[Banat]

So, whose dirty work were they doing if they were paid by France? I thought I’d ask.

[joan]

Some of these were later sent to Africa as mercenaries. That is what they said (Serbs in the unit), and it was confirmed that some (Croats and Serbs) were in the fighting there, when they (2 or 3 Serbs) were caught in 2000 trying to kidnap or assassinate Milosevic.

I suspect they are doing the dirty work of the international community/internationalists who start wars for various agendas - whether over African resources, the Balkans agenda, war profiteering, etc.

[joan]

I found the details of the men caught trying to kidnap or assassinate Milosevic, and that they had been members of the French Foreign Legion and were in its pay. But it was 1999, not 2000. It appears they were often working for NATO - infiltating the Yugoslav/Serbian army and helping provide bombing targets during the wars then going after Milosevic afterwards.

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2003w40/msg00119.htm

In November 1999, members of an assassination squad, code-named "Spider," were arrested in Yugoslavia. According to Minister Goran Matic, "French intelligence was behind" the Spider group, whose aim was the assassination of President Milosevic. Planned scenarios included a sniper attack, planting an explosive device alongside a route they expected Milosevic to travel, planting an explosive in his car, and organizing 10 trained commandos to storm the presidential residence. The leader of the group, Jugoslav Petrusic, had dual Yugoslav and French citizenship. Matic claimed that Petrusic worked for French intelligence for ten years. During interrogations, Petrusic said that he had killed 50 men on orders by French intelligence. Matic announced that one of the members of Spider was a "specialist for killings with a truck full of sand" - the same method used against Draskovic the previous month.

Following the Bosnian war, Petrusic organized the transport of 180 Bosnian Serb mercenaries to fight for Mobutu Sese Seku in Zaire, an affair that was managed by French intelligence. According to a Bosnian Serb businessman, Petrusic "did not hide the fact that he was working for the French intelligence service. I have personally seen a photo of him next to Mitterrand as his bodyguard." In younger days, Petrusic was a member of the French Foreign Legion. During NATO's war against Yugoslavia, the Spider group infiltrated the Yugoslav Army, supplying information to the French and guiding NATO warplanes to their targets.

Yugoslav secret service sources revealed that the Spider group trained at NATO bases in Bosnia where "buildings resembling those where Milosevic lives were constructed." Money from the French intelligence service for Spider was brought to the border between Hungary and Yugoslavia by a man named Serge Lazarevic. (8)