OBEDIENT POLICE The ruling party wants to bring the entire Croatian police force under its control On orders from top Government officials and the HDZ the police are undertaking speedy preparations for the social unrest and union demonstrations expected and announced for the autumn. This has for the past two weeks been the chief task of Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko and the new Police General Director Oliver Grbic, who have been listening to political instructions from Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor at secret meetings held at Government's seat in the Vicegerent's Palace (Banski dvori). So pronounced is the ruling party's fear of unrest and instability this autumn that orders have been issued to police and security services that they as quickly as possible detect all possible protest group leaders and that an effort be made to prevent the organisation of protests, i.e. that police officials loyal to the HDZ ban some protests. As a result of crisis measures the use of force in breaking protests has also been considered, which would mentally bring Croatia back to the time of Franjo Tudjman's rule in the 1990s.

A tough financial crisis, the departure of Ivo Sanader, forecasts of early elections and the many problems the ruling HDZ has faced over the past months have led to a high level of anxiety and concern in the party's ranks and among top national officials. That is why top HDZ officials have decided to urgently bring the entire Croatian police force under their direct and complete control. Under threat of losing his post Minister Tomislav Karamarko has been forced to obediently implement all the demands issued by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her political mentors, Police General Director Oliver Grbic is secretly visiting the Prime Minister's office for "instructions", the long prepared launch of the Police USKOK (Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime) has already failed miserably, and all of the people loyal to former Police General Director Vladimir Faber are being eliminated from key posts in the police force. Instead of with unpredictable police experts, key posts are being filled with trusted people loyal to the HDZ.

According to Nacional's sources close to top officials on the Croatian political scene Tomislav Buterin is soon to come to the top post in the Zagreb Police Administration. Buterin is a police inspector who in the 1990s hushed up all of the criminal cases of conversion from state to private ownership. It all indicates that the Croatian police will move over the coming months to stop most tough investigations and anti-corruption activities, and that it will orient itself entirely on one mission - to try to protect the ruling HDZ from collapse, a fall from power and the investigation of criminal activity among top politicians.A PARTY MAN Tomislav Buterin, a man of the HDZ's confidence, is coming to the helm of the Zagreb Police Administration

What top government officials fear most now is the unstable political situation that has arisen in the wake of the departure of Ivo Sanader, the tough financial and economic situation, and the messages coming from western diplomats that the lorry scandal can in no way be swept under the rug. Among top HDZ officials they are aware that the indignation and anger of citizens towards the current political administration is growing almost daily. They are already fearful of how people will react when they get back from their summer vacations and the difficult financial straits continue, and it is no wonder then that hasty preparations have been going on for some time now for the protests that are certain to break out across Croatia. It is already known that protests and expressions of civil disobedience will be staged soon by Croatian farmers, some unions and allegedly also by students. By some forecasts the peak of the public unrest could come in late September, or in early October, when every Croatian citizen will feel the trouble very concretely on their own skin - the crisis tax will come off their wages, and prices will have in the meantime, contrary to what has been said, rise as a result of the VAT rate hike, unemployment will be up and there will be no end in sight to this difficult situation.

These ominous forecasts are also a cause for concern for Prime Minister Kosor and her party colleagues, who have ordered top police officials to prepare for all possible problems. According to well-informed sources they are particularly determined in Government, even at the cost of using force, to prevent possible tractor blockades of roads and border crossings, which have been announced several times by Croatian dairy producers. Special forces and riot police officers will get orders to not allow protesters access to Zagreb's old upper town where Parliament and Government house are located. Because of its symbolic significance it is practically impossible that any protest organiser will be given a permit to stage a protest meeting on Zagreb's main square. Besides, the Zagreb police will direct all protesters to Francuska Republika Square, where the law says protests can be staged without prior notification or permission. Amendments to the Public Assembly Act in December of 2005 effectively rendered staging protests on Cvjetni Square impossible because it is located in the direct vicinity of the temporary seat of the Constitutional Court in Varsavska Street. So it turns out that any protest in Zagreb can be staged either on the unattractive Francuska Republika Square or somewhere on the outskirts of town. Jadranka Kosor's advisors have studied the law in detail to provide the police with the authority to ban or break up protests - something a broad reading of the law in fact makes a quite simple matter.

Minister Tomislav Karamarko and Police General Director Oliver Grbic have obediently listened to these kinds of Government directives these past weeks. It is quite clear to Karamarko that he has been in a quite unenviable situation ever since Vladimir Faber was sacked - most HDZ members would like nothing better than to unload him too, and by consenting to the scandalous firing of his former associate Karamarko has seen his rating drop with other domestic and foreign political players alike. He is as a result, by all accounts, forced to implement the HDZ's decision without resistance because he would in this situation be hard pressed to preserve his good standing even if he were, under pressure, to tender his resignation. The situation with General Police Director Oliver Grbic is much the same. He had the opportunity to see clearly by the example of his predecessor what kind of behaviour is expected of him, and has been servile towards all demands coming out of Government and the HDZ from the moment he was appointed the Acting General Police Director.

