Security expert and retired university professor, Prof. Ivan Babanovski, PhD, talks about the connection between illegal arms trade and organized crime in the country and the region. The conversation with Prof. Babanovski is part of the activities of CIVIL’s project “The Past, Present, and Future of Arms Control in the Republic of North Macedonia” with support from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Resilience Fund.

This is like a wholesale market, you know how a wholesale market works, we have no insight into what is being sold in this area. I will give you three examples.

Tell us how the weapons enter, who buys them, who sells them, how and where they go?

First, in 1997, in March, in 51 seconds the country of the Republic of Albania fell apart and 600.000 Kalashnikovs were taken out from the military warehouses, 3 thousand tons of TNT classic explosive were exported to Iraq through a Bulgarian firm, when Saddam Hussein was in power. Three thousand tons were exported, but how many thousand tons were distributed and looted across the world, remains unknown.

What is the situation like in our country?

Nobody knows how many short barrels (guns) and rocket launchers are sold through our ground.

Secondly, on November 6, 1991, Zheljko Razhnatovic – Arkan (leader of the paramilitary formation “Serbian Volunteer Guard”) came to Skopje and brought two trucks of weapons. He was a guest of then Minister of Interior Jordan Mijalkov, I was his advisor. At the time, I was not in that company, I did not sit with them in Holiday Inn, then Grand Hotel, but was on an 11- day visit to the big firm “Teranegra” in the Netherlands.

Where are those weapons now, after so many years?

Arkan brought the weapons, was a guest of Done (Tanevski), Director of “Makedonija Turist”, afterwards he acquired Holiday Inn.

Mijalkov, Done, Gorgje Naumov, the Minister of Justice, and Rade Perishic, who was in an extramarital affair with Yeltsin’s sister (former Russian President Boris Yeltsin), and he together with Arkan brought the weapons here. Those weapons ended up on Pelister under the control of Crnomarov (then head of the Sector of Interior Affairs – Bitola – Dimitar Crnomarov), and to date no one has given an answer to what happened.

Were there any actions for collecting weapons at that time?

That action was called “Amber Fox”, that is what UNPROFOR called it, and I was mocking because they managed in this area for you to find a piece of weapon in anyone’s pocket if you went to Bit Bizarre.

Why on Bit Bizarre, are you alluding on a national basis?

No, that is like a phrase to me, otherwise the biggest smugglers of weapons are not the Albanians as is thought, but there are several Macedonian who (operate) depending which party is in power.

How is the state preventing this?

The weapons that were transported to Pelister, I found out through a close collaborator of mine that some structures from the police had gotten involved in dealing these weapons and in Kravari in an operation, 42 boxes of long-barreled ammunition (Kalashnikovs) were recorded, a large part for short barrels (guns), hand-held rocket launchers, machine guns…

What was their purpose, for paramilitary or for smuggling?

Part of the weapons, a man with his son from the village of Kravari (Bitola) brings to Skopje. My students from the then State Security Service were involved in this action and followed him all the way up to the pay toll near the “Mladost” Lake (Veles), and here they stop him, while at the same time are recording this the whole time on camera, and they take away his whole arsenal of weapons that was in the van, while his son was driving a Mercedes and clearing up the way for him, where there were police patrols he would stop and would ask them something, while this man would pass them with the van and hence everything was well organized.

I ask, I don’t want to name him now, a then student of mine, head of the State Security Service Bitola – “when you were going from Kravari to Skopje, why did you arrest them at the pay toll near the “Mladost” Lake, why didn’t you wait for him to take the weapons where he would hand it over and arrest those people as well. He said – you know professor…. I said no, no, this means that you too were involved in this action. It passed and everything was well organized.

Can we say today that there is a mafia for weapons here in Macedonia?

To conclude, after they sentenced this person to 11 years, and his son to 5 years in prison, I made some conveniences for him in order to reach the person who was supposed to receive him. He says – professor, you are very smart, you are a professional, but if a tell you, they will come after me and my family.

Text editing: Dehran Muratov
camera: Atatnas Petrovski
editing: Arian Mehmeti

Translation: N. Cvetkovska

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this content are the personal view of the author/interlocutor and not necessarily reflect the views and positions of CIVIL – Center for Freedom, or of any other entity related to CIVIL.