By: Dr Metod Berlec
Since 2003, when our former owner, Australian Slovenian Dušan S. Lajovic, arranged for the publication of the Central Active Registry (CAE) online under the domain Udba.net, it has been known that the current Slovenian candidate for European Commissioner, Marta Kos, collaborated with the State Security Service. The registry was compiled in 1987 by the then Republican Secretariat for Internal Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, which also oversaw the State Security Service (SDV), the successor to the State Security Administration (Udba). Today, the official document is part of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. Marta Kos is listed under entry number 452234 in this registry, and her SDV file number is 0014000-05448.
We asked Igor Omerza, one of the leading experts on Udba archives (aside from the still-living Udba members), what this number signifies. According to him, her number means that “she was a registered source”, meaning “she also had a code name”. Omerza explains: “A source is a lower rank than a collaborator, but the distinction is not very clear, and a source would typically be promoted to collaborator.” He refers to them collectively as “Udba confidants, as both terms involve a person who consciously collaborates with Udba”. Given that she became an Udba source in the late 1980s, Omerza believes there is a high likelihood that her related documentation has been destroyed. And even if he came across one of “her” documents while studying Udba archives, due to her having a code name, he would not have known it was hers. However, the fact that the “Central Active Registry, popularly known as Udba.net, was preserved from 1987 indicates that she was already a confidant during her journalism studies at FSPN”. According to our information and that of Bojan Požar (from police sources), Marta Kos also acted as an Udba confidant during her stay in Germany, in the city of Cologne, at the radio station Deutsche Welle, where she claims to have moved two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989). “Sources say she was in contact with an SDV employee (inspector) Stojan Celin (from CSDV Maribor), known as a prominent Udba member in the Koroška region. Kos allegedly sent him information from Germany via mail through her acquaintance and fellow swimmer. The letters to Celin, which her friend was not allowed to open, were supposedly marked with two dashes in the top left corner of the envelope. Due to the numerous letters to Celin, which her friend reportedly personally delivered on Kos’ behalf, rumours began circulating that Kos and Celin were lovers.” According to Požar’s sources, this situation continued until the swimmer’s husband, out of curiosity, opened one of the marked letters and realised what was really going on. Afterward, he forbade his wife from delivering any more letters to Celin.
Požar’s police sources also claim that Kos had a similar operational task in Germany as former Delo editor Mitja Meršol (later a member of Janković’s Positive Slovenia party) had in London as a journalist for the BBC’s Slovene section: “to spy on the Slovene and Yugoslav communities in London, while Kos did so in Köln or Germany.” Based on the information presented, Marta Kos was an “Udba informer”. Although she denies it, the Central Active Registry and sources confirm it, which is undoubtedly very damaging for someone aspiring to become a member of the European Commission. Marta Kos’ brother, the Carinthian lawyer Miran Kos, is also listed as an SDV collaborator in Udba.net, while her more well-known brother, Drago Kos, is listed as an employee of the RSNZ. It is important to note that Udba, as the Yugoslav or Slovene political police, systematically violated basic human rights. It was an “organisation for identifying and sanctioning political opponents in former socialist Yugoslavia”. The legislation of the defunct SFRY gave Udba almost unlimited powers. It operated secretly abroad, where it had no such powers, conducting numerous covert operations, murders, extortion, and kidnappings. It used its agents and collaborated with Yugoslav and foreign civilians. In short, it was a criminal organisation that collapsed with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, while its employees, collaborators, and informers mostly cleverly adapted to the new times.
Additionally, there is increasing information that Zoran Janković, the notorious mayor of Ljubljana, influenced Marta Kos’ selection as Slovenia’s new candidate for European Commissioner. As we have written before, Janković has significant influence over GS president and Prime Minister Robert Golob. Our sources suggest that even employees from key ministries (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Defence) have recently been visiting Janković to lobby for high-ranking positions in these ministries. Janković, on the other hand, reportedly wants Kos to become the Commissioner for Enlargement to benefit his Serbian friends (primarily Milorad Dodik and Aleksandar Vučić) and his controversial Balkan business dealings.