CRACKED THE SURFACE OF THE OCTOPUS During his eight months at the post of Police General Director Vladimir Faber launched investigations into numerous corruption scandals, not knowing that some reached right to top national officials; here photographed with Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko Former Police General Director Vladimir Faber was the first to, during his short stint at the post, start investigations into the corruption octopus whose trail leads more and more towards former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. While at the helm of the police department Faber gave police investigators free rein in investigating cases that had been covered up for years, perhaps not even guessing that some of these reached to the very top of the national leadership. It is clear now that Sanader was very much aware during the last months of his time in office just how dangerous Faber was for his cronies and to himself, and in mid June of last year he was merciless in dealing with the then Police General Director.

Sanader's emergency plan was to remove Faber as quickly and completely as possible from the police department and to put an immediate halt to all investigations launched by people of Faber's confidence in the police force. As Nacional has learned Sanader's initial plan was to neutralise Faber and appoint him to the post of director of the National Protection and Rescue Directorate, but pressure from the public and foreign diplomats thwarted his intention to completely remove this lauded Police General Director from the police department. Faber was, nevertheless, transferred to the post of State Secretary and was completely forbidden from making any public appearances without the permission of Minister Karamarko, a ban still in effect.

And while the abrupt and unexplained sacking of Vladimir Faber in June had very embarrassing connotations for the Sanader administration, it is much clearer today that it was part of his frantic struggle for political survival. Details of the eight-months Faber was at the helm of the police force are vivid examples of the methodology of Sanader's long-time administration of the country, the quashing of key anti-corruption investigations, the cover-up of all scandals embarrassing for the governing administration, and that it was Sanader himself, in early October of 2008, who in fact signed his own political demise when he appointed Tomislav Karamarko and Vladimir Faber to the helm of the nation's police.

Sanader appointed Karamarko and Faber to the key posts in the police department on 6 October 2008 after Ivana Hodak had been shot dead in downtown Zagreb. As Nacional's sources point out, Sanader was very nervous and concerned those days as it was thought that it was a mafia-style execution that may have been connected to the trial of Vladimir Zagorec. The fear and insecurity then felt by Croatian citizens grew many times over two weeks later when, also in the centre of town, Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic were brutally liquidated. After that the former Croatian Prime Minister was in deathly fear for his own life, and immediately ordered a much higher level of security for himself and his family, and for several weeks did not meddle in the affairs of the police.

The investigation into the murders raised the entire police and intelligence system on its feet, and investigators were uncovering more and more information on a number of other criminal acts that newly appointed Police General Director Vladimir Faber also decided to investigate in detail. As is known, Sanader and Faber first clashed openly in mid November 2008 when Faber publicly labelled the work of the police up to that moment, which had faithfully obeyed Sanader's directives, a "stinking product wrapped in cellophane."

The event was preceded by an agreement between Karamarko and Faber to clean up the situation in the police as quickly a possible, sack "suitable" and incompetent police chiefs that had for years covered up investigations and subserviently obeyed political directives. The first "victim" of the new policy was the long-time chief of police in Dubrovnik Ivan Kresic, which infuriated his political patron Luka Bebic. Just a day after participating at a round table discussion in Croatian Parliament, when the head of security in Parliament withdrew Faber from the room at Sanader's orders, Faber and Karamarko drove to Split where Ivan Mercep, who enjoyed Sanader's particular confidence, was to have been sacked.

On the trip to Split, however, they heard the news that Sanader had publicly censured Faber, telling him that the "Police General Director's place is on the streets, and not at round tables," after which Sanader phoned the Interior Minister on his cell phone, forbidding him from sacking Ivan Mercep. According to some sources it was the Split police department in fact that was for years key to keeping Sanader in power, as some of the biggest cases of corruption, which may reach all the way to Sanader, happened in the jurisdiction of the Split-Dalmatia County police administration - the Imostroj, Brodosplit, Skladgradnja and Croatian Motorways Ltd cases are just a few of these. Besides ordering him that Mercep had to stay on at the helm of the Split police force, Sanader also opposed Faber's intention to appoint Josip Buljan, an inspector that had investigated money laundering at Brodosplit and suspicious contracts between Skladgradnja and Croatian Motorways Ltd, to the head of the National Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) in Split.

