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":
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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