A FRIGHTENED PRIME MINISTER Jadranka Kosor fears that the protests that have been announced could lead to a change of power That there have been significant changes over the past month in how the Croatian police operates is also borne out by some other indicators. Above all this is the impending appointment of a new director to the Zagreb police administration. Given that all political power is concentrated in Zagreb it has always been of exceptional importance to the ruling party that a person of their confidence sits at the helm of the police in the nation's capital. And while there had been speculation as late as in the second half of June that Sibenik native Branko Peran could soon be replaced by Krunoslav Borovec, he has fallen out of contention because the new head of the Zagreb police has to be obedient even when it comes to the possibility of breaking up protests. And that is why a candidate was found in the ruling party that perfectly suits the HDZ - former commercial crime inspector Tomislav Buterin has been a trusted cadre for years and demonstrated his loyalty to the HDZ back in the 1990s. This is a police officer who was, during the time of Franjo Tudjman given the job of hushing up or stopping all attempts to resolve crimes committed in the conversion from state to private ownership, and at the same time "took care of" things on political orders. He is remembered in the police as the person who tried to stop all investigations concerning Nevenka Tudjman, including arraigning her before an investigating judge.

Buterin is considered to be "most deserving" for the fact that one-time tycoon Josip Gucic managed to evade criminal persecution in Croatia by fleeing abroad. He also demonstrated his loyalty and willingness to serve political masters in the case of the Dubrovacka Bank, when, on direct orders from then Minister Ivan Penic and Ivic Pasalic, he travelled to Dubrovnik and arrested Neven Barac. A few days after Barac was arrested Buterin held a press conference at which he spoke in detail of all the charges levelled at Barac. Barac sued him for slander in 2000 and there was a bizarre turn of events at the trial - when the judge asked him why he had made slanderous statements about Barac, Buterin said that he had done so on Minister Penic's orders. After the testimony Barac thanked him for his sincerity and told the judge he was dropping the charges because he did not want to criminally persecute a person who had admitted he was doing something on somebody else's orders.

As a HDZ and Pasalic man Buterin was dismissed from the post of head of the police's commercial crime department in March of 2001 by SDP police minister Sime Lucin. With the return of the HDZ to power in late 2003 Buterin tried to rehabilitate himself within the HDZ and, according to sources in the police, allegedly hoped that the party he had faithfully served for years might reinstate him as the head of the department. That, however, did not happen because in 2003 and 2004 Buterin seriously compromised himself in two cases. In the first the police had eavesdropped on a group of criminals involved in racketeering, and it was recorded on several occasions that Buterin had very "friendly" contacts with some criminals. In the second case, which the Globus weekly covered extensively in September of 2004, eavesdropping established that Buterin maintained contacts with big-time coffee smugglers.

Particularly critical for his career was the fact that the entire investigation into coffee smuggling in Croatia, and from Croatia to Bosnia & Herzegovina was being carried out by a German police team the head of international forces in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, has stationed in Banja Luka, and they suspected Buterin of having made a great effort to cover up the smuggling of the tremendous amount of two thousand tonnes of coffee in Croatia. And so, under pressure from the German police, Buterin's return to the top spot in the police hierarchy was stopped back in September of 2004. Since then Buterin has been tucked away at the concocted post of advisor to the police minister, where he has spent his time on innocuous assignments such as opening the art exhibitions of Interior Ministry employees, leading Interior Ministry humanitarian events and blood donations and presenting a project to renew the fleets of the police administrations. The reports that Tomislav Buterin, a not-so-young but solidly compromised HDZ cadre, is to be appointed to the top spot at the Zagreb police administration soon, is a vivid indication that the Croatian police are returning to the mentality of the 1990s.THREATS FROM TOP HDZ OFFICIALS Top HDZ officials are threatening to give Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko his walking papers

That the HDZ has once again taken control of the police is evident from yet another case. Just when it had been expected that the pompously announced "Croatian FBI", i.e. the Police USKOK, would finally start functioning, new General Police Director Oliver Grbic showed that the project was definitely doomed. As far back as in early July Grbic said that there was no money to equip the special offices of the not-so-long-ago founded "National Police Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime." And at a recent meeting with the heads of local police administrations Grbic indirectly confirmed that the project would not work as it was intended to - instead of being entirely independently organised offices answering only the central office in Zagreb, regional offices will work under the control of the heads of local police administrations, which means that the detectives of the offices will be under the clear control of local police and political heavies.

Furthermore, the new General Director Grbic will continue to implement instructions from Government house to remove all of the independent personnel former General Police Director Vladimir Faber appointed to key posts in the police during his eight-month tenure.
And so the current head of the "Croatian FBI", Tihomir Kralj, has been waiting for weeks for Grbic to sack him, and to appoint his fellow Rijeka native Bozo Barbaric, who was the head of the narcotics division in Rijeka, to the post. Also awaiting his likely dismissal is Boris Spudic, the top man in Croatia's crime police. Another of Grbic's friends from Rijeka will likely be appointed to his post - the head of the Rijeka Police Administration's crime police, Vitomir Bijelic.

And while all three, Grbic, Barbaric and Bijelic, are in the opinion of their colleagues very good and capable police officers, they will have two key limitations on their future work. First of all they are very much aware that they have their promotions thanks to the ruling party, to which they will have to prove their loyalty on an almost daily basis. And, on the other hand, while they have to date had very good results in the crime sectors they have covered, none of them has any major experience in the greatest and true problem plaguing Croatian society - corruption, organised and commercial crime which, by all accounts, go all the way to the top posts in Croatian politics.