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Updated: 22-Feb-2002 NATO Speeches

Warsaw,
Poland
22 Feb. 2002

Terrorism: Situation in the Republic of Croatia

Presentation by Branko Turic,
Head of the Department for Terrorism and War Crimes
General Police Directorate - Criminal Police Directorate
Ministry of the Interior General - The Republic of Croatia
at the Seminar on the Role of EAPC in Combating Terrorism

1. Overview of Situation in the Republic of Croatia

1.1. Legal foundations in positive legislation of the Republic of Croatia

When drafting the new Penal Code of the Republic of Croatia, which came into force on 1st January 1998, the legislators were led by the obligation to introduce in the new Penal Code all behaviours which could, according to general criteria, be considered as terrorist behaviours, and especially to consider, which is very important, whether the provisions of this Law enable and facilitate the participation of the Republic of Croatia in international co-operation in the fight against terrorism in any country of the international community and international terrorism in general.

The Penal Code of the Republic of Croatia criminalises the terrorism in two Articles.

"Anti-State Terrorism" is described in the Article 141:

"Whoever, with an aim to endanger the constitutional order or the security of the Republic of Croatia, causes an explosion, fire, or by a generally dangerous act or device imperils the lives of people or endangers property or kidnaps a person, or commits some other act of violence within the territory of the Republic of Croatia or against its citizens, thus causing a feeling of personal insecurity in citizens,
shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three years."

The Article 169 describes the criminal act of "International Terrorism":

  1. Whoever, with intent to harm a foreign state or an international organisation, causes an explosion or fire or, by some generally dangerous act or device, endangers people or property or kidnaps a person or commits some other act of violence shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three years.
  2. If the perpetrator, in the course of the perpetration of the criminal offence referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, intentionally murders one or more persons, he/she shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten years or by long-term imprisonment.
  3. If, by the criminal offence referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the death of one or more persons or extensive destruction is caused, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years.
  4. In order to initiate criminal proceedings for the criminal offence referred to in this Article, an approval from the State Attorney of the Republic of Croatia is required.

The perpetrator of this criminal offence must have intention to harm a foreign country or international organisation. The concept of the criminal offence in one part lies on the conceptual specification of the content of terrorism from the Article 1 items c), d) and e) of the European Convention on Suppression of Terrorism of 27 January 1977.

In the paragraph 1 of this Article, the basis for criminalisation is suppression of international terrorist acts. That circumstance also stipulated the provision of the Article 4, which, instead of the principle of legality of prosecution envisages opportunity such as the approval of the State Attorney of the Republic of Croatia, without which the penal proceedings cannot be carried out. This is logical especially because the criminal offence from this Article can be perpetrated outside the territory of the homeland, even by a perpetrator who is a foreign national to the detriment of a foreign country or a foreign national.

1.2. Situation in the Republic of Croatia

The most significant act of terrorism recorded in the last few years on the Croatian territory is without any doubt the explosion of a car bomb on 20th October 1995 in front of the building of the police district Primorsko-goranska in Rijeka. On that occasion, the driver of the car bomb died, two persons suffered heavy bodily injuries and 25 persons were lightly injured. Great material damage was caused to the building of the police district as well as to some surrounding residential buildings.

The Egyptian terrorist organisation "Al-gama'a al-islamiya" claimed responsibility for that terrorist act through the news agency Reuters from London.

Concerning suppression of international terrorism, one of the most important actions taken by the law enforcement services of the Republic of Croatia, in co-operation with the law enforcement services of the United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the interception of the chain of weapons supply for the dissident fraction of the Irish Republican Army from the Croatian territory.

On 11 and 13 July 2000, on the basis of the Order of the Investigating Judge of the County Court in Split, the search of the houses and surrounding premises of more persons from the place Dobranje near Cista Provo was performed. On that occasion, greater quantities of weapons and explosives were found.

The criminal investigation has revealed that the mentioned weapons and explosives were intended for the dissident groups of the IRA.

We should point out that except the mentioned acts, since 1995 until today, no criminal offences of terrorism or international terrorism have been recorded.

However, one of the factors which might influence the negative change of this currently very favourable security situation in the Republic of Croatia is the fact that in 1991 armed aggression was committed against Croatia, and approximately 30% of the territory leaning to the neighbouring countries FR Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied until 1995. One of the consequences of the occupation and war in Croatia is the fact that great quantities of military weapons and explosives from the arsenal of former Yugoslavia were left without adequate control and therefore became available to the citizens. This situation is manifested in the fact that we register criminal offences from the area of classical crime, however weapons or explosives of military origin are used as means of perpetration.

