The unaddressed legacy of the former Yugoslav secret service (UDBA) has resurfaced at the heart of European politics. Decades after the collapse of Yugoslavia, the classification, manipulation, and selective opening of intelligence archives continue to weaponize history across the Western Balkans—most recently threatening a high-profile EU appointment.
More than thirty years after the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the ghosts of its security apparatus continue to exert powerful political influence. The enduring volatility of these legacy files was thrown into sharp relief during recent European Parliament confirmation hearings for Marta Kos, the EU Commissioner-designate for Enlargement.
Kos, a Slovenian diplomat and former journalist, faced intense questioning over persistent but unproven allegations regarding her alleged cooperation with the Yugoslav State Security Directorate—universally known by its notorious acronym, UDBA. Kos, who was in her twenties during the twilight of the Yugoslav regime, avoided giving direct answers about her past media career in Ljubljana.
The controversy has forcefully revived a broader regional debate over lustration, institutional transparency, and the failure of post-Yugoslav successor states to systematically purge their intelligence sectors.
The Evolution of Yugoslavia’s Security Apparatus
Following the collapse of the federal state, the singular framework of the UDBA splintered into seven distinct national security agencies.
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│ UDBA │
│ (Yugoslav State Security Dir.)│
└───────────────┬───────────────┘
│
┌──────────────┬──────────────┼──────────────┬──────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
Slovenia Croatia Montenegro Serbia Kosovo
(SOVA) (SOA) (ANB) (BIA) (AKI)
Proving an individual’s historical complicity with these agencies remains exceptionally difficult. A 2021 European Parliament resolution explicitly demanded the comprehensive opening of all former Yugoslav archives, specifically focusing on UDBA records.
While former Eastern Bloc nations like East Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic systematically opened their secret police files during the democratic transitions of the early 1990s, the Western Balkans took a vastly different path. Emerging from brutal ethnic conflicts and state collapse, successor states either institutionalized legacy networks or allowed key records to be destroyed, Leaving the regional transition incomplete.
The Varying Approach to State Archives across the Region
1. Slovenia and Croatia: The Early Openers
Slovenia was the first nation to transition its files into the public domain. Today, surviving historical UDBA files are physically housed within the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, managed under the oversight of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA).
However, historians warn that the record is far from complete. Slovenian historian Božo Repe noted that the archives underwent at least two massive purges:
- The Late 1960s: Following the dramatic ouster of Yugoslav Interior Minister Aleksandar Ranković.
- The Late 1980s: An estimated 17,000 intelligence files were systematically destroyed on the eve of independence.
“We simply do not know what was removed, added, or politically altered to target liberal-left or right-wing political figures,” Repe explained.
Croatia followed a similar trajectory, transferring between 15,000 and 20,000 communist-era intelligence files to the Croatian State Archives. Croatia’s modern Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) inherited the physical infrastructure of the old system.
Croatian historian Martin Previšić, author of an authoritative study on the Goli Otok political prison camp, underscores that the transition was marked by institutional continuity rather than a clean break. Previšić cited a striking historical anecdote: a political prisoner arrested in 1948 survived decades of detention only to recognize his original UDBA interrogator, Josip Manolić, serving as the first Prime Minister of an independent, democratic Croatia in 1991.
In 1995, Manolić publicly defended the wholesale absorption of legacy intelligence personnel into the new republic:
“The decision of the high leadership of the Republic of Croatia was to take over all institutions in the composition they were in. There will be no revanchism against people who professionally performed their duties.”
2. Montenegro: Symbolic Progress and Institutional Vacuums
In Podgorica, the National Security Agency (ANB), established in 2005, has kept the vast majority of its files heavily classified. The agency has only unsealed a fraction of documents, specifically restricting access to materials dating prior to 1948—the earliest phase of the UDBA and its predecessor, the OZNA.
Human rights advocates state this minimal disclosure deliberately avoids the highly sensitive political files of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Montenegro currently lacks comprehensive framework legislation covering lustration, public service vetting, or systematic archival access, leaving the process in a persistent legal vacuum despite the country’s advanced status in EU accession talks.
3. Serbia: Total Stalemate and Active Operative Assets
The biggest archival blockade remains in Belgrade. Despite repeated promises by successive democratic governments following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, a statutory law opening the state archives has never been passed.
A brief window of limited access existed between 2001 and 2003, allowing roughly 420 citizens to view highly redacted versions of their files. Legendary Serbian dissident writer Dragoslav Mihailović, who passed away in 2023, recalled reviewing his surveillance file:
“The names of the informants who spied on me until 1990 were completely blacked out. The state security personnel merely logged my movements and physical meetings.”
Today, Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA), formed in 2002 to replace the compromised Milošević-era State Security Resort (RDB), maintains strict control over its archives. While files older than 30 years are theoretically transferred to the Archives of Serbia, all active operational records and post-2002 documentation remain classified as strict state secrets.
Security experts note that the politicization of the BIA remains entrenched, highlighted by the fact that more than half of its post-2000 directors have been political appointees with no prior intelligence background—including the agency’s current director, Vladimir Orlić.
4. Kosovo: Weaponized Intelligence and Missing Archives
Prior to declaring independence, Kosovo did not possess an independent domestic intelligence apparatus; its territory fell under the jurisdiction of the Serbian State Security service. The UDBA systematically targeted Albanian political activists within Kosovo, a campaign exemplified by the high-profile 1990 assassination of human rights activist Enver Hadri in Brussels. A Belgian court later ruled the killing was an official hit ordered by Yugoslav security services, sentencing former Serbian operative Božidar Spasić to life imprisonment in absentia.
Following independence in 2008, Pristina established the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI), heavily drawing personnel from the Kosovo Information Service (SHIK), an intelligence organ that emerged from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The exact location of the historical UDBA archives concerning Kosovo remains unknown. It is widely believed that retreating Serbian security forces transferred the vast majority of these files to Belgrade during the 1999 withdrawal.
Ehat Miftaraj from the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) warns that any information trickling out regarding these files must be treated with extreme caution:
“The Serbian authorities frequently use vintage UDBA data and intelligence fragments as a tool of special hybrid warfare, releasing manipulated files to selectively target and damage influential public figures within Kosovo.”
