WE SEARCHED FOR OLD ARMY HIDEOUT: It seemed like a normal hut, but when we entered underground tunnels, BLOOD FROZE IN OUR VEINS (PHOTO)

Two young man from Skopje, Andrej Pavlovski and his friend, wanting adrenaline and excitement, went to research Black Mountain of Skopje wishing to find former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)  headquarters. They were "armed" with pocket knife, video camera, flash light - with a lot of courage, because wolfs and bears are common in Black Mountain of Skopje. After three hours of wondering and roaming the mountain, they were finally able to find well hidden entrance into underground tunnels. They turned on their video camera and entered, not knowing what they can expect. 

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The same feeling struck Telegraf reporter three years ago when he took a peak in that well hidden hideout of JNA on Black Mountain of Skopje, above the village Banjani, northwest from Skopje, close to monastery St Ilija Gornji. 

Together with Milutin Stancic, President of the Cultural - information center of the Serbs in Macedonia - SPONA and Highlander Dragan Rajcic from Serbian village Kuceviste, we went to Black mountains of Skopje to an adventure with an uncertain ending. Previously we were in the villages of Banjani and Kuceviste on the Black mountains to inquire whether anyone knows the location of hiding-places. The villagers told us that they had heard of it, it is an object on the mountain for a while guarded by the police, but they did not know where he is.

Foto: D. Joksić

Discouraged, we pressed on, climbing the mountain. In the monastery St Ilija Gornji we found people, a man and his wife. They greeted us not to kindly with suspicion, and when asked if they perhaps knew where the hideout of the former JNA is, the man snapped at us and said he had walked the mountain up and down and that there is no such place.

Not minding his claims we moved on further, up the hill, left from the monastery. Besides rocks and forest, nothing pointed that there could be anything hidden there, so we returned the same way we came. At St Ilija Gornji we found the wife of the monastery's host, but she could not help us, so we headed down the Banjanji river, on a goat track leading again to the hill. Only chamois and wild animals could have went there, so it made our movement pretty hard. The evening was already setting and our optimism grew weaker. We divided into two groups. We moved with Stancic on the left side of the river, and Highlander Dragan Rajicic on the right, searching over the mountain for at least some sign. After some time we heard the happy call of Rajcic: "Come over here, i have found it". 

Foto: D. Joksić

From the place where he was standing we saw nothing. At that moment he pointed his hand towards the hill on one old, pressed against the rock and time work wooden hut, we realized that it must be the entrance to the hideout.

Foto: D. Joksić

The hut looked like an ordinary shed and one would think it was made quickly by some peasants to get away from the storm or spend the night on the mountain. Broken, unsightly, it was actually hiding the entrance to long underground halls and numerous rooms of former JNA hideout. There are relatively well preserved wooden door with a small window at the entrance. Few meters deeper, in the rock, heavy metal door with a train wheel in the middle, like those on the bank safes. The guts of the mountain is cut through by numerous halls, and each of them leads to some room. One larger, one smaller, and all painted in white. There are installations for light which doesn't work, with round switches.

Foto: D. Joksić

Wooden door with the lock and old key in in, lead to another smaller room, and in it in the corner, some broken glass. On the other side of the room a door which leads to another tunnel. Weak light from a mobile phone in the dark hallway and cold breeze which comes from somewhere brings shivers and freezes the blood in our bones. Long tunnel turns to the right and ends up in a rock. Somewhere in the middle, there are metal doors. Behind them another labyrinth starts. It leads into other, also the same tunnel, and the next door into third, and when you think that all tunnels are the same, you come to the one with a small trough in the middle with water in it. Next wooden door lead in a hallway with three, very small rooms, around two square meters. Everything is painted, looks clean, like it was never used. The doors are the same, painted in orange. Behind next door there is a long tunnel, and on the left side many more doors that lead into bigger rooms, with wooden floors. There are installations of air supply, phone, electricity and telegraph, which of course doesn't work. Some rooms are almost new, and in the others the floor is damaged and bent due to moisture. Everything is empty, no sights that anyone has been there.

Foto: D. Joksić

Near these rooms there is a low tunnel, and you have to walk hunched, and it leads to a metal ladder going to the top of the mountain. What hides behind numerous wooden and metal doors in other hallways of the labyrinth in the guts of Black mountains of Skopje remains a secret to us. Without equipment and flashlights, we had no courage to keep exploring, and the thought itself that there could be snakes and other animals roaming the mountain, or got forbid, landmines and explosive remained from war conflict 2001 which was lead on these areas between Albanian terrorists and Macedonian safety forces, made us give up our further research.

Later we found out that Black mountain hideouts has no owner today and that rarely any official knows about it. All institutions - starting from the Army to Directorate for Protection and Rescue, said they are not in charge for this object since the time of former Yugoslavian army. It is only known to the retired general Mitret Arsovski, who personally commanded such fortification of JNA in Macedonia. 

Foto: D. Joksić

- This was supposed to be a command post in case of operation of the temporary occupied territories, when committees for national defense and social self-protection came into power (ONO and DSZ). That hideout in Black mountains of Skopje was made in the fifties, right after the Informbureau, but it was soon abandoned. The second command center was made near the village Sonje on the mountain Vodno above Skopje. One command post in Macedonia was in Stracin, near Kumanovo - said General Arsovski, explaining that Macedonia and Slovenia at the time were considered as border areas which would be exposed to impacts from SSSR and America, and Bosnia was supposed to be the heart of resistance and the pillar of defense of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The entire cities were built in former Yugoslavia since the Turkish times, shelters, airports and seaports under the ground, so the army and its command could hide from the attack of the enemy forces. The greatest number of secret, underground objects were build under the order of Josip Broz Tito. There is a data that on the territory of former SFRY there was 26 underground objects - in Serba (seven), in Bosnia and Herzegovina (six), in Croatia (five), Slovenia (three) and in Macedonia (two), although, some retired generals claim that there were a lot more of these underground centers, because they were similar, but smaller, had smaller commands, for army groups, or corps. If we take in consideration the underground air, naval and rocket bases, communication centers, radar facilities and warehouses, the number of underground bases in former Yugoslavia could be much higher. Only small part of it has been displayed for the public, others are still kept a secret.

The most expensive and most modern were built in the fifties while the cold war was at the peak, and Tito feared from Soviet attack. Those were, actually, command posts for state and military pinnacle with complete autonomy to survive at least one month. They are built deeply inside the mountain, so tens or hundreds of meters of rocks protected them. It is about vast complex with work and relaxation parts, medical part, it's own power source, clean air and water. 

(Telegraf.co.uk / D.J.)