Drugs in Camouflage Uniforms

AIM Zagreb, March 12, 2001

Jasen Drnasin is the name of the honour and pride of the Croatian militarism - a twenty-four-year old youngster who had graduated from the West Point and whom the local admirers of muscle-bound bubbleheads in camouflage uniforms advertised for years as the future of the Croatian Army. Well, on February 25, this year Jasen Drnasin and his girl-friend Tanja Milanovic, together with Mrs.Drnasin, were driving from Split towards Sinj to celebrate the engagement of these two young love birds probably not thinking for a moment that that road would take them directly to the black columns in all newspapers. And that is where they got because at one point the greatest hope of the Croatian Army pulled out a knife and stabbed Tanja Milanovic six or seven times in the neck and chest. Later medical expert examination determined that Drnasin's somewhat strange show of love was provoked by a mixture of marijuana and benzodiazepane circulating through his body at that time.

The case of Jasen Drnasin brought out in the open a story about drugs in the Croatian Army ranks: in the last ten years the connection between all kinds of opiates and soldiers in camouflage uniforms was demonstrated in the fact that they became the main dealers of heroin, cocaine and other narcotics which meant that Croatian military structures were behind this most lucrative business in the world. According to well-versed, with this drug trafficking Croatia had financed a major part of its war costs as well as filled the pockets of unknown heroes who were behind the entire business. Nevertheless, we know something about the heroes who managed the distribution of opiates for the state and its highly placed officials.

For example, General Ivan Andabak: a man who has just been charged of organising an attempt on the life of Joze Leutar, Deputy B&H Minister of Police, is rotting in the Rijeka prison serving his sentence for participation in the smuggling of over six hundred kilogrammes of cocaine; or, for example, Col. Nikola Kristo: this activist of SIS (a notorious secret service of the Defence Ministry) was caught seven years ago in Krapina with four kilogrammes of heroin, but was not convicted of even a misdemeanour; or, for example, Drazen Bekavac: a member of the First Croatian Guard Corps, once Tudjman's Palace Guard, was caught on the Sibenik bridge with some fifty kilogrammes of marijuana in his car; or, for example, Vladimir Stitic: a member of the Military Police who was caught smuggling thirty kilogrammes of heroine in Delnice and is still on the run, etc.

"In the course of last year the Criminal Military Police in cooperation with the MUP (Ministry of the Interior) filed criminal charges against 342 members of the Croatian armed forces on founded suspicion of having committed a crime of drug abuse. Compared to 1999, when 317 such charges had been filed, the number of criminal acts of drug abuse committed during last year increased by 7.88 percent. That much about a drastic growth of drug addiction in the Croatian Army" says the comment of the Defence Ministry on frequent articles about drug addiction in the army ranks.

In this way the Defence Ministry rejected journalistic warnings about the growing number of soft and hard drug users in the barracks of the Croatian Army as cheap sensationalism and wishes of the press to picture the situation in the "regional military power" as alarming. Essentially, the situation is far from alarming but it happens that even the greatest local military hope - under the influence of drugs - pulls a pocket knife and stabs his own fiancée in cold-blood. In other words, burying the head in the sand - a syndrome that has been present in the Croatian Army ever since its creation - has once again proven the most efficient way of resolving problems when it come to the Croatian Defence Ministry.

However, the Croatian problems with drugs cannot be reduced to only consumers in military uniforms: far greater problem are civil drug addicts whose number is growing daily. Split was for years known as the major drug center in Croatia. Dark cellars of the Palace of Diocletian and hidden corners of the Split official gardens are even today packed with drugged boys and girls holding their drug kits. However, according to the latest surveys, the capital of Dalmatia no longer ranks first according to the number of registered drug addicts compared to the number of citizens. Namely, Zadar has taken the lead on the Croatian black top-ten of drug centers. Officially, there are nine hundred registered hard drug addicts in this town, while those well versed say that the actual number of addicts is three to four times higher. According to the data of the only specialised institution for drug problems in Zadar - the Center for the Prevention and Non-Hospital Treatment of Addicts, there are some 10 new addicts in Zadar every month. In these two and a half months of 2001 there were three registered cases of death caused by overdose, while in the course of the last year eight young citizens of Zadar lost their lives because of heroin.

According to the number of registered addicts, Pula is next after Zadar: that town currently has 690 registered heroin addicts while frequent deaths caused by drugs are caused by extremely pure heroin which has swamped the Istrian drug market. After Pula comes Sibenik with 300 registered heroin addicts, followed by Zagreb with million inhabitants and 4 thousand addicts, while once leading Split is only the fifth with 132 registered addicts.

"With a network of well-organised therapeutical communities and participation of other experts, Split has managed to reduce the problem of drug addiction" says doctor Ante Barbir, head of the State Commission for the Drug Abuse Control. According to him, Split should be the role model for other towns which are still devoting insufficient attention to drug problems. "A great problem in the struggle against drug addiction is the fact that, for example, Zagreb has only one centre for the treatment of addiction, while it should have at least four. Situation is similar in other towns", says Dr.Barbir who has announced soon opening of new centers for the treatment of addicts in Split, Rijeka, Pula, Zadar, Osijek and Zagreb, as well as the introduction of a course on "Addiction" at the Zagreb Medical Faculty.

Ivica Djikic

(AIM)