Špegelj Tapes

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Špegelj Tapes were audio and video recordings of conversations of Martin Špegelj and Josip Boljkovac, which were secretly captured by the Yugoslav Army counter-intelligence service KOS, turned into a documentary film by Zastava military film centre, and aired in January 1991 to the larger Yugoslav public.

In the conversations, Špegelj and Boljkovac—at the time of filming Croatian Ministers of Defence and of Internal Affairs respectively—discuss arming of Croatians in preparation for the secession, the impending civil war with local Serb minority, which started the Log revolution and rebelled.

The more controversial parts of the tape consider brutal ways in which to deal with families of the army personnel. The tapes were a shock in the still peaceful Yugoslavia, months away from the civil war.

The Croatian leadership, including the main "actors" themselves, quickly dismissed the tapes as fake, claiming that the presumably innocuous videotaped conversations were subsequently dubbed. Their authenticity, however, was later all but confirmed, and Stipe Mesić was one of the first on Croatian side that admitted that tapes are probably authentic.^{[citation needed]}

The JNA leadership wanted Špegelj tried for treason. Croatian president Franjo Tuđman dismissed Špegelj from his post due to the affair (and possibly was ready to hand him over), but the later fled into Austria, returning less then a year later when it became apparent JNA has attacked Croatia in support of the local Serbs, triggering the Croatian War of Independence.

[edit] Quotes

As for border posts, when border posts are disarmed, then they will be disarmed, all of them, as many as there are, but leave Albanians five bullets in their automatic rifles, and the rest locked up in cellars and given food and water if this goes on for a few days. As for this, if something happens, then just give instructions to all your people who you know. Kill extremists on the spot, in the street, in the compound, in barracks, anywhere. Just pistol and into the stomach. That will not be a war, it will be a civil war in which there is no mercy towards anyone, women or children, that doesn't concern us. Into homes, family homes, quite simply grenades. (Špegelj)

We are going to resort to all resources. We're even going to use weapons. Knin we're going to resolve in the same way. We are going to slaughter everyone. We have international recognition for that that we're going to slaughter them now that this whore won in Serbia. Now the Americans, on the second day when he won, offered us all assistance, and until then everyone was speculating, they would, they wouldn't, this way, that way, 1,000 combat vehicles." (Špegelj)

We are going to use all resources. We're going to use weapons as well. Serbs in Croatia will never be there again for as long as we are there and we hope until now too their supremacy is a thing of the past. Their Knin will never be Knin again. We are going to enter Knin too. Knin has to disappear as Knin. All Croats should bear this in mind and we are going to create a state created at all costs, if necessary, at the cost of shedding blood. (Boljkovac)