Government of the Republic of Croatia
Trg svetog Marka 2
10 000 Zagreb
To the attention of: Dr Ivo Sanader, the Prime Minister
Dear Sir,
I am passing this civil petition on to you regarding the conduct of the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA). The petition has also been forwarded to the Committee for Internal Politics and National Security and the Council for Civil Supervision of Intelligence Agencies. I would appreciate if you also, in accordance with your statutory authorities, joined in the stopping of a years-long SOA persecution that I have been exposed to. I am willing to inform international officials and the proper journalists associations and associations for civil rights protection, which are of vital Croatian national interests, on the results of your engagement and parliamentary investigation.
Yours faithfully,
Freelance journalist and blogger
�eljko Peratović
Zvonigradska 33
10 000 Zagreb
Zagreb, 14 March, 2008.

Croatian Parliament
Trg Svetog Marka 6
10 000 Zagreb
Council for Civil Supervision of Security-Intelligence Agencies
Mile Ćulumović, the presidentParliamentary Committee for Internal Politics and National Security
Ranko Ostojić, the president

Subject: CIVIL PETITION AGAINST SOA CONDUCT

Dear Sir, my name is �eljko Peratović. I am a freelance journalist and blogger from Zagreb. I am addressing you so that you, in accordance with your statutory obligations, take necessary actions regarding the protection of my basic human and professional rights and freedoms, Pursuant to Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. Following the conducted parliamentary investigation, in 2005 the Council and the Committee jointly concluded that �there is a reasonable doubt that POA (Counter-Intelligence Agency) violated those rights�. The same have been systematically violated to date by SOA, a POA legal successor.

As you have probably learnt from the media, on 17 October, 2007, criminal investigators from the Zagreb Police Department searched my under-age daughter’s flat in which I live. I was arrested under the suspicion of disclosing (publishing) state and military secrets.

Besides DORH unofficial statements claiming that my arrest was the result of � a nonsense in the police� and president Stjepan Mesić saying that it was the police case so he did not want to declare himself since the police is not in his competence, I have been claiming from the start that the intimidation my family and I have been exposed to was initiated, supervised and mostly conducted by SOA.
Apart from indications and information I have personally received as the confirmation of the above mentioned, last week the following Internet sites:
http://cnn.blog.hr/2008/03/1624367674/soa-zeljko-peratovic-drzavni-je-neprijatelj-broj-jedan.html and http://pollitika.com/soa-zeljko-peratovic-drzavni-je-neprijatelj-broj-jedan,
published an article with the SOA accompanying documents, which, if authentic, confirm my suspicions I was stating regarding the role SOA had in the violation of my human and professional rights and freedoms.
Therefore, I request from the already mentioned Council and Committee to set up a joint commission that will verify the authenticity of documents published in the afore mentioned blog addresses, or, to be more accurate, located in the following hosting addresses:
http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=str1kz9.gif ,
http://img151.imageshack.us/my.php?image=str2am3.gif i http://www.divshare.com/download/3945111-7c5 and establish whether SOA has violated my, as well as the rights and freedoms of the other �suspects� who have been said to comment on 45 lines: �eljko Bagić, Romano Bolković and Vjekoslav Brajović, and, accordingly, ask for the responsibility (including criminal liability) of the competent ones or establish that my objections have been unfounded.

The published documents point to SOA’s repeated and multi-type breaking the law. Besides being suspected of disclosing already released state and military secrets, which is a precedent as well as nonsense in the past repressive practice of the young Croatian country, I have also been incriminated by an accusation that I �was jeopardizing the safety of SOA employees by making their names and positions known�. That is nothing but a doubt used to divert attention from the fact that I only mentioned the SOA employees� identity in the context of articles on nepotism and corruption in the process of reorganization of the security-intelligence system and the personnel policy of Tomislav Karamarko, the SOA director. It is also one of Tomislav Karamarko’s personal motives for insisting on breaking the law and violation of my rights and freedoms.

The document titled � The analysis of the article/commentary background on blog 45 lines� clearly shows that SOA has continued to vilify me with its �interventions on blog�, and even to suspect me of contributing to the Milan Levar, a witness to war crimes in Gospić, murder. On many occasions, I wrote and stated that Tomislav Karamarko, the current SOA director, who was the head of UNS (Office for National Security) at the time and after the murder of Milan Levar, participated in the obstruction of preliminary investigation activities connected to the mentioned murder. I hold that the �SOA intervention� on my blog saying that �I disclosed Milan Levar’s movement to suspects� is a direct pressure that SOA exerted on me in order to keep quiet as a potential witness in the investigation of Milan Levar’s murder. The comparison of the alleged SOA document and �SOA intervention� on 45 lines can be seen on the website:

http://peratovic.blog.hr/2008/03/1624374633/koga-bloga-soa.html.

