In a revealing and deeply analytical exposé, Zoran Stijović, a retired veteran of the State Security Service (DB) who spent years investigating political assassinations, has unmasked the highly orchestrated, illegal operations that systematically shredded and sanitized the state’s secret archives following the fall of Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000.
Writing ahead of his highly anticipated book on the DB archives, Stijović details how a coordinated, multi-state cover-up by security officials permanently crippled the transition to transparency, ensuring that the true map of power within the state remained hidden in deep desk drawers, to be pulled out for political blackmail whenever necessary.
1. The Mechanics of a Coordinated Purge
Stijović reveals that immediately after the democratic transition, a newly formed team tasked operatives to independently document their firsthand experiences with the illegal destruction of security files. Concurrently, an encrypted directive sent via secure crypto-lines ordered all territorial and organizational heads of the DB to hand over records of the mass shredding.
The Architecture of the Archive Purge (Sept - Oct 2000)
[ THE SECRET NIŠ CONSPIRACY ] ──► SEPTEMBER 2000
• Before the formal fall of the regime, top security officials—including
Miloš Teodorović—held a clandestine meeting to pre-arrange the entire purge.
[ THE LOYALTY MOCKERY ] ──► CHIEF INTERVENTION
• Deputy DB Chief Nikola Ćurčić floated a superficial "dilemma" on whether
to burn the files, serving merely as a loyalty test for officers present.
[ THE SYSTEMATIC FILTERING ] ──► THE BANJICA SEGREGATION
• The service centralized all targeted registries at the School Center
Institute in Banjica, systematically filtering what to destroy and what to alter.
The selective destruction specifically targeted files on political opposition figures, public personalities, and members of the “Otpor” movement. Operatives incinerated check logs, index cards, operation registers, and technical wiretapping logs to erase the institutional memory of state-sponsored surveillance and intimidation.
2. The Informant Network: The Real Heart of State Control
The most sensitive and deeply buried aspect of the investigation focused on the Registries of the Informant Network. Stijović describes this hidden grid of secret assets as the true, invisible engine of the country’s political, judicial, and social realities.
Inside the Anatomy of a Secret Asset File
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ [ ABSOLUTE IDENTITY CLARITY ] ────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ • Contains the full legal name, alias, and secure code name of the │ │
│ informant, masked from all but a few high-level handlers. │ │
│ │ │
│ [ THE LEVERAGE & COMPROMAT ] ─────────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ • Logs the precise date, method, and reason for recruitment, deeply │ │
│ detailing personal vices, financial payouts, and compromising data. │ │
│ │ │
│ [ THE GRID OF TOTAL INFLUENCE ] ──────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ • Spans domestic and foreign diplomats, politicians, journalists, │
│ lawyers, judges, prosecutors, business magnates, and clergy members. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The depth of this infiltration was staggering: investigators discovered that within the Belgrade informant registry, a high-ranking asset was embedded directly inside the cabinet of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević himself, raising the unsettling question of exactly who was monitoring the head of state, and on whose behalf.
3. Historical Parallels and Devalued Openness
Stijović highlights that this was not the first time a massive historical blackout occurred. Following the 1966 Brijuni Plenum and the ousting of OZNA founder Aleksandar Ranković, the service held over 2.5 million active files. Vast swaths of invaluable historical evidence were permanently incinerated during that shift as well.
| Era & Focus of Document | Nature of the Archive Alteration | The Geopolitical & Historical Loss |
| Slavko Ćuruvija Dossier | Crudely altered and “cleaned.” Erased whole chronological blocks of surveillance before his assassination. | Analytical cross-referencing immediately exposed gaping “holes” in the official timeline. |
| Herman Neubacher & Obavještajci | Deep records detailing Nazi methodology on the Balkans and King Alexander’s assassination. | Reconstructing these files exposes how foreign powers actively steered historical turning points. |
| Tito & Enver Hoxha Files | Entirely withheld or heavily insulated from public viewing. | Leaves the pivotal 1953 Yugoslav shift toward the West and away from the USSR obscured. |
| The 2001 Declassification | A public relations illusion. The government lifted secrecy stamps on citizen files after they knew they were gone. | High-ranking architect Miloš Teodorović later ceremonially handed over select museum items to posture “BIA openness.” |
The Legacy of a Forgotten Investigation
Ultimately, Stijović asserts that the post-October 5th democratic authorities failed to comprehend the lethal weapon they had inherited or chosen to ignore. The investigation into the destruction of documents was deliberately choked out and buried in an endless loop of damage control.
By leaving these corrupted registries intact and permitting intelligence networks to alter dossiers with false, compromising data for future blackmail, the new government fell victim to a web of lies and counter-narratives woven by the old guard. A quarter-century later, the true map of power in the state remains completely distinct from the theatrical display visible on the public political stage, serving as a stark warning that a secret service dossier must never be read as neutral truth, but as a calculated fragment of a broader political war.
