ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - FEBRUARY 6, 2009

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SUBJECT: ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - FEBRUARY 6, 2009


1. (U) VAGRANT ARRESTED FOR HIGH-PROFILE "MAFIA-STYLE"
MURDER: Police announced on February 6 that they arrested a
60-year old vagrant for the October murder of Ivana Hodak,
the daughter of a prominent defense attorney. The murder
last October led to a massive shake-up in the police, the
replacement of the Interior and Justice Ministers, as well as
a raft of new anti-crime legislation. The case received
widespread media speculation that the murder was a message to
Hodak's father who is defending former general Zagorec, on
trial for embezzling diamonds during the Homeland War in the
early 1990s, by mafia groups or that Ms. Hodak herself had
connections to organized crime. Police say they found the
murder weapon in the barn where the vagrant was living when
they questioned him for not having any identification. The
police ran the gun through forensics which produced a match
to the weapon used in the Hodak murder. The vagrant was
unknown to investigators in the murder case but upon finding
the weapon, they discovered that the accused had blamed
Hodak's father for the loss of his job 15 years ago. The
police believe that the accused blamed his resulting
hardships on Hodak's father and decided to exact revenge by
killing the daughter. (CZimmer)


2. (U) MEMBERS OF MINNESOTA NATIONAL GUARD ARRIVE IN CROATIA
TO TRAIN FOR JOINT OMLT WITH CROATIA:
On February 2, 2009, the Minnesota National Guard portion of
the next Croatian Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team
(OMLT) to serve in Afghanistan arrived in Croatia. The dozen
soldiers will work side-by-side with the Croatian soldiers
for the next seven weeks to develop the skills and the
teamwork needed for their joint deployment to Afghanistan.
This joint OMLT with the Minnesota National Guard will have a
Combat Support focus and is one of two new OMLTs that Croatia
is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in March. The second
is a purely Croatian OMLT which will train an Afghan National
Army (ANA) garrison unit. (CDavis)


3. (U) MFA REPORTING THAT FRANCE APPROVED CROATIA'S NATO
ACCESSION PROTOCOL:
The MFA issued a press release on February 4 stating that it
received notification that the French Senate approved
Croatia's accession protocol, and that the lower chamber had
also ratified the protocol. The MFA said that by its count,
France was the 20th NATO member country whose legislative
branch had finished ratifying the protocol. (PD'Amico)


4. (SBU) NEW PARTY FOR SERB MINORITY EMERGES IN VUKOVAR:
The New Serb Party (NSS- Nova Srpska Stranka) was inaugurated
in Vukovar on February 1, 2009 and the approximately 100
members unanimously elected Svetislav Ladjarevic as party
president and Mirko Jagetic and Ljubomir Radic as vice
presidents. All three had been members of the largest
ethnic-Serb party, the Independent Democratic Serb Party
(SDSS),but were tossed out by SDSS leadership last December.
Nonetheless, the formation of the NSS is a sign of
discontent that exists among some in the Serb community
regarding the SDSS party president Vojislav Stanimirovic and
vice-president Milorad Pupovac's attempts to consolidate
influence and portray the SDSS as the only viable political
option for Serbs in Croatia. The NSS plans to run
independently in the upcoming local elections in
Vukovar-Srijem and Osijek-Baranja counties, but it has not
yet decided on any of its candidates for mayor. The NSS is
the third party in Croatia representing the interests of
Croatia's Serb minority and eventually wants to expand its
party presence to other areas of Croatia with high
concentrations of Serbs. The final option for Serbs in
Croatia is the lesser known Party of Danubian-Basin Serbs.
Meanwhile, the SDSS, which garnered three seats in national
parliament in the last general election, opened a branch
office in Pula to better represent the approximately 6, 600
Serbs living in Istria. (DMeges)


5. (U) DCM SPEAKS ABOUT THE AMERICAN DREAM TO ZAGREB HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS:
Deputy Chief of Mission Vivian Walker gave a lecture about
the American Dream on January 28 to over 60 Zagreb high
school students. Drawing on themes from U.S. history,
politics, culture, and literature, the DCM discussed
contemporary social issues in both the United States and
Croatia. The speech generated numerous questions about
President Obama and the priorities of the new administration.
This lecture is a part of Embassy Zagreb's continuing
efforts to explain American values to the successor
generation in Croatia. (KWetzel)
BRADTKE