Posted by N.V on October 17, 2003, 7:51 pm Regarding this interesting article, for the sake of the truth, I wish to inform you about two corrections. First, the statement that the Bosnians, Croats and Serbs are the same nation is not correct. There are three great branches of Slavic nations, and all of them have common roots in old Proto-Slavic tribes. One of the three branches is Southslavic branch comprising seven nations: Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgarians. Their languages are more or less different, and the greatest similarity exists between Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages. But nevertheless they are still different languages (each of them has his own international code) and nations are different nations. After all, Austrians, Germans and Swiss speak the same language, but are not the same nations. My second remark is related to the cause of the JAT DC-9 crash. A few days after that tragedy I heard a story, told to me in strict confidence by an aeronautical engineer (now dead), who was at that time a member of JAT's technical service on Zagreb airport. This is his story told in my words, as I remember it. The 26th of January 1972 was the last day of Soviet president Brezhnev's visit to Czechoslovakian Republic. For sake of security on the time when Brezhnev's departure from Prague airport to Moscow was planned, the whole air space of Czechoslovakia was for one hour closed for all civilian air traffic. The JAT DC-9 was late when departing from Copenhagen, and therefore was flying a bit faster to make the delay smaller. The pilot was, of course, informed about closing of the air space of Czechoslovakia. The disaster happened just at the time when the time of air space closure was running out, a minute earlier or later. Perhaps the pilot was aware of entering the banned space to early, but logically concluded that only one minute could not endanger the security of the plane flying from Prague to Moscow (it is highly probable that at this moment that plane was already out of Czechoslovakia) and he perhaps expected only a warning from the flight control, and perhaps an order to change the course. Or it may be that the JAT aircraft had crossed the border of Czechoslovakia just after the hour of forbidden flying ran out, but the AA (anti aircraft) forces didn't yet receive the adequate information from the higher command. Regardless of what happened, an antiaircraft missile was fired, (was it done by the Soviet or Czechoslovakian forces- is not important now) and it hit the JAT DC-9, which crashed in close proximity to the north Czechoslovakian border, some 80km north of Prague. It is evident that it was not to none of the involved states: USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, all of them were communist countries and two of them members of "SEV", convenient to reveal the truth to the world, and thus the story about Ustashe was constructed. Here ends the story told by the former member of the JAT's staff, and I continue by my own analysis of the content of your article. It is true that a great number of Ustashe were prone to cruelty; they killed my mother's sister and her husband, however, it is also true that only a small number of Croats were on the side of Ustashe's dictatorship. The great majority of population, including the Roman Catholic Church was in opposition to that government. But Yugoslav communist propaganda, through diplomatic and media's channels was spreading over the whole world the lie that almost all Croats were Ustashe, what to my people has brought lot of evil. The UDBA (Yugoslav equivalent to CIA) was widespread and very efficient, and it is very strange that it didn't recognize and wasn't informed about some activities in the circles of the Croatian extreme emigration, which would indicate a possibility of terrorist actions against aircrafts. Ms. Vulovic herself said that in JAT security training the danger of Ustashe attacks was never mentioned. The fact, that Ustashe admitted their responsibility for the bombing is of no importance. We are witnesses of many cases, when for the same terrorist attack two or more organizations admit responsibility. Anyone from secret services could send a massage to a news agency, or to a newspaper and present himself as Ustashe. Regarding the "terribly annoyed" passenger from Stockholm, who was seen on the Copenhagen airport by Ms. Vulovic and other crew members, it is hard to imagine that he was the terrorist who in his baggage in Stockholm had carried the bomb on the JAT plane. First, terrorists are cold-blooded people, which have their nerves under control and never behave in a way that would attract someone's attraction. Furthermore, if the "terribly annoyed" passenger had a ticket to Belgrade, and deplaned in Copenhagen, as all other passengers, then he should have been registered at boarding, and it would immediately be clear that one passenger is missing. And if his destination was Copenhagen, then his baggage had to be deplaned at Copenhagen too. Ms. Vulovic said that, after the disaster she miraculously survived, she spent 45 days in a hospital in Prague, and had a permanent police guard at her door because Ustashe wanted to kill her as the only witness. And which reason Ustashe could really have to kill her? Certainly not because she, when regaining consciousness and remembering moment of explosion, could tell that the explosion happened in the baggage compartment. The Ustashe by themselves "admitted" their responsibility for the terrorist act. It might be supposed that Ustashe planned liquidation of Ms. Vulovic to prevent her to witness against the "terribly annoyed" passenger from Stockholm, in case he have been arrested. But Ms. Vulovic said she was not the only witness, he was also seen by the station manager in Copenhagen, and supposedly some other officers on the Copenhagen airport. But surely he could have been recognize better than anybody else from the JAT crew which deplaned in Copenhagen. The logical conclusion that can be drawn from all these facts is that Ustashe didn't have any reason to kill Ms. Vulovic. However, it was very important for USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia to hide the truth from the world: A missile, ground to air or may be air to air, hit the JAT plane. Therefore Ms. Vulovic was completely isolated from the outside world, and was left from the hospital only when the doctors concluded that her amnesia was permanent, that she will never remember what was the real cause of the JAT DC-9 disaster. To thinking provoke and Ms. Vulovic's announcement: "I wanted (after the crash) to fly. But they (JAT) said I was not healthy enough to fly. Reality was that I was healthy, but they didn't want me. They didn't want me because they didn't want so much publicity about the accident". Indicative is also the sentence in which Ms. Vulovic says that all terrorist involved in the terrorist act were killed in the Croatian war for Independence. This statement implies that the names and surnames of the persons responsible for the criminal act were exactly known, but that now when there are no living witnesses, is useless to speak about the past event. I personally think that is never too late to find out the real truth. P.S.
Name: Miroslav Sambolek
Email: sambolek@hrbi.hr
Location:
Date: March 1 2003
Comments
In your journal from April 2002. the interview of your journalist Mr. Philip Baum with Ms. Vesna Vulovic from Belgrade is presented. Although 30 years have passed from the tragic crash of a JAT DC-9, I remember very well this event, because a real miracle happened that nobody could expect. First of all I wish Ms. Vulovic congratulate her happy 30th birthday, and express my pleasure that the tragedy for her relatively happy ended (I agree with her that she is not a lucky person), and wish her a long life and a good health. I am especially glad that she in time recognized Milosevic's criminal plans, and courageously and openly opposed him, condemning aggression on Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia.
A young colleague of me, who was living in 1972 in Czechoslovakia, told me that he saw a documentary film about the JAT DC-9 crash made by the Czechoslovakian director. In the movie was explicitly stated that a cause of disaster is unknown.
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