According to some sources, as early as in late November 2008, Sanader wanted to rid himself of the bothersome Police General Director, but was firmly opposed in this intention by Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko, who told Sanader he would resign if Faber was chucked out of the police force. Sanader and Faber next quarrelled in late December 2008, when Sanader ordered a halt on a covert investigation that Faber's investigators had launched. According to Nacional's sources, the investigation continued nevertheless a few months later, but it remains unknown to this day what exactly was the cause of the great concern of the former Prime Minister.

After having drawn the fury of both Sanader and Bebic on himself, Faber on 9 January 2009 rubbed another of Sanader's close friends the wrong way - HDZ Member of Parliament Mario Zubovic had parked his Volkswagen Passat in a no-parking zone in downtown Zagreb, and then argued bitterly with workers from Zagrebparking that wanted to tow his car away.

While the argument was going on in the streets Zubovic arrogantly phoned top police officials and demanded that they come and deal with the workers of Zagrebparking, which did not happen. Zubovic was embarrassed as a day or two after the incident, Zagrebparking director Mate Kraljevic publicly defended his employees, and Zubovic redirected his anger towards "Faber's" police, which "did not protect him from the SDPers at Zagrebparking" and which filed misdemeanour charges against him.

At the time Faber ran afoul of yet another HDZ Member of Parliament. He was called by Josip Dakic and, as if it was understood to be perfectly normal, dictated a list of police officers Dakic favoured that should be appointed to top police posts in his county. As Nacional's source points out, Faber quietly heard him out and then coolly informed him that he could not comply with his wishes.
That same day Dakic complained about it to Sanader. There were similar interventions with similar outcomes during Faber's entire eight-month stint at the post, and the Police General Director came into ever more frequent conflict with local HDZ heavies, and with their chief - Ivo Sanader. In late March 2009, he clashed with HDZ Defence Minister Branimir Vukelic, as he had sacked the head of the Karlovac police administration Nenad Kranjcec, who was tight with Vukelic, and his deputy Boris Kozjan, and in early May he even antagonised the apparently benign HDZ member Lino Cervar.

FORMER PRIME MINISTER Ivo Sanader with former Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic, whose complicity in the lorry scandal was investigated by Faber right up to the end of his termFaber, namely, decided to sack then police chief Dragan Stipanovic, a friend of Lino Cervar's for his poor leadership of the Umag police station. When Cervar heard of this, he asked to see Sanader urgently and protested Faber's decision. The former Prime Minister, given to theatrical moves and to demonstrating that no one in the country was above him, called Faber right there in front of Cervar and gave him an earful. Faber heard him out calmly and - once again demonstrated his insubordination by sacking Cervar's chum. It was very quickly becoming clear that Faber wanted to run the police entirely independently and that the depoliticization, i.e. sacking of police chiefs close to the HDZ and Sanader, had practically become customary.

Sanader was even more upset with the fact that he felt, and probably had some information to the effect that Faber was strongly encouraging the investigation of all kinds of criminal activity in the country, even some very sensitive cases of corruption. Another reason for the former Prime Minister's concern was that the Police General Director was "uncooperative", i.e. he failed to report to the national leadership regularly and in detail concerning ongoing investigations, which was for Sanader, who wanted to control everything, a cause for fury.

Faber had always pushed the idea that politicians had no reason to know anything of police investigations until they were practically finished. In favour of this opinion he has frequently cited the example of other European countries, Germany in particular, where police chiefs one morning in late 2006 at exactly 7 am arrested former Siemens director Thomas Ganswindt, when Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber was only notified of the impending incarceration at 6:45 am, just 15 minutes ahead of the actual arrest. A major quarrel broke out between Ivo Sanader and Vladimir Faber in the first week of February 2009, when the police carried out its anti-corruption Operation Dubai, which saw the arrests of two officials at the Tax Administration and one inspector with the Financial Police.

And while the operation received public approval, Sanader was furious at the police and its General Director because they had not notified the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ivan Suker, whose portfolio covers all of those arrested, in advance. Aware that he had no control over Faber and that he had no idea of what all of the ongoing investigations were, Sanader allegedly send Faber signals via various trustworthy people to not poke around too much in state institutions, and allegedly made a particular effort to have police investigators shut down an investigation in connection with the customs administration, where Sanader's close friend Mladen Barisic was the top man.

Just a month later, in early April of last year, without Sanader's prior knowledge, the police and USKOK carried out Operation Titanik, in which, among others, two heads of department from Bozidar Kalmeta's ministry were arrested on charges of bribery. In May of last year Faber's investigators once again demonstrated that there were no untouchables under his leadership. Operation Ipsilon saw the arrests of Drazen Golemovic, and 31-year-old Ante Bralic, one of Ivo Sanader's bodyguards.
According to some sources, a few days ahead of the arrests the former Prime Minister personally sought that Bralic not be arrested, but when he failed in this, he nevertheless obstructed the investigation.

