860H.20/93
The Yugoslav Embassy to the Department of State
The Yugoslav Government issued today the following statement in regard to the campaign which is being carried on against the Yugoslav Minister of War and Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command, General Dragoljub Mihailovich, with the purpose of presenting the units of the Yugoslav Army under his command as inactive and General Mihailovich as cooperating with the Axis. According to reliable information, the Royal Yugoslav Government reports the following:
The units of General Mihailovich are organized throughout the whole country. They are well-organized, cooperating together and excellently commanded. The units of General Mihailovich are carrying on activities on a large scale in all of Yugoslavia, from Slovenia down to the Greek border. Other fighting forces apart from those of General Mihailovich are insignificant in number and activity in comparison to the army of General Mihailovich. The activities of the units of the Yugoslav Army under the command of General Mihailovich have not ceased for a moment although misinformed and misleading sources claim the contrary. The theater of fighting shifted from one part to another according to necessity and possibility, but in all that time represented and is still representing a continuous and uninterrupted action. The activities of the forces of General Mihailovich alone are tying up thirty to forty Axis divisions in Yugoslavia. Last Fall and Winter the center of activity was in Serbia, in the Spring of this year in Bosnia and Montenegro, and this Fall in western Bosnia and Croatia. It is necessary to stress the fact that the units of General Mihailovich here, too, play a decisive part. Even now they are in the course of operations in Serbia and in the valley of the Sava from Zagreb to Belgrade according to the general Allied war plan. These operations brought two more German divisions to Serbia in addition to the previous five, after which the Germans, Bulgarians and Pavelich’s troops undertook a thorough “cleaning up” in Serbia, committing appalling atrocities. During the month of November the sympathizers of General Mihailovich were persecuted in Serbia to the utmost. Near Belgrade, in the village of Jajinci alone, a thousand Serbs were executed and several thousands arrested. No details can be given regarding these operations which are being carried out in accordance with the Allied war plan. It can be said that the entire fighting activity in Yugoslavia is linked with General Mihailovich except in the western part of Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia where there are no other forces who are fighting against the [Page 834] Axis apart from General Mihailovich. In the above mentioned parts of Yugoslavia, there are the so-called Partisan detachments which are inspired with a certain political ideology and under the name of the Partisan Army of Croatia, Western Bosnia or the national liberation movement of Slovenia. There are also certain formations of Serbian nationalists outside the command of General Mihailovich, under the leadership of Birchanin and Jevdjevich, whose aim is to fight against Pavelich’s Ustashis in order to prevent to a certain extent the annihilation of the Serbs which is being carried out according to plan in Pavelich’s State. But in those parts with the various fighting movements, the troops of General Mihailovich represent the principal Yugoslav force and are giving the greatest and most advantageous resistance to the Axis.
Many of Mihailovich’s activities are falsely attributed to other fighting movements. The action of the forces of General Mihailovich, spread throughout the entire territory of Yugoslavia is being carried out clearly and in detail according to the general Allied war plan by Mihailovich. General Mihailovich has never before rendered such invaluable service as in these past several months. Recognition of his invaluable service to the Allied cause was accorded him by the British Imperial General Staff who sent congratulations to him recently.
All allegations of the inactivity of General Mihailovich and the defamation of his reputation in the country, that he is indirectly cooperating with the Axis, are the makings of an extremely ill-intentioned campaign. That this is true is proved by the fact, in addition to the telegram of congratulations from the British Imperial General Staff, that for the past three months the Yugoslav Press in Belgrade and Zagreb, under German control, has launched a very strong campaign against those suspected as being in contact with the organization of General Mihailovich. Thousands of persons suspected of such were arrested or executed.
Reports which have appeared in connection with a certain Constitutional Assembly in Bihach, whose work would conflict with the action of General Mihailovich, come from the same ill-purposed sources and were given publicity by the secret radio station “Free Yugoslavia”.
But, the realities in Yugoslavia, full of blood and struggle, will show to the whole world the baselessness and ill-intentions of the campaign led today by certain newspapers against one of the greatest heroes and organizers, who, with his numerous units is the central figure of Yugoslav resistance and of the entire struggle against the Axis in Yugoslavia.