ОЗНА: Служба безопасности коммунистической Югославии

Security agency of Communist Yugoslavia

The Department for Protection of the People, commonly known under its Serbo Croatian acronym as OZNA, was the security agency of Communist Yugoslavia that existed between 1944 and 1946.

The OZNA was founded on 13 May 1944 according to decision of Josip Broz Tito and under the leadership of Aleksandar Ranković (nom de guerre Marko), a top member of the Politburo until his downfall in 1966, and a close associate of Josip Broz Tito. On 24 May 1944, only a day before the Operation Rösselsprung, Tito signed the Military Courts Regulations , which in article number 27 stated that the court reaches its decisions whether the accused are guilty or not based on its free evaluation, regardless of the evidence. Based on the investigations performed by the OZNA, the military courts reached their decisions.

Until the OZNA was established, intelligence and security tasks were carried out by several organizations. In spring 1944, the tasks were carried out by the Section for Protection of People in central and western Bosnia, part of Croatia, and Vojvodina; the centers of territorial intelligence in Croatia, Vojvodina and Montenegro; the intelligence division of the Internal Affairs Section within the Slovene National Liberation Committee presidency in Slovenia; and the intelligence service of the partisan detachments in Central Serbia, Macedonia, and Kosovo.

When the National Liberation Army changed its name into the Yugoslav Army (JA) on March 1, 1945, the OZNA of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia proclaimed by special directive (March 24, 1945) a new organization of the JA – OZNA. The OZNA was in direct command of counter intelligence protection of military command posts, institutions, and units. Sections were set up within independent corps. This third OZNA section was in force until the end of July, 1945. The "military" and "civil" part of the OZNA began to separate in 1945 and split in March, 1946. At that time, the new splinter organizations, the Administrative Directorate for Security of JA – KOS (Kontra Obaveštajna Služba) was formed from the military part and the Directorate for State Security (UDBA) from its civilian counterpart. Since the OZNA was left without its third section after the military counter intelligence service became independent, it formed a new third section unconnected to the previous one. It focused initially on reconstruction and combatting operations of the German intelligence service (especially Gestapo). Later, the third section assumed operations for all foreign intelligence services, borders, and traffic of foreigners (which were essentially the tasks of the fifth section). The fourth section continued filing information they had been collected within the OF VOS since 1941. From initial information files on 4,000 people, by the end of the war the number had increased to 17,750. The OZNA was led by a chief who was directly subordinate to the Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army, Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

Throughout its existence, the OZNA used illegal practices which included occasional mass murders of the "enemies of the people", under the justification of conducting the "revolution". The "enemies of the people" included not only local anti communist forces but also notable individuals who did not support the communists, collaborators with the occupying Axis powers, wealthy individuals, captured members of Croatian Armed Forces (Independent State of Croatia) and representatives of religious organisations regardless of their specific religion, etc. This period was also characterized by the presence of strong armed anti communist and fascist groups in central Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. Some represented a serious challenge to the new communist authorities. In combating armed anti communist groups, the OZNA and KNOJ murdered prisoners without any investigation or trial, sometimes also murdering civilians associated with them. The majority of the atrocities committed by communists were hidden from the public during the period of SFRJ. The Government of Serbia and its Ministry of Justice established the commission to research atrocities that were committed by members of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement after they gained control over Serbia in autumn 1944. The report of this commission presented a list of 59,554 registered deaths after communist victory in Serbia since autumn 1944 who died from various reasons.