In spite of rush notes, allegedly for the Prime Minister's security, the Interior Ministry's security affairs department did not submit USKOK data on Bralic's involvement a full two months. The culmination of the quarrel between Sanader and Faber is already known. Right up to the end of his time at the post Faber was unremitting in his intention to see the lorry scandal investigation out to its end, which, in the end, he succeeded in doing, even though Sanader abruptly dismissed him in late June. Besides on the lorry case, Faber and his aides were working intensively half way through last year on a few other investigations. Some of these, like those into the operations of Croatian Railways, the national electric power company HEP, Skladgradnja and Croatian Motorways Ltd, have already led to arrests, and there are allegedly still other investigations of which the public has yet to learn. When in mid June Sanader decided to move Faber at all costs, he was not at first aware of the negative reaction of the Croatian public and the sharp protests from international politics, and so the dismissal was carried out quickly, clumsily, unconvincingly and without any kind of coherent explanation.

But, even with the dismissal of the Police General Director, Sanader could no longer stop the many ongoing investigations. According to some indicators, Sanader definitely decided to get Faber out of the picture as far back as in early May, when he picked Rijeka's Oliver Grbic to succeed him. At the beginning of June Sanader grasped that Faber was not at all heeding his direct orders, or the messages he was sending via go-betweens in regard to the outcome of the lorry case. As so on Monday, 15 June he notified Minister Karamarko that Government would make a decision by the end of the week to relieve Faber of his post.

OPERATION DUBAI Sanader was furious with Faber over the arrest of people from Finance Minister Ivan Suker's portfolio; in the photo are Zdravko Markac, Ranko Vukoja and Zeljko Sicaja at the trial in Country Court Karamarko passed the news on to Faber that same day, and the information was leaked to the public. And again Sanader underestimated Faber. He expected Faber to accept the decision on his dismissal quietly and to be grateful that the Prime Minister was offering him a sinecure at the National Protection and Rescue Directorate. Faber, however, let it be known that he had no intention of leaving the police force, sidestepped Sanader, and without hesitation gave the press statements concerning his dismissal. Disgusted by Faber's public appearances, Sanader even offered him a post in the diplomacy through an intermediary, but rejected Faber's request for a meeting. Faber wanted to hear directly from the Prime Minister the reasons for the dismissal, and Sanader was aware that he could not give him the real reasons, especially as he assumed that Faber would not hesitate to pass on to the public everything Sanader might tell him at such a meeting.

In the end, Sanader or one of his close aides came up with the shameful idea that Faber be "promoted" to the post of state secretary. That way Faber would not be able to complain of being sacked, and at the same time there would finally be an end to all of his public appearances, as state secretaries are not permitted to give public statements without the expressed permission of the Minister. And since foreign diplomats began asking questions about the unexpected dismissal of the Police General Director, Sanader tried, cowardly, to lay the blame for Faber's dismissal, by way of journalists loyal to him, on his coalition partner - the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). And so a day ahead of the session of Government, a fabricated story appeared in the press that Faber's dismissal had been requested by HSS Minister Bozidar Pankretic because Faber had allegedly refused to prevent a tractor protest by farmers in front of the Ministry of Agriculture. Besides that fact that this was a lie that the HSS hastily denied, Sanader's failed spin was released to the public precisely on the day that he was in Brussels, which was congested in its own tractor protest by European farmers, with no one getting ideas of dismissing the head of the Belgian police. The difficult decision to sack Vladimir Faber was made by Sanader's Government on Friday, 19 June.

The former Prime Minister did not even summon up the courage to explain the move to the public, and sent Jadranka Kosor and Tomislav Karamarko to deal with the press who, shamefaced, repeated the incoherent claims that Faber was in fact - promoted. The further development of events is well known. The furore with the dismissal of the Police General Director simply did not died down, and "promoted" State Secretary Vladimir Faber was a few days later to have appeared in the Croatian Television show Otvoreno, but Minister Karamarko forbade the appearance at the last moment and any further public appearances. And just twelve days after Faber's dismissal Sanader dismissed himself and fled from the top job in the country, left in a state of dire crisis by his leadership in fact, and long time covering up of crime, bribery and corruption, the extent of which is only now becoming evident.