ASIO MONITORED MACEDONIAN BISHOP KIRIL (CYRIL)
by Sasha Uzunov
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country's counter-intelligence service, was monitoring Macedonian Orthodox Bishop Kiril (Cyril) in late 1970s over his close association with the then Yugoslav Communist government's attempt to bring Australian-Macedonian Orthodox Churches under the control of Belgrade and his connection to controversial Yugoslav diplomat Dr Georgi Trajkovski, believed to the Yugoslav Secret Police (UDBa) mastermind behind the Croatian Six set up.
Bishop Kiril, who passed away recently, was appointed head of the Australian-North American Diocese in 1971.
The ASIO assessment paper from 1978--which is included on the ASIO file of Dr Georgi Trajkovski reveals that a fierce struggle, and in some instances resulting in physical violence, broke out between the pro-Yugoslav and pro-Macedonian factions, including an organisation called D.O.O.M. (Movement for the Liberation and Organisation of Macedonia) within the local Macedonian community in Australia.
The ASIO paper: "The struggle for influence and power gained momentum late in 1975 when a move was made by pro-Yugoslav factions to take over control of the Macedonian Orthodox Church councils and management bodies. The situation worsened in May 1976 when the Macedonian Bishop KIRIL visited Australia..."
The late Bishop Kiril (Cyril) (1934-2013) of the Macedonian Orthodox Church was under surveillance by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in the 1970s for his close relationship with the then Yugoslav Communist government and the then Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Dr Georgi Trajkovski. Below is the de-classified ASIO assessment of the struggle between the then Yugoslav Communist government and those Macedonians who were independent of Belgrade for control of the Australian-Macedonian Orthodox Churches, including a group called D.O.O.M. ! Photo taken in 1973 of Kiril consecrating a Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Kinglake, outside of Melbourne. Source: National Archives of Australia. www.naa.gov.au
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One of Australia’s worst miscarriages of justice, the Croatian Six terrorism case in 1979-80, may have been perpetrated by a Yugoslav master spy posing as a diplomat and who, would you believe it, not once but twice managed to outsmart Australia’s domestic spy catchers, ASIO, and even shook hands with an unsuspecting Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
Intelligence sources in Washington and in the Republic of Macedonia, one of the successor states of the former communist Federal Yugoslavia, have confirmed that Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Australia during 1978-79 was “hardcore UDBa (Yugoslav intelligence) and a key player in the Croatian Six set up.”
An agent provocateur set up members of Australia's Croatian community in 1979. Six Croats were imprisoned on false charges of wanting to plant bombs in Sydney.
Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.
Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.
In fact, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police (successor of the Commonwealth Police) and the infamous and corrupt New South Wales Police Special Branch were all aware that Visimovic was an UDBa operative but suppressed the information during the trial of the Croatian Six. Moreover, the alarming thing was the Australian authorities let the man depart the country. This was during Malcolm Fraser’s tenure as Prime Minister (1975-83).
BACKGROUND
Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic communist federation founded in 1945, modelled on the Soviet Union, and fell apart in 1991 into various independent nation states, including the Republics of Croatia, Macedonia and so on.
Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa) later known as SDB, together with Yugoslav military counter-intelligence (KOS) were largely pre-occupied with silencing dissident Croats, Macedonians, Serbs and Albanians living in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, who were agitating for independence from Yugoslavia. UDBa was so ruthless and efficient it at one time rivalled the old Soviet KGB and Mossad in liquidating opponents. In Munich, West Germany, a whole section of a cemetery was set-aside for Croats assassinated by UDBa Communist strongman Marshal Josip Broz Tito ruled Yugoslavia until his death in 1980 and during the height of the Cold War managed a great balancing act between East and West. He was seen as an indirect ally of the West after his infamous split with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1949.
Dr Georgi Trajkovski (points to a map of Yugoslavia) was the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne from 1975-79. He is pictured here with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Trajkovski was active in infiltrating the local Macedonian and Croatian activities. Photo - National Archives of Australia. www.naa.gov.au
See link for more on this... Read about Dr Georgi Trajkovski
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