Secret Services at Court

AIM Zagreb, 28 February, 1999

The district court in Zegreb surprised the Croatian public by conducting an investigation initiated by the appeal of journalists of Nacional weekly who claimed that they were unlawfully tapped and shadowed by secret police, that is, by the Service for Protection of the Constitutional System (SZUP) which operates as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP). The court not only conducted a public hearing in which the journalists were given the opportunity to make detailed statements on everything they knew about their dossiers, but causing wonder of sceptic observers, summoned as witnesses to the next hearing to be held in March Ivan Jarnjak, the current formal head of all Croatian intelligence services, head of the National Security Office (UNS), and Miroslav Separovic, who was until recently the head of Croatian Intelligence Service (HIS), one of the departments of UNS. According to information carried by the press, Separovic has recently, after only eight months of work in HIS, submitted resignation and left the Service, exactly at the time when he became aware that phones of journalists were with no valid reason tapped and when he noted that even after his objection, tapping continued.

Journalists of Nacional also raised criminal charges with the public prosecutor's office against minister of police Ivan Penic and head of SZUP Ivan Brzovic for unauthorized and illegal tapping and disturbing their privacy. Theoretically, the prosecutor's office has a month before it must either launch an investigation or reject charges. Practically, such charges have often remained in drawers for months, even years. However, journalists of Nacional tried to use another legal possibility and instigate an administrative procedure in the district court because of "illegal action". They came up with the possibility of starting a public administrative procedure against a state agency "when a citizen's fundamental civil rights are limited by some illegal action, and the illegal action continues".

And they succeeded - the district court accepted the appeal of five journalists of Nacinal and within a very short time as the law prescribes in such cases, scheduled a hearing. Journalists of Nacional brought all the dossiers which they had got hold of thanks to their sources in the authorities and the police. They even procured original copies of the so-called Analyses of a Part of the Press which says that SZUP has made them at the request of Tudjman and a group of the highest politicians from the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) gathered in the so-called Main Committee of National Security (SONS), the body which coordinates the work of intelligence services. Apart from Nacional, these "analyses" included evaluations of weeklies Feral Tribune, Globus and Imperijal. Psychological and social profiles of editors and most prominent authors were made, their origin was presented and their family situations, and professional contacts. Numerous telephone conversations and meetings of journalists were meticulously recorded. It was also analysed in what way the journalists used the content of these telephone talks and the acquired information in the articles and commentaries of certain politicians and institutions. Some meetings were secretly photographed. According to everything that has reached the public, Tudjman had personally ordered supervision of some editorial teams. In any case he was informed that this was being done.

Ivo Pukanic, editor-in-chief of Nacional, who took the initiative in the public struggle against the tappers and their order-issuing authority, declared in court that he had been informed about tapping by Hrvoje Sarinic after his resignation which had marked his disassociation from Tudjman. Sarinic showed him the dossiers collected by tapping. He convinced him that he had immediately gone to Tudjman when he had for the first time got hold of the dossiers. "Mister president, this is terrible what these services are doing...". "They are tapping, of course! They are not tapping enough!", retorted Tudjman, allegedly.

Pukanic says that one day Ciro Blazevic, selector of Croatian football national team and one of the "courtiers" from Tudjman's immediate surroundings, called him one day. Very excited, he told Pukanic that the "circle around Nacional was tightening", that Pukanic was shadowed and tapped and that somebody wanted to kill him. "Watch out, do not leave your house in the next two days!", said Blazevic. Two days later, Ciro called and said he had managed to "alleviate things" and that Pukanic did not need worry. All Blazevic's calls were recorded and written in the dossiers! Reporters who were present at the hearing in the district court could see them for themselves, because Pukanic showed them the pages where these and other telephone calls were quoted, but he clung to them. He did not even want to let the court have the documents

• because he would have to give a copy to the proxy of MUP - afraid that on the basis of certain details MUP would be able to detect who had given them to him.

Minister Penic at first denied that the journalists were tapped "as journalists", but said that tapping was ordered pursuant the law when the assessment implied that the interest of the state was threatened, that somebody - journalists inclusive - became a "problem for the security". But, when parts of the documents were published in Nacional, it became evident that journalists were shadowed "as journalists", as critics of the policy of Tudjman and HDZ, as authors of articles which tarnished the reputation of the party and reduced its chances in the elections, Penic changed his attitude: he unconvincingly started claiming that these were not materials of MUP and that they were just "copies of copies". Nacional then published the front page with original stamps in coloour and signatures of Ivan Brzovic. The conclusion was: if it was a forgery, the forgers were very skilful. Both the journalists and their interlocutors testified that the recorded telephone calls were true. This could have been done only by systematic tapping of phones and this could be done only by equipped intelligence services. If it was not done by Croatian services, who else could have done it?

Pukanic publicly accused Penic that he was lying, referring to his sources in the police who confirmed authenticity of the documents. Penic has not raised charges against him for slander yet. After Nacional had published what is believed to be the original dossier, Penic was silent and it is increasingly assumed that he would be relieved of duty in the announced reconstruction of the government. Tudjman's stubbornness might save him: when the public or the opposition demand replacement of some minister, he keeps him in the cabinet just to defy them, just in order not to be said to be yielding.

Pukanic believes that the dossiers have another dimension: he assessed that they were partly adapted for an additional, internal HDZ purpose. In some parts the dossiers were not complete and data, Pukanic thinks, were intentionally left out. Contacts of Nacional with members of the liberal, left or pro-European faction of HDZ are described to the last detail, as well as contacts with those who had left the party or were marginalised in it for disobedience (Sarinic, Franjo Greguric, Andrija Hebrang, Ivan Cermak...). Their contacts with Pukanic are describes as "very friedly, more than it is customary in relations between journalists and public officials". That is why it seems to Pukanic that the authors intentionally wanted to create for the order issuing authority

• Tudjman - a certain impression of existence of a conspiracy.

Pukanic says that he is not in better relations with them than he is with the politicians from the so-called right faction of HDZ. Although there had also been contacts with members of the latter, they were not mentioned in the dossiers, or it was just stated that Pukanic had dialed a certain number with no explanation that it was, for example, the number of Ivic Pasalic who is considered to be the leader of the "right faction" in this party. According to Pukanic's testimony, Pasalic used to send exclusive information on what was going on at the top of the party, but this does not stand in the dossiers. This fact is explained by unformal influence which Pasalic allegedly has in MUP. Such conclusions are drawn from the fact that he and the head of SZUP Brzovic are from the same region, in fact they were born in the same village called Sujica near Livno in B&H.

Resoluteness and persistence with which the district court has so far followed the procedure will certainly bring out in the open many details unpleasant for the regime It is expected that apart from Jarnjak and Separovic, other protagonists of the case will also be summoned to testify. Journalists of Nacional have already proposed testimony of Penic and Brzovic and members of SONS who the controversial materials were sent to. It is still hard to tell how far this scandal will go, but if the procedure is not suddenly interrupted, HDZ could be considerably shaken and forced to seek, in haste and at an inconvenient pre-election time, new cadre in police, secret services and the leadership of the party already considerably impaired by previous resignations.

IGOR VUKIC