Operation Opera Orientalis

Operation Opera Orientalis (also known as Operation Opera and Operation Labrador^[1]) was a false flag operation carried out during the Yugoslav Wars. In August 1991, the Jewish cemetery and Jewish community center in Zagreb, Croatia were bombed. The individuals responsible for the bombing were later found to be members of the Serb-controlled Yugoslav Air Force intelligence service.^[2]

Operation Opera was an attempt to discredit Croatia in the West, and ostensibly to detract from the validity of Croatia's demands for independence.^[3] The action was coordinated with a flood of false accusations launched by Serbian media and pro-Serb worldwide lobbies, such as the Belgrade-based Serbian-Jewish Friendship Society, in which independent Croatia was associated with World War II, Nazism and anti-Judaism.^[4] During Slobodan Milošević's trial at the ICTY, former KOS agent Mustafa Čandić testified that KOS agents infiltrated HDZ circles, launched terrorist attacks at Jewish graves in Mirogoj and then fled to Belgrade.^[1] According to the testimony, the officer in charge for Operation Labrador was the head of the security department, Slobodan Rakočević, in Zemun, while the operative staff of the second detachment of the counter-intelligence group in Zagreb were Colonel Ivan Sabolović and Major Čedo Knežević. With respect to Operation Opera, Radenko Radojčić was in charge.^[1]

Within several days of the bombing, however, tens of thousands of people, among them government and religious officials, poured into the streets of Zagreb to express their support for the Jewish community. Damages from the bombing were quickly repaired with the help of the Croatian government.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Slobodan Milosevic Trial - Transcripts". ICTY. 2002. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/slobodan_milosevic/trans/en/021111ED.htm. Retrieved March 10, 2011. 
2. ^ "Affairs In the Army". http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/serbian_digest/44/t44-1.htm#IVC. 
3. ^ Anatomy of a Balkan Frame-Up", Jerusalem Post, 3 February 1993 (Abstract)
4. ^ Yugoslav Jewry: aspects of post-World War II and post-Yugoslav developments, by Ari Kerkkänen
5. ^ "Yugoslav Army's Central Intelligence Unit: Clandestine Operations Foment War". http://www.borrull.org/e/noticia.php?id=11236#IVC. 

External links

• Anatomy of a Balkan Frame-Up", Jerusalem Post, 3 February 1993 (Abstract)
• Operations Labrador and Opera
• Statement of Radenko Radojčić, former JNA intelligence (Croatian)
• Čandić: KOS po Hrvatskoj minirao grobove, montirao snimke (Croatian)
• Afera "opera" (Serbian)
• Haški procesi (Croatian)