Croatian government plans to bring together the police and the army?
The government has established commissions to draft the Law on the Homeland Security System and the National Security Strategy, and both commissions will be headed by Defence Minister Damir Krstičević. It is still not known what the documents will ultimately contain, but opposition has already started voicing its criticism. The question is whether Croatian homeland security system will look like the often criticized American concept of homeland security, reports N1 on November 4, 2016.
Croatia has been waiting for a new national security strategy for years. “We need to first define the national interest and strategic goals that we want to achieve. Then there is another very important area, and that is the need to analyze threats and risks to which Croatian society is exposed. Also, it is important to rank various threats and risks”, says Defence Minister Damir Krstičević (HDZ).
The current National Security Strategy was adopted in 2002 and is obviously outdated. The former SDP-led government decided against adopting a new one. “That is not a document which would point to certain problems, for example, the problems that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina currently have. It is a general document which some NATO countries do have, some others do not have, and some have even given up on this concept altogether”, says former Defence Minister Ante Kotromanović (SDP).
The homeland security approach on which Krstičević insists is full of unknowns. Will it resemble the American system? “We see that the security paradigm has changed. In particular after the September 11 attacks. We have looked at that model, and also at models in Israel, Germany, Denmark. We have seen there is a move towards integration of capabilities and joint action in cases when a threat or adverse event happens”, says Krstičević.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security Ranko Ostojić (SDP) says that this is a very dangerous proposal. “The first draft which was shown, that army should provide security on the streets or something similar, that is something which is absolutely unacceptable in a country in which rules are defined and civilian services exist to carry out these tasks”, says Ostojic.
“The introduction of an overarching ministry or of the American concept does not include these civilian services which exist in Croatia”, says Ostojić. “You cannot have a co-ordination between the Interior Ministry and the army in some Ministry of Homeland Security, unless this is the first step that in the future these two ministries would disappear and unite”, concludes Ostojić.
