption of the Federal Act on State Administration (1978), and the Republic Act (1978). The newly adopted act on internal affairs tasked the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs (RSUP) with state security issues, which then became RSUP issues and were no longer given special handling "at the RSUP". This resolution remained in force until the 1991 modifications of the act on internal affairs.
|-
The appointment of a commission to monitor the work was one of the most absurd decisions made by the country's intelligence security services during the era of "social democracy", since SDB activity was regulated by federal legislation and regulations published in the secret Official Gazettes. Neither the commission members nor its president had access to these Acts. It was difficult to evaluate information, since the commission had no investigative powers or capability to verify information. The head of the service was tasked simply to deliver requested information, even classified, to the commission. The SDB was also still receiving tasks from the Party, although the supervising commission lacked the powers to control those tasks. The above-mentioned events undermined the unity of the SDB, which formulated its own, unpublished regulations (sub-legal acts, ordinances, etc.). This made any protest about violation of rights impossible, as the regulations were inaccessible to the public.
The first democratic multi party elections in 1990, which enhanced the process of democratization, reverberated within the Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs (SSUP) and Federal State Security Service (SSDB), which were fighting to maintain control over the individual SDBs in the republics. The latter became increasingly disunited; it was still legally connected to the federal bodies, but was becoming aware of the fact that it operated and worked in their particular republic. Some professional cadres, especially those in the "domestic field" (dealing with the "bourgeois right wing", clericalists, and student movements), began leaving the service. Conflict was increasing, and SDB archives were being systematically destroyed. In its search for new roles, the SDBs also began to limit information they were sending to the SSDB. It ultimately restricted its information to foreign intelligence services.
Along with the weakening positions of the SSDB position was becoming weaker and attempts by the Yugoslav People's Army
Security Service or KOS to strengthen its position in the republics and in the individual SDBs were becoming more numerous. The attempts failed because they depended upon cadres of other nationalities still employed at the SDBs but who had no access to data bases and had no decision-making power due to their "Yugoslav" orientation.
Recently released files show over 1 million people of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia and other Yugoslav republics, whose files the UDBA in Slovenia kept records. Here you will see the names of the UDBA agents in Slovenia,( some of whom are still active in the Slovenian Military and Ministry of Interior and their victims. http://cae-udba.net
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Uprava državne bezbednosti, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
: Uprava državne sigurnosti, Cyrillic: Управа државне безбедности, УДБА; Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: Управа за државна безбедност, УДБА; Slovene: Uprava državne varnosti) was the secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
.
Although it operated with more restraint than other secret police agencies in Communist Eastern Europe, the UDBA was nonetheless a feared tool of control. It is alleged that the UDBA was responsible for the eliminations of dozens of enemies of the state within Yugoslavia and internationally (estimates about 200 eliminations and kidnappings). Eliminations vary from those of notorious war criminals (e.g. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić
Maks Luburic
Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić was a Croatian Ustaše, a war criminal, and the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp.- Biography :...
and Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
) in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to those of the Croatian emigrant and scholar Bruno Bušić
Bruno Bušic
Ante Bruno Bušić was a Croatian writer and critic of Yugoslav communism. He was one of the best-known victims of UDBA killing.Bušić was born in the village of Vinjani Donji near Imotski...
on October 16, 1978 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Functions
The UDBA formed a major part of the Yugoslav intelligence services from 1946-1991, and was primarily responsible for internal state-security. After 1946 the UDB underwent numerous security and intelligence changes due to topical issues at that time, including: fighting gangs; protection of the economy; CominformCominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
/Informbiro
Informbiro
Informbiro was a period in the history of Yugoslavia characterized by conflict and schism with the Soviet Union...
; and bureaucratic aspirations. In 1945 and 1946, for instance, the UDB was organized into districts. In 1950, when the administrative-territorial units were abolished as authorities, the UDB was reorganized again. During this period the intelligence and security activities concentrated less on intelligence and more on internal security. There was an emphasis on collectivism, brotherhood, social harmony, loyalty, and tolerance towards those with different views. Deviation from this set of values became an immediate issue for security services.
Later, the use of force was mitigated and when the process of "decentralization of people's power" began, intelligence and security services underwent further reorganization in order to decentralise power and increase effectiveness. The Act on Internal Affairs and the Decree on Organization of State Internal Affairs Secretariat regulated the intelligence security authority as the prerogative of the State Security Directorate within the Ministry of the Interior. The following reorganization addressed issues relating to the competence of the federation (state security, cross-border traffic, foreign citizens, passports, introduction and dissemination of foreign press, and federal citizenship).
Structure
Intelligence and security activity was organized in the following manner:- After OZNAOZNAThe Department for the Protection of the People was a security agency of the FPR Yugoslavia.-Founding:...
(Одељење заштите народа / Odeljenje zaštite naroda) was abolished, intelligence activity was divided among various federal ministries: the Federal Ministry of the Interior by the State Security Administration, and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Service of Investigation and DocumentationSlužba za istrage i dokumentacijuThe Service for Investigations and Documentation was the foreign intelligence agency of Serbia that deals with intelligence gathering and other security activities relating to terrorism....
