Macedonia Editor to Sue over Serbian Spy Claims

Dragan Pavlovic-Latas, now editor of Macedonia’s national Sitel TV and of the daily newspaper Vecer, said he would sue Vreme for libel for publishing the story.

Citing counter-intelligence sources, Vreme said Latas acted on the orders of the then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic whose regime was under NATO air attack for its actions in Kosovo.

The daily published a document containing information on Latas’s contact with a Serbian Intelligence officer and in which he appears to be receiving an order to contact other members of the Serbian community in the country to organize a protest in front of the US embassy that would appear spontaneous. The US embassy would be turned to ashes, Latas allegedly replied, according to the document.

After the start of the NATO bombing campaign, several thousand protestors in Skopje burned part of the US embassy while the then ambassador, Christopher Hill, was still inside. Police intervention prevented further damage and the ambassador and staff escaped unharmed. Police also prevented protestors from attacking a nearby hotel where many foreign nationals including US citizens were staying.

In the published document, Latas is depicted as a trusted informant of Milosevic’s secret service. When asked whether he could influence some people from the then ruling VMRO DPMNE party on behalf of Serbia, Pavlovic allegedly replies that he is only able to gather intelligence as his trusted men inside the party have been marginalized by a pro-Bulgarian faction. At the time the head of VMRO DPMNE and Prime Minister was Ljubco Georgievski.