Recognising the importance of putting firearms under the control of the police and importance of their destruction, the Government of Croatia brought the National program of increasing general security by voluntary surrender of weapons, ammunition, mines and explosives. In our actions so far, the following was surrendered to the police:

  • 17147 pieces of different automatic weapons - machine guns, automatic guns and similar
  • 1 603 912 pieces of explosive military devices - hand bombs, mines, anti-armour and antiaircraft, hand rocket launchers and similar, and
  • 2 811 922 pieces of different ammunition.

In order to put unregistered firearms under control, the Republic of Croatia has spent significant financial means - around 4.000.000,00 EURO which were paid to the citizens for returned weapons.

We mention that a great number of weapons that were put under control was destroyed:

  • 589 141 pieces of explosive devices (mines, hand grenades, anti-armoured and antiaircraft hand launchers and similar)
  • 14 027 pieces of different firearms

We should also point out that there are still thousands of square kilometres of minefields which have still not been demined.

Other important factor affecting the state of security of the Republic of Croatia is its geopolitical position.

The Republic of Croatia according to its geographical and traffic position is a central European country linking the countries of Western Europe and the countries of Eastern Europe and Asia. Such a geographical position is the cause for illegal migrants and smuggled persons transiting across the Croatian territory towards their destination in the countries of West Europe. In the last few years, we register a significant increase in the number of illegal migrants i.e. smuggled persons, which is also accompanied by the crime related to human smuggling.

The territory of the Republic of Croatia was significantly affected by transit of illegal migrants in 1992 and 1993, during intensive war operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The trends of smuggling persons across the Croatian territory and trafficking in human beings as a part of organised form of crime have been noticed since 1995, after war events calmed down. Since then, we have recorded the constant increase in the number of illegal migrants and smuggled persons who transit across the Croatian territory.

Also, in the recent time, the smuggling of persons by sea has also been present. In this case, smugglers mostly use rented vessels to transport foreign nationals from Croatia to Italy by Adriatic sea.

In the year 2001, persons mostly caught in illegal crossing of the state border were the nationals of Romania 7346, FRY 2792, Turkey 1836, Iraq 909, Macedonia 923, Moldova 743, Iran 473, China 440, Bosnia-Herzegovina 479, Tunis 199 and from other countries - 898 persons, which is the total of 17038 persons.

The biggest number of foreign nationals entering in organised groups into Croatia comes from Bosnia-Herzegovina or FRY - mostly they are the citizens of Iran, Turkey, China and Iraq who legally came by planes to airports Sarajevo and Belgrade.

2. International Co-operation of the Republic of Croatia in the Fight against Terrorism

The Croatian Ministry of the Interior, in co-operation with other competent bodies, in accordance with accepted international standards is continuously taking operative and preventive measures aimed at prevention and elimination of danger of terrorist actions, including also different forms of international co-operation which Croatia is trying to develop constantly for the purposes of its better efficiency, especially by further expansion of bilateral, regional and multilateral co-operation.

In view to the above, the Republic of Croatia has concluded Agreements on co-operation in the fight against terrorism with 18 countries. The aim of the agreements is exchange of information and intelligence on planned or committed terrorist acts, on the persons participating in such acts, modus of perpetration, as well as activities and technical means used in those acts. Also, co-operation envisages the exchange of information and intelligence on terrorist groups or their members, who commit or have committed their criminal activities or they plan them on the territory of, to the detriment of, and against interest of other countries, as well as information important for combating terrorist or criminal activities dangerous for the public security.

32 such agreements are in preparation for signing.

Besides the mentioned, the Republic of Croatia, i.e. the Ministry of the Interior, being a member of Interpol has the obligation to respect and implement the resolutions of INTERPOL, regulating these problems.

Also, on multilateral field, Croatia has signed, ratified and built into its legislation the most important international conventions relating to issues of terrorism. Croatia actively participated in the drafting of the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and is one of the first signatory countries.

The Republic of Croatia strongly supports actions undertaken so far in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions in particular 1373 (2001) aimed at suppressing and eradicating international terrorism, as shown in the Report submitted to the Counter-Terrorism Committee pursuant to paragraph 6 of the mentioned resolution.

Conclusion

In view of the above, we can conclude that Croatia has taken the first and very important steps in qualifying itself in the fight against terrorism.

The Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of the Interior invest great efforts in the fight against terrorism on a domestic field, and also actively support and will support the efforts of the subjects of the international community in the combat against international terrorism.

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