(SID) which collected foreign political information; military-defense intelligence was handled by the GS 2nd Department- KOS (Kontraobaveštajna služba/ Counterintelligence Service) of Yugoslav People's ArmyYugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
.
- SDB in the republics was not autonomous, but was tied to the federal service which co-ordinated the work and issued instructions.
- State security was regulated by secret legislation (secret Official Gazette), which prescribed the use of special operations. The SDB performed house searches, covert interceptions inside the premises, telecommunications interception, covert surveillance of people, and covert interception of letters and other consignments.
- Of primary interest to the SDB was domestic security; identifying and obstructing activities of the "domestic enemy" (i.e. the "bourgeois rightwing", clericalists, members of the CominformCominformFounded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
, nationalists, and separatists). Intelligence work abroad was deemed less important and was under federal control.
- The SDB was a "political police", answerable to the party organization from which it received its guidelines and to which it reported. The SDB was so deeply rooted in the political system that one of its tasks was the preparation of "Political Security Assessments"; that is, assessments on literally all spheres of life.
- During its activity, the SDB enjoyed a wide range of power, including classical police powers (identifications, interrogations, and arrests).
- The SDB organization was constantly changing and making improvements, but it remained tied to the central unit in republic capitals and smaller working groups in the field. All information and data flowed into the central unit in the capitals and sent on from there to the users. Field groups had working contacts with the local authorities, but did not answer to them.
Activities
From 1963 - 1974, security intelligence services dealt with a series of domestic and foreign political events. At home, there were political confrontation both before and after the Brioni Plenum (1966), liberal flareups and massive leftist Students' demonstrations in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in 1968, Hrvatsko proljeće (Croatian Spring) or "MASPOK" (mass movement) in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
in 1971, an incursion of a group of nationalists (Raduša, 1972), and a revival of nationalism in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. The most significant event abroad was the invasion of the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
troops into Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in 1968.
These were the circumstances at the time the first act on internal affairs of the individual republics was adopted in 1967. According to this act, internal affairs were handled directly by the municipal administrative bodies and the secretariats of internal affairs of each republic or by their provincial bodies. This was the first time since 1945 that republics gained control and greater influence over their individual security organs and intelligence security services.
The State Security Service (SDB) was defined by law as a professional service within the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs (RSUP). Naturally, most of its competence remained within federal institutions, as prescribed by the Act on Handling Internal Affairs Under Competence of Federal Administrative Bodies (1971), which determined that the federal secretariat of internal affairs coordinate the work of the SDB in the republics and provinces. Further steps were taken with the transformation of state administration, adoption of the Federal Act on State Administration (1978), and the Republic Act (1978). The newly adopted act on internal affairs tasked the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs (RSUP) with state security issues, which then became RSUP issues and were no longer given special handling "at the RSUP". This resolution remained in force until the 1991 modifications of the act on internal affairs.
Eliminations
| Year | Country | Assassinated |
|---|---|---|
| 1946 |  Italy |
Ivo Protulipac Ivo Protulipac Ivo Protulipac was a Croatian lawyer and important Catholic activist , who was assassinated by Yugoslav secret police in 1946.... |
| Italy |
Andrej Uršič | |
| 1948 |  Austria |
Ilija Abramović |
| 1960 |  Argentina |
Dinka Domančinović |
| 1962 | Argentina |
Rudolf Kantonci |
| 1966 |  Canada |
Mate Miličević |
| 1967 |  West Germany |
Joze Jelić, Mile Jelić, Vlado Murat, Jusuf Gervalla, Bardhosh Gervalla, Anđelko Pernar, Marijan Šimundić, Petar Tominac |
| 1968 | Austria |
Josip Krtalić |
 Australia |
Pero Čović | |
 Early Modern France |
Nedjeljko Mrkonjić | |
| Italy |
Ante Znaor | |
| West Germany |
Đuro Kokić, Vid Maričić, Mile Rukavina, Krešimir Tolj, Hrvoje Ursa | |
| 1969 | West Germany |
Mirko Ćurić, Nahid Kulenović |
| Vjekoslav (Maks) Luburić Maks Luburic Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić was a Croatian Ustaše, a war criminal, and the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp.- Biography :... |
||
| 1971 | Argentina |
Ivo Bogdan |
| Maksim Krstulović | ||
| West Germany |
Mirko Šimić | |
 Sweden |
Mijo Lijić | |
| 1972 | Italy |
Rosemarie Bahorić, Stjepan Ševo, Tatjana Ševo |
| West Germany |
Ivan Mihalić, Josip Senić | |
| 1973 | West Germany |
Josip Buljan-Mikulić |
| 1974 | West Germany |
Mate Jozak |
| 1975 | Austria |
Nikola Martinović |
 Belgium |
