https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/sep/24/northernireland.henrymcdonald3?fbclid=IwAR1sG9L4IBQ6q9_R5xscknWFumirxkvHZYsE2uo0piuHWUqoQ7biXvzzmvk
Croat general 'armed Real IRA terrorists'
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has questioned General Ivan Andabak over his alleged involvement in supplying the Real IRA with weapons, including the rocket-propelled grenade fired at the landmark MI6 headquarters in London last week.
Andabak was a senior military figure during the conflict in Croatia in the mid-1990s and is suspected of war crimes during that period.
The war crimes prosecutor's office in The Hague confirmed that investigators have interviewed Andabak. A spokesman said the general is believed to have received explosives training from Irish republicans in the 1990s and to have helped since to procure weapons for the dissident Real IRA.
A senior RUC officer told The Observer that the RPG rocket fired at the MI6 building last Wednesday evening originated in the former Yugoslavia. He said it was similar to an RPG found by Irish police in a secret Real IRA firing range in Co Meath earlier this year.
Given the huge stockpiles of arms in the Balkans, a sophisticated weapon such as the RPG can cost as little as £100.
The RUC is investigating the role of an Irish aid worker from Co Louth who has long-standing connections to Catholic charities in Croatia thought to be involved in the arms-smuggling network.
The allegations that a Croatian general was behind the arms route to the Real IRA first surfaced in the Boston Globe on Friday.
A spokesman for the war crimes tribunal, Paul Risley, said Andabak was arrested by police in connection with the murder of a Bosnian Croat official who was blown up by an under-car booby trap similar to those devised by the Provisional IRA in the 1970s and 1980s.
Risley confirmed that the investigators questioned Andabak about his links with Irish republicans, including explosives training and the establishment of arms networks.
In the summer Croatian police intercepted a huge haul of guns, detonators and plastic explosives destined for the Real IRA. However, both the Gardai and the RUC have since confirmed that the Real IRA managed to smuggle an undisclosed number of weapons and bomb-making equipment out of the Balkans to Ireland.
The security services fear that the Russian-made RPG could be used to assassinate a senior political or military figure in London.
The MI6 rocket attack was the third time the Real IRA has struck in London this year. While the blast caused only minimal damage and temporary traffic chaos in the capital, the political consequences of the attack are enormous. Striking at such a key symbol of the British establishment will be a useful recruiting tool for the republican terror group.
The attack took place just 12 hours before polling in the South Antrim by-election and was bound to have further dented grassroots unionist support for the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process.
The Real IRA was formed in late 1997 after a split within the Provisional IRA over Sinn Fein's participation in the peace talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement.
The terror group had called a ceasefire after its members placed a bomb in Omagh two years ago, killing 29. However, since the Omagh atrocity it has recruited disaffected former Provisional IRA activists and young nationalists, abandoned the ceasefire and concentrated its resources for terror attacks in England.
Last week's sortie on MI6's headquarters came in the middle of the inquest into the slaughter at Omagh in August 1998.
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