Tomislav Karamarko, new director of the Counterintelligence Agency (POA), has been brought in with the task of reforming the entire intelligence community in Croatia. At the midnight negotiations on 9 December, Stipe Mesić and Ivo Sanader promised Karamarko that the amendments to the Intelligence Agencies Act would soon be passed, and a new version of the former Office for National Security as the top spy institution would be formed. In return, they expect him to clean up POA of all those men installed by Joško Podbevšek and who have seriously compromised POA.

And that is how the man who, stepped down from his position as director of UNS in 2002 following his conflict with Goran Granić regarding the reforms to the intelligence community and founded the security consulting agency Soboli d.o.o., has now appeared as the saviour of the remnants of the domestic intelligence community. It is interesting to note that he was not proposed by Mesić, with whom he has been friends since 1989 when they co-founded HDZ together, but by Sanader, who tried to convince him on two occasions last week to take over POA. Karamarko declined Sanader’s offer, however, the third telephone call, made last Friday at 11:30 p.m. by both Sanader and Mesić, was key. One of the participants of that meeting confirmed for Nacional that it took about a half hour of convincing for Karamarko to give in. When the Parliamentary National Security and Internal Policy board confirms the selection of the new director on Wednesday, the great clean-up in POA will begin.

However, this is not the end of the story with POA and Podbevšek’s legacy within the agency. Sanader and Mesić were quick to consent to Karamarko’s condition of de-politicization of the agency and implementing professionalism and order into its functioning. Only that for Mesić means the removal of several dozen of Podbevšek’s men, which Karamarko may refuse, like he did in 200 to the president’s suggestion that Smiljan Reljić be removed from UNS. Reljić was one of the most compromised spies of the Tudjman era and author of secret files of reporters and all opponent to the then HDZ regime. Karamarko even today claims that Reljić and Mladen Lacković were professionals who had done no illegalities in their spy careers and that is why he defended them. If the same arguments are used for Joško Podbevšek’s men, it will be difficult to avoid a conflict with Stipe Mesić.

This first happened at the end of 2001, when the new Security Agencies Act was under preparation, and Karamarko believed that the draft law by Goran Granić was destroying the security system, particularly the intention to abolish UNS and increase the government authority. Though he was at first supported by Mesić, the president later was inclined towards Granić, and the preparation of the law was taken over by his national security advisor, Željko Bagić. According to Mesić’s instructions, Bagić and Granić created the final version of the law, which differed significantly from Karamarko’s and after months of fighting through the papers, the director of UNS resigned. Karamarko was angry with Mesić for taking the opposing side, and from that point they did not communicate for two full years. An even bigger problem was the permanent animosity between Karamarko and Bagić, which only increased following Bagić’s comment that Karamarko could be held criminally responsible for some of his decisions. Though he is not in the least fond of Bagić, close friends of Karamarko claim that the new POA director does not intend to spend any time processing Mesić’s former national security advisor.

With respect to his relationship with Franjo Turek, the situation is much simpler. They conflicted at the end of 2001 when Turek’s men did not permit Karamarko’s staff to conduct an inspection of the annual work of SZUP. This was an introduction into an open conflict between the two leading intelligence directors. Karamarko accused Turek of violating the law, but this was all put to an end with the resignation of the UNS director. After that, they were no longer in contact, right up until Saturday, 10 December, when Turek called Karamarko to congratulate him on the appointment. It would appear that this unexpected call pleased the otherwise reserved Karamarko, and with that this three year long conflict was finally ended. Today, he also looks differently at Mesić’s conduct, which lead to the rift in their friendship, according to a close personal friend. “Stipe Mesić is a pragmatic politician who did not want to go to war with the Račan government, while for Karamarko, this law was the most important thing in the world. However, he greatly respects Mesić and sees him as a positive figure, such that no one should be surprised with the renewal of their friendship and Karamarko’s appointment as director of POA,” claims their acquaintance.

One of the main tasks for the new POA director will be the search for Ante Gotovina. Carla Del Ponte succeeded in eliminating Turek under allegations that POA was not adequately involved in the hunt for Gotovina. With the help of a few Croatian journalists and former police chief Ranko Ostojić, the Hague prosecutor has for twenty months been claiming, without providing any concrete evidence, that Gotovina is hiding out in Croatia. Her position is dramatically slowing Croatia’s accession to the EU, even though it is perfectly clear that Gotovina has not been in the country for years.

