NEW CROATIAN INTEL CHIEF WANTS GOOD COOPERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 002140

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR EUR/SCE:KABUMOTO S/WCI:PROSPER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR KAWC HR
SUBJECT: NEW CROATIAN INTEL CHIEF WANTS GOOD COOPERATION

REF: A) ZAGREB 2044 B) ZAGREB 2060

Classified By: Poloff Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (B) & (D)

SUMMARY and COMMENT
--------------


1. (C) The scandal (reftels) surrounding the Counter
Intelligence Agency (POA)
has peaked with President Mesic and Prime Minister Sanader
agreeing to fire POA
Chief Josko Podbevsek and nominate Tomislav Karamarko as his
replacement.
Prior to his successful confirmation hearings and official
installation on
December 15, Karamarko told us on December 13 that he planned
to focus on
professionalizing the POA, improving international
cooperation including in the
search for ICTY fugitive Ante Gotovina, and promoting his
vision of unifying
the direction of the intelligence agencies under a single
leadership along the
lines of recent U.S. reforms. Karamarko, who resigned as
director of the now
defunct National Security Office in 2002 when these same
reform proposals were
rejected, will face an uphill battle to centralize control
of Croatian
intelligence agencies in a country where most of the
political class have
personal and often bitter memories of the abuse of
intelligence powers by the
Yugoslav and Tudjman governments. END SUMMARY and COMMENT.

OLD NEW FACE FOR POA
--------------


2. (C) Following accusations that agents of the Counter
Intelligence Agency
(POA) acted unethically, if not necessarily illegally in
attempting to coerce
journalist Helena Puliz into acting as a POA informant (ref
A),President Mesic
and PM Sanader agreed last week to fire POA chief Josko
Podbevsek. Late on
Friday (Dec. 10),they agreed to nominate Tomislav Karamarko
as his
replacement. Karamarko told us on Monday (Dec. 13) that he
had been reluctant
to leave the security business he had founded and take a
salary cut to
return to public service. Ultimately, he said, it was
Mesic's personal appeal
that compelled Karamarko to say yes. Karamarko has a long
public service career
(see Bio Notes),last serving as head of the National
Security Office (UNS)
until 2002 when he resigned when his intelligence reform
plans were not
accepted by the then coalition government.

GOTOVINA CASE
--------------


3. (C) Karamarko claims that the press has distorted his
views on the
Gotovina case. He admitted that he has publicly stated that
it would be better
if suspected war criminals were tried in Croatian courts.
Karamarko told us
that he still thinks that the Gotovina indictment was
politically motivated,
rather than legally justified. However, he believes that
Gotovina must prove
his innocence in The Hague. When we reminded him that the
international community
will judge the Croatia and the Croatian intelligence
community on the basis of how it
performs in the Gotovina case, Karamarko said he would insist
on professional
behavior from his organization, including fully cooperating
in the search for
Gotovina.

REFORM PLANS
--------------


4. (C) Karamarko said he wanted the POA to become a full
partner in the global
coalition fighting terrorism. His priorities would be to
improve the
professionalism of the POA in order to ensure that the rights

of citizens were
fully respected and that the POA's activities could never
been seen as
politically motivated. He also said he would immediately
take steps to stop
leaks of POA information to the press. Beyond that,
Karamarko said he would
like to improve international cooperation, particularly with
the U.S. In
addition, Karamarko said he would pursue his reform agenda of
bringing
management of Croatian intelligence organizations together
along the lines of
recently approved reforms in the U.S.

BIO NOTES
--------------


5. (U) Karamarko has a long professional association with
President Mesic. He
joined the HDZ in 1990 as an early founding member. He
became chief of the
City of Zagreb Police in 1995, but ran afoul of hard-line HDZ
rightists Ivic
Pasalic, Ljubo Cesic-Rojs, and Miroslav Kutle for his
investigations into their
corrupt business dealings, and was removed from that office.
In 2000 Karamarko
served as chief of Mesic's presidential campaign and became
both National
Security Advisor and head of the National Security Office
(UNS) upon Mesic's
election victory. According to press reports, as head of the
UNS, Karamarko
came into conflict with the POA predecessor organization, the
Police
Intelligence Service (SZUP) when he tried to assert control
over its
controversial activities. Karamarko left the UNS when that
organization was
shut down in 2002 under an intelligence reform law passed by
the coalition
government.


6. (SBU) Karamarko understands and speaks only limited
English.
FRANK


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