Matko Bradarić | |
 Denmark |
Vinko Eljuga | |
| West Germany |
Ivica Miošević, Nikola Penava, Ilija Vučić | |
| Sweden |
Stipe Mikulić | |
| 1976 | Early Modern France |
Ivan Tuksor |
| 1977 |  Union of South Africa |
Jozo Oreč |
| West Germany |
Ivan Vučić | |
| 1978 | Early Modern France |
Bruno Bušić Bruno Bušic Ante Bruno Bušić was a Croatian writer and critic of Yugoslav communism. He was one of the best-known victims of UDBA killing.Bušić was born in the village of Vinjani Donji near Imotski... |
 United States |
Križan Brkić | |
| 1979 | Canada |
Cvitko Cicvarić, Goran Šećer |
| United States |
Marijan Rudela, Zvonko Šimac | |
| 1980 | West Germany |
Mirko Desker, Nikola Miličević |
| 1981 | Early Modern France |
Mate Kolić |
| West Germany |
Petar Bilandžić, Ivo Furlić, Ivan Jurišić, Mladen Jurišić, Ante Kostić, Jusuf Gervalla, Bardhosh Gervalla, Kadri Zeka | |
 Switzerland |
Stanko Nižić | |
| 1983 | West Germany |
Stjepan Đureković, Franjo Mikulić, Đuro Zagajski, Milan Župan |
| 1984 | West Germany |
Slavko Logarić |
| 1984 | Austria |
Tomislav Katalenic |
| 1986 | United States |
Franjo Mašić |
| 1987 | Canada |
Damir Đureković |
| West Germany |
Ivan Hlevnjak | |
| 1989 | West Germany |
Ante Đapić |
| 1990 | Belgium |
Enver Hadri Enver Hadri Enver Hadri was an Kosovo Albanian human rights activist. According to an Albanian blog AACL, he was assassinated by three Serbs while he stopped at a traffic light in Brussels, allegedly working for State Security Administration. This happened in the commune of Saint-Gilles, at the crossroads... |
|-
The UDBA after 1986
The role of intelligence and security changed after 1986, when a different mentality reigned within the Party and the processes of democratization were initiated. Intelligence security agencies came under attack, and many people started publicly writing about and criticizing the SDB. There were no more taboo subjects. The party organization was abolished in the SDB and the first attempts to introduce parliamentary control began.The appointment of a commission to monitor the work was one of the most absurd decisions made by the country's intelligence security services during the era of "social democracy", since SDB activity was regulated by federal legislation and regulations published in the secret Official Gazettes. Neither the commission members nor its president had access to these Acts. It was difficult to evaluate information, since the commission had no investigative powers or capability to verify information. The head of the service was tasked simply to deliver requested information, even classified, to the commission. The SDB was also still receiving tasks from the Party, although the supervising commission lacked the powers to control those tasks. The above-mentioned events undermined the unity of the SDB, which formulated its own, unpublished regulations (sub-legal acts, ordinances, etc.). This made any protest about violation of rights impossible, as the regulations were inaccessible to the public.
The first democratic multi party elections in 1990, which enhanced the process of democratization, reverberated within the Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs (SSUP) and Federal State Security Service (SSDB), which were fighting to maintain control over the individual SDBs in the republics. The latter became increasingly disunited; it was still legally connected to the federal bodies, but was becoming aware of the fact that it operated and worked in their particular republic. Some professional cadres, especially those in the "domestic field" (dealing with the "bourgeois right wing", clericalists, and student movements), began leaving the service. Conflict was increasing, and SDB archives were being systematically destroyed. In its search for new roles, the SDBs also began to limit information they were sending to the SSDB. It ultimately restricted its information to foreign intelligence services.
Along with the weakening positions of the SSDB position was becoming weaker and attempts by the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
Security Service or KOS to strengthen its position in the republics and in the individual SDBs were becoming more numerous. The attempts failed because they depended upon cadres of other nationalities still employed at the SDBs but who had no access to data bases and had no decision-making power due to their "Yugoslav" orientation.
Recently released files show over 1 million people of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia and other Yugoslav republics, whose files the UDBA in Slovenia kept records. Here you will see the names of the UDBA agents in Slovenia,( some of whom are still active in the Slovenian Military and Ministry of Interior and their victims. http://cae-udba.net
See also
- Kontraobaveštajna služba (KOS)
- Bezbednosno Informativna Agencija (BIA)
- OZNAOZNAThe Department for the Protection of the People was a security agency of the FPR Yugoslavia.-Founding:...
- Služba za istrage i dokumentacijuSlužba za istrage i dokumentacijuThe Service for Investigations and Documentation was the foreign intelligence agency of Serbia that deals with intelligence gathering and other security activities relating to terrorism....
- Aleksandar "Leka" Ranković
- Eastern Bloc politicsEastern Bloc politicsEastern Bloc politics followed the Red Army's occupation of much of eastern Europe at the end of World War II and the Soviet Union's installation of Soviet-controlled communist governments in the Eastern Bloc through a process of bloc politics and repression...