Tomislav Karamarko thinks the same way, and this could become a big problem. Back in 2000, he criticized Del Ponte’s deputy, Graham Blewitt, according to whom HV attacked the “Republic of Srpska Krajina”, and was most certainly evident in the interview to Slobodna Dalmacija on 29 April 2002, in which he said, “This letter (letter of Croatian generals to President Mesić, ed. note), as was soon evident, announced the indictment against General Gotovina, which has a political character and puts not only Gotovina in the defendant’s chair, but also the entire Patriotic War. Here we need to be very sensitive. For both the world and ourselves, we need to be able to detect crime and try them ourselves. The political dimension of this indictment is problematic. This kind of an indictment should be rejected. In this case, the Hague has not differentiated the victim from the aggressor.

“He has the same opinion today,” confirmed Nacional’s source, “however, Karamarko is a legalist and POA will search for Gotovina as that is one of the tasks of the secret service. The issue is that due to his previous position, and due to the fact that he is not a man to easily change his mind, he is the person because of whom Croatia will be hit hard with blackmail again. When the Hague did not believe Turek or Podbevšek, why would they believe Karamarko,” said his friend. The small circle of Mesić’s closest associated knows that in mid 2000, the president authorized Karamarko to hook him up with Gotovina. Counting on their acquaintance, Mesić intended to bring Gotovina to his Office to convince him to influence the top military ranks to cooperate with the government and Office of the President. However, this was a case of bad timing, for it was at the very time that the 12 generals, among then Ante Gotovina, signed the letter in defense of the dignity of the Patriotic War, and Mesić’s reaction was their immediate retirement. And that is how the idea of a truce between the top military ranks and the state administration was quickly dissipated, and with that, Karamarko’s mediatory role. However, those who know him well claim that he continues to hold a high opinion of some of the war generals, particularly Ante Gotovina and Damir Krstičević.

Furthermore, Karamarko’s biography confirms his ties to numerous individuals from Croatian public life. He was born in Zadar in 1959, and in 1964, his family moved to the outer edge of Zagreb, in the Kozari Bok area. The year 1982 was very important for him – first he graduated history from the Faculty of Philosophy, and then, as a member of the Catholic Society, his passport was taken from him on charges of clero-nationalism. It was returned only 7 years later, and in 1989, Karamarko was one of the founders of HDZ. Over the next few years, he worked closely with Mesić, Josip Manolić and Franjo Gregurić, and in 1993, he left the parliament to take the important post of head of the Zagreb police administration. Two years later he processed the criminal charges against Miroslav Kutle in the case of Gradski Podrum and the director of Croatia bus, Leon Sulić.

The beginning of the war with the Herzegovinian tycoons meant the end of his career in HDZ and the Tudjman regime. Though Karamarko recently among friends defended Tudjman, saying that he had protected him for a long time due to intra-party balance, in the end Ivić Pašalić and Ljubo Ćesić-Rojs convinced the president to remove him. It was not a brutal split. At first he received the position of Assistant to the Police Minister, and in 1998, he was sent as an advisor in the Croatian Autoclub. Insufficient to be proclaimed a dissident, but sufficient to create the image of being an anti-Tudjmanist. However, even today Karamarko does not criticize Tudjman, and defends him with the traditional HDZ thesis, “He had his mistakes, but nonetheless, he created the independent Croatian state.”

At the end of the 1990s, he began to intensively spend time with Mesić, and during the presidential elections, he became head of the election staff. Following Mesić’s victory, he became the presidential national security advisor and director of UNS. He held out in this position for 2 years. When he lost to Bagić and Granić, or rather to Mesić and Račan, he founded the company Soboli d.o.o., who security segment, owned by Dragan Šturtić, has for years been securing the premises of Europapress holding, owned by Ninoslav Pavić. Karamarko claims that he has nothing to do with that, as he is only interested in the security consulting aspect of the business. That was confirmed in early July, when with a little help from his friends in high places, Karamarko’s company landed a lucrative deal surrounding he safe entry of foreign ships into all Croatian ports. On Monday, 13 December, Karamarko went to his lawyer to hand over his shares in the company Soboli, the final step towards taking over leadership in the Croatian intelligence community.