P 051514Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ZAGREB
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8370
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000420 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PPD, EUR/RPM AND EUR/ERA 
OSD FOR POPOVICH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM EAGR ETRD KCRM EUC HR
SUBJECT: ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - JUNE 5, 2008 
 
¶1.  (U) RIJEKA  SYNAGOGUE OFFICIALLY OPENED: 
Last week, the Jewish community of Rijeka formally re-opened 
its synagogue after 15 years of reconstruction work.  Vlado 
Kon, President of the Rijeka Jewish Community noted that this 
is the only synagogue in Croatia that has kept its original 
function to this day.  Constructed between the two world 
wars, the small orthodox schull synagogue is one of only 
three synagogues in Croatia that survived the destruction of 
World War II.  It was the smaller of two synagogues in 
Rijeka, the larger one was completely destroyed by German 
troops in 1944 and never reconstructed.  The city of Rijeka 
made the largest donation to the 2 million HRK ($430,000) 
project.  The national Ministry of Culture and 
Primorsko-Rijeka County also made important contributions. 
The synagogue also serves as a Jewish cultural center hosting 
concerts, book presentations and exhibits. (MJelenc) 
 
¶2.  (U)  THREE PUBLIC FIGURES BEATEN IN SEPARATE ATTACKS IN 
ZAGREB: 
In the past two weeks, three prominent public figures have 
been physically assaulted on the streets of Zagreb, two with 
grave consequences. On May 17, two individuals beat Igor 
Radjenovic, CEO of Zagreb City Road Company "Zagrebacke 
Ceste" with a baseball bat.  Radjenovic, a member of the 
opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Chief-of-Staff 
to former Prime Minister Ivica Racan, sustained severe 
injuries to the head.  Both Radjenovic and the media link 
this attack to his active cooperation with the Office for 
Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) in an 
ongoing investigation into "Zagrebacke Ceste."  Then, on the 
evening of June 2, two assailants armed with baseball bats 
badly beat Dusan Miljus, a leading reporter on organized 
crime issues.  In the past six months, Miljus had publicly 
received threats from family members of persons associated 
with organized crime.  As in the Radjenovic case, the 
attackers remain unknown.  Earlier on June 2, three young men 
attacked Gordana Lukac-Koritnik, Croatia's Ombudsperson for 
Gender Equality, when she reportedly asked them to stop 
ethnic taunts and insults against visitors to the Serb 
Orthodox Church near her offices in downtown Zagreb.  She 
sustained light injuries.  All three of her assailants have 
reportedly been apprehended.  (ZTomic) 
 
¶3.  (U)  CRITICS CONTINUE TO QUESTION NEW LAW ON FREE LEGAL 
AID: 
On May 16, the Parliament passed an amended Law on Free Legal 
Aid, one of the EU's required "benchmarks" for Croatia before 
EU accession negotiations on judicial affairs can begin.  The 
law entered into force on May 24, but it will be February 
2009 before clients actually begin to benefit from it, when 
regulations implementing the process are due to go into 
effect.  In the meantime, the government will set up regional 
offices tasked to screen applicants and issue approvals for 
the service.  An earlier draft of this law was withdrawn from 
Parliament in late 2007 under pressure from prominent human 
rights NGOs and some international organizations that 
objected to complicated administrative procedures.  Critics 
wanted the GoC to allow easier access to free legal aid and 
remove stipulations that limited the NGOs' ability to offer 
primary legal assistance.  In its adopted form, the law 
reduces the number of documents potential clients will need 
to prove they qualify for assistance, and a last-minute 
amendment allows direct access to primary legal assistance 
from NGOs, i.e. without prior government approval.  Ariana 
Vela of Transparency International, who leads a group of 20 
NGOs involved in drafting the law, said the improved law is 
still flawed, containing contradictory stipulations.  The law 
did not explain how NGOs that offer primary legal assistance 
will be able to register clients who arrive without a 
government referral, or how they will be reimbursed by the 
government for their work.  The law also provides no budget 
for 50 new employees needed to set up the regional offices. 
The NGO consortium is discussing a likely request for review 
of the new law by the Constitutional Court.  (MJelenc) 
 
¶4.  (U)  CROATIA ACCEPTED INTO AGRICULTURAL FELLOWSHIP 
PROGRAM: 
Croatia has been accepted into the Norman E. Borlaug 
International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows 
Program (Borlaug Fellows Program).  Six months of 
negotiations paid off during a recent visit to Croatia by a 
Borlaug International Affairs Specialist who toured Croatian 
bioscience colleges and decided that in 2009 Croatia should 
send 3 to 5 Borlaug Fellows to the United States for 5 to 8 
weeks of scientific exchange.  Training venues include U.S. 
land grant universities, USDA or other government agencies, 
private companies, not-for-profit institutions and 
international agricultural research centers.  (AMisir) 
 
¶5.  (U)  IMPLEMENTATION OF EU REQUIREMENTS HELPS OPEN CROATIA 
TO U.S. PORK EXPORTS: 
After two years of negotiation between American and Croatian 
veterinary authorities, Croatia will accept freezing as a 
legitimate method of killing trichinae, a species of 
roundworm found in pork and wild game.  Despite international 
recommendations and guidelines to the contrary, past Croatian 
legislation did not recognize this internationally accepted 
control method.  However, as of July 1, Croatia will accept 
EU requirements on pork imports, including the recognition 
that trichinae can be killed by freezing.  This will lift 
previous bans on U.S. pork exports to Croatia that regularly 
use this method, thereby opening up a $3 million market for 
U.S. pork exporters. (AMisir) 
 
Bradtke