Update, 16. 04. 2008:Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the slow pace of prosecutions for war crimes in Croatia and the apparent ethnic bias of investigations, most involving only Croatian Serb perpetrators. The organization is also worried about harassment and intimidation of victims and witnesses, as well as journalists reporting on war crimes. Croatian authorities have not made accountability for war crimes a clear political priority. The EU has a responsibility within the accession process to demand that they do so.

While in Brussels, Irene Khan will also introduce the screening of an Amnesty International film documenting impunity for war crimes in Croatia and address the European Policy Centre on EU asylum policies in the context of security.Amnesty.org, 15. 04. 2008

Parts of AI’s documentary: “Croatia: A Wall Of Silence” about cases Gospić, Levar and Peratović. Full video you must see under link.�

I have indirect information that SOA was illegally involved in the police procedures regarding my case. According to some sources close to SOA, Tomislav Milčić, the chief of staff, was personally appointed by Tomislav Karamarko to run the operation �45 lines�. He was allegedly involved in the illegal search of my personal things, during which my digital camera’s memory card on which a part of the interview with the former agent of the Yugoslav secret agency SID, Josip Majerski, was destroyed (see http://peratovic.blog.hr/2008/01/1623938621/ipak-me-policija-naljutila-obracam-se-hhou.html).

According to my sources, Tomislav Milčić does not have proper qualifications needed for the job position to which he was appointed by Tomislav Karamarko, the SOA director. There is publicly available information according to which the German administration of justice, at some time, expressed its disapproval with the SOA employee, Tomislav Milčić, taking part in the Croatian authorities’ noncooperation regarding international legal help in the case of Krunoslav Prates being on trial as an accessory to the murder of emigrant Stjepan Đureković. These days, one of the German judges said that he would turn the Republic of Croatia to competent EU institutions on charges of the above mentioned noncooperation. Therefore, judging by this example of the head of staff in SOA, it is obvious that not only SOA statements, claiming that my articles are directed against national interests � accession of Croatia to the Euro-Atlantic integrations, are unfounded but, on the contrary. It is SOA conduct which is directed against accession of Croatia to the Euro-Atlantic Integrations.

There is a reasonable doubt that in my case, it is sources from SOA who were leaking information to the media. For better understanding, please check on the articles in Slobodna Dalmacija -
http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20071020/novosti02.asp and Nacional – http://www.nacional.hr/articles/view/39138/.

Therefore, I would like the addressees to carry out the parliamentary investigation into this case as soon as possible. Due to SOA illegal conduct, besides the above mentioned rights and freedoms pursuant to Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, I have also been denied the right to work and I am afraid for my family and my physical existence in Croatia. I suggest the following to be summoned as potential witnesses:
1. �eljko Peratović
2. Tomislav Karamarko
3. Josip Buljević
4. Tomislav Milčić
5. Romano Bolković
6. �eljko Bagić
7. Vjekoslav Brajović
8. Jasna Babić
9. Berislav Jelinić

Due to multiple conflicts of interest which I am willing to explain in detail during the parliamentary hearing, it is my recommendation to prevent Mr Tomislav Matijević, the Committee secretary, of having any contact with the information of this petition.

Yours faithfully,

Freelance journalist and blogger

�eljko Peratović

Zvonigradska 33

10 000 Zagreb

Note: I have informed the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, CHC and CJA about this petition.

Overhearing: The affair about tracking five Croatian journalists provokes the attention and stormy reactions even in Committee for journalists protection in New York

Alex Lupis: The affair could slow down the enter of Croatia into EU

Author: Jadranka Juresko-Kero

We are familiar with the newest events about POA (counterintelligence agency) and overhearing of journalists in Croatia. We got the informations that during 2003. and 2004. five journalists were tracked and accused for collaboration with foreign secret services.

After the case of journalist Helena Puljiz, and this new affair, we conclude that some members of political elite still preserve old comunist look on independent journalism, and with their behaviour they confirm that independent journalists are threath, with these words Alexandar Lupis, the counselor for Europe in Committee for journalists protection in New York, has confirmed for Vecernji list that in their American headquarters came official report about problems that Croatian journalists facing with.

