Bad start for the bosses of secret services

There was nothing great about the former secret agents in the local politics, like this destiny has roots from the moment when the first Croatian president Franjo Tudjman decided to set Josip Manolic as the Parliament and Government representative. As he introduced a new state politician he made judgment that Manolic’s experience was necessary. However most of HDZ members didn’t approve this decision and the whole situation was especially unfavorable to the liberal wing of the former political scene. Even Manolic probably didn’t feel right for that position but when the situation got escalated with huge worldview differences, he separated from Tudjman as his employer and headed his own way...

Around twenty years later, HDZ members obviously hoped that engaging the former secret services agents will be more fortunate. Maybe they’ve got encouraged with a key difference between the situations now and then. In those past times Manolic was working for the Yugoslavian secret service (in the time when Tudjman worked for JNA) and the new stars on HDZ election list, Tudjman’s son and Tomislav Karamarko were long-term bosses of the secret services in independent Croatia. And around that time the positive side of transferring the former agents to the active policy got terminated, as the similar situation happens still today.

The former bosses of the secret services are always ahead from their rivals in the political arena due to the information they got. That information is often delicate and it will stay unreachable for the rest of the people. So there is always certain suspiciousness towards the secret agents involved in politics. This suspiciousness is a result of a fear that those agents would have a Fouché’s power over the others. The agents are familiar with various secrets, they are more informed than anybody else and they can gain a certain advantage. That’s the reason why in the democratic environment the agents usually withdraw after their active service in order to immerse in discretion, somewhere in the second or third row, where no one will have an eye on them. But HDZ obviously estimated that these ancient and old-fashion rules shouldn’t be considered.

Just after they have appeared on the election list, Tomislav Karamarko (on the top of the list in the 3rd electorate) and Miroslav Tudjman (as the second in the 1st electorate) got troubles as the former secret agents who publicly perform in the political circles. According to the article in Nacional magazine, the State Attorney office investigates the indications that the former Karamarko’s company was using information from the Security and Intelligence Agency where Karamarko worked a boss. This information however has an informal and unauthorized status. There were some more crime charges raised against Karamarko in the past. Some of them are allegedly rejected. But the mistrust on using the secret services information in his private business is not a subject that suits the leader of HDZ’s election list.

During the prime time of public television last Sunday an audio recording was released of dramatic conversation between Vukovar’s commander Mile Dedakovic Jastreb and the president Tudjman. Jastreb asks for help in personnel and equipment, he asks for withdrawal of the civilians, especially children, and Tudjman responds - out of the question, or - send me a request by fax... However Tudjman-son reacted on this episode as a typical secret agent from the beginning of the 90-ties. ‘’The recordings are fake, everything came out of KOS workshop - they want to discredit Tudjman, in favor of Kukuriku coalition.’’

That’s how Miroslav Tudjman interpreted one observation of Vukovar’s victims. There is no explanation why this subject attracts a huge interest even today, maybe because it has never been clarified and because people still remember that Mile Dedakovic suffered severe beatings in Zagreb after those recordings... Miroslav Tudjman would like the top media to still remain quiet on that subject, as they were 20 years ago. The ‘’old school’’ agents, even those modern ones, don’t show any charisma under the media spotlight by far.