By: G. B.
We published a photo on our website of an article from Demokracija from early 2000, where the now-deceased Dr Jože Zagožen warned about the arms trade that Milan Kučan was involved in.
The specific involvement of Milan Kučan in arms deals with Israel during the 1990s was subtly highlighted in the TV Slovenija programme “Res je!”, which aired on Christmas 1999. This episode featured Israeli arms dealer Joseph Harel as a guest, along with a video link to then-prominent Israeli politician Shimon Peres, a socialist.
At that time, Jože Zagožen, then an SDS parliament member and previously head of logistics at the Ministry of Defence under Janez Janša, revealed numerous dirty details about the arms trade with Israel and how the deep state exploited it. Tragically, this arms trade led to the death of a Slovenian soldier due to a poor-quality Israeli howitzer. A secret agreement with Israel even resulted in a constitutional accusation against Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek in 1998.
This story is also linked to the Depala vas affair. As is well-known, Janša, as defence minister, became a target of UDBA operatives, especially when he delved into the arms trade intended for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was at war and desperately needed arms to defend itself against the well-equipped Serbian army. This arms flow, primarily of Chinese origin, was exploited by the deep state, and the Ministry of Defence was not informed until the infamous discovery of arms at Maribor Airport. A few months earlier, the deep state’s actors had targeted Janša after he pointed out in a TV Slovenija roundtable, following Danilo Slivnik’s famous column on the Hit affair, that dirty money (including tax evasion) could be used to buy elections.
The irony culminated yesterday in Bled when a pro-Palestinian demonstration occurred, reportedly involving Ana Kučan, Milan Kučan’s daughter. Along with other protesters, she showed red-painted hands to symbolise Israel’s “bloody hands”. The true irony, however, is that Milan Kučan’s inaction during the 1990 disarmament of the Territorial Defence led to later bloodshed and arms deals, making that disarmament the “mother of all scandals”. When you also consider that an Israeli howitzer killed a Slovenian soldier in Poček and seriously injured two others, the irony is complete. Ana Kučan should have first directed her protest at her father, who, in the late 1980s, was Slovenia’s highest-ranking party official and, from 1990, the President of the Republic.