Not wanting to uncover with who of this five journalists are in conntact, because they want �to protect� that person from another discomfort, Lupis said that New York Committee for journalists protection expres sorrow because Croatian government still didn’ t manage to implant democratic standards of behaviour of intelligence service.
Lupis claimed that behaviour like that could have negative affect on process of integration of Croatia in EU.When he was asked to evaluate the grade of journalist freedom in Croatia, Lupis said that his Office thought that the political need of Croatian intelligence services to control independent journalists was a serious problem. Lupis emphasized that the newest affair, like the one with Helena Puljiz, sign that some politicians in Croatia think that journalists and medias should serve only to the state and the ruling party, and not to the readers. About the affair of new overhearing connected with former chief of POA, Franjo Turek, President Stjepan Mesic, said that he saw computor presentation, but there were no names of journalists given in Globus.

But, the change of Turek itself is a proof that security system didn’ t work as it should have, said Mesic.

…

CROATIA: Journalists demand inquiry into alleged abuses by security agency

New York, February 10, 2005

Five independent Croatian journalists filed a petition on Monday requesting that the government investigate allegations that the Counter-Intelligence Agency (POA) tried to discredit them after they reported on sensitive war crimes issues, according to local and international press reports. The journalists called for an inquiry after the February 4 edition of the independent Zagreb weekly magazine Globus published a POA document titled “Information on intelligence-media manipulation,” which accused the journalists of working for foreign security services in order to discredit the government and impede integration with the European Union. According to a March 2004 presentation that POA Director Franjo Turek gave to senior government officials, the agency had conducted surveillance against the journalists in 2003 and 2004 and accused them of espionage after they reported on the government’s failure to arrest war criminals indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The five journalists are: Gordan Malic of Globus; Ivica Djikic of the independent Split weekly magazine Feral Tribune; Marijo Kavain and Ivanka Toma of the independent Zagreb daily Jutarnji List; and Zeljko Peratovic of the Zagreb state daily Vjesnik. The journalists have filed the petition with the Parliament, attorney general, and Council for the Civilian Supervision of Security Services. The council held an initial hearing on the matter yesterday. During the 1990s, the nationalist HDZ government relied on security services to persecute independent journalists. Reformist governments since 2000 have made limited progress in changing the politicized agencies. In October 2004, POA agents threatened and attempted to blackmail independent journalist Helena Puljiz into becoming a POA informant.

…

Croatia: Journalist wiretapped again

The special working group of the Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security is opening an investigation today over Croatian Counter Intelligence service (CIS). The principal cause for the investigation is the recent public address of five journalists who were the subject of secret treatment of the CIS during 2003 and 2004, under the allegation that they have deliberately published wrong information about Hague fugitive general Gotovina in order to obstruct Croatia to enter the European Union. (11-FEB-05)

The special parliamentary working group was formed after five Croatian journalists � Gordan Malic, Zeljko Peratovic, Ivanka Toma, Mario Kavain and Ivica Djikic � have sent an official request to the Croatian Journalist Association, Civic Committee for the Oversight of the Secret Services, Parliamentary Committees for National Security and Human Rights to examine the allegations from the text published in newsweek magazine �Globus�, in which the author Gordan Malic claimes that the CIS was conducting a secret operation against the above mentioned journalists, accusing them of �media-intelligence operation against Croatia�.

Namely, mentioned news article brings a document called �Information about media-intelligence manipulation aiming to discredit Croatia� which was presented in March 2004 to the President Mesic, Prime Minister Sanader, Minister of the Judiciary Skare-Ozbolt and Minister of the Internal Affairs Mlinaric by Franjo Turek, former director of the CIS. In short, the document of the CIS accuses the journalists for planed and coordinated misinforming, which prevented respective bodies from arresting general Gotovina.
-In my opinion the reason why the authorities in charge didn�t react upon the receival of the report from the CIS is because they were only concerned with how the report is going to look like to Carla del Ponte. � said Zarko Puhovski, the Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee.

According to the CIS, except from journalists, several higher state officials also participated in the �media � intelligence operation against Croatia�. Judging by the documents published in the media, the CIS permanently wiretaped Ranko Ostojic, the former Head of the Croatian police in charge of arresting general Gotovina and former spokesperson of the Ministry of the Interior Zinka Bardic.

The Civic Committee for Oversight of the Secret Services and the Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security will decide in the coming days whether the secret listening to the above mentioned Croatian citizens was illegal or not. However, the latest affairs related to the work of the CIS, including the �Puljiz affair�, raised some serious questions about the overall situation of the Secret Services and the way they function in Croatia.