VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHVB #0070 0371454
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061454Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY ZAGREB
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8982
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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UNCLAS ZAGREB 000070 
 
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FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PPD, EUR/RPM AND EUR/ERA 
OSD FOR POPOVICH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV HR
SUBJECT: ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - FEBRUARY 6, 2009 
 
¶1.  (U) VAGRANT ARRESTED FOR HIGH-PROFILE "MAFIA-STYLE" 
MURDER: Police announced on February 6 that they arrested a 
60-year old vagrant for the October murder of Ivana Hodak, 
the daughter of a prominent defense attorney.  The murder 
last October led to a massive shake-up in the police, the 
replacement of the Interior and Justice Ministers, as well as 
a raft of new anti-crime legislation.  The case received 
widespread media speculation that the murder was a message to 
Hodak's father who is defending former general Zagorec, on 
trial for embezzling diamonds during the Homeland War in the 
early 1990s, by mafia groups or that Ms. Hodak herself had 
connections to organized crime.  Police say they found the 
murder weapon in the barn where the vagrant was living when 
they questioned him for not having any identification.  The 
police ran the gun through forensics which produced a match 
to the weapon used in the Hodak murder.  The vagrant was 
unknown to investigators in the murder case but upon finding 
the weapon, they discovered that the accused had blamed 
Hodak's father for the loss of his job 15 years ago.  The 
police believe that the accused blamed his resulting 
hardships on Hodak's father and decided to exact revenge by 
killing the daughter. (CZimmer) 
 
¶2.  (U) MEMBERS OF MINNESOTA NATIONAL GUARD ARRIVE IN CROATIA 
TO TRAIN FOR JOINT OMLT WITH CROATIA: 
On February 2, 2009, the Minnesota National Guard portion of 
the next Croatian Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team 
(OMLT) to serve in Afghanistan arrived in Croatia.  The dozen 
soldiers will work side-by-side with the Croatian soldiers 
for the next seven weeks to develop the skills and the 
teamwork needed for their joint deployment to Afghanistan. 
This joint OMLT with the Minnesota National Guard will have a 
Combat Support focus and is one of two new OMLTs that Croatia 
is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in March.  The second 
is a purely Croatian OMLT which will train an Afghan National 
Army (ANA) garrison unit.  (CDavis) 
 
¶3.  (U) MFA REPORTING THAT FRANCE APPROVED CROATIA'S NATO 
ACCESSION PROTOCOL: 
The MFA issued a press release on February 4 stating that it 
received notification that the French Senate approved 
Croatia's accession protocol, and that the lower chamber had 
also ratified the protocol.  The MFA said that by its count, 
France was the 20th NATO member country whose legislative 
branch had finished ratifying the protocol.  (PD'Amico) 
 
¶4.  (SBU) NEW PARTY FOR SERB MINORITY EMERGES IN VUKOVAR: 
The New Serb Party (NSS- Nova Srpska Stranka) was inaugurated 
in Vukovar on February 1, 2009 and the approximately 100 
members unanimously elected Svetislav Ladjarevic as party 
president and Mirko Jagetic and Ljubomir Radic as vice 
presidents.  All three had been members of the largest 
ethnic-Serb party, the Independent Democratic Serb Party 
(SDSS), but were tossed out by SDSS leadership last December. 
 Nonetheless, the formation of the NSS is a sign of 
discontent that exists among some in the Serb community 
regarding the SDSS party president Vojislav Stanimirovic and 
vice-president Milorad Pupovac's attempts to consolidate 
influence and portray the SDSS as the only viable political 
option for Serbs in Croatia.  The NSS plans to run 
independently in the upcoming local elections in 
Vukovar-Srijem and Osijek-Baranja counties, but it has not 
yet decided on any of its candidates for mayor.  The NSS is 
the third party in Croatia representing the interests of 
Croatia's Serb minority and eventually wants to expand its 
party presence to other areas of Croatia with high 
concentrations of Serbs.  The final option for Serbs in 
Croatia is the lesser known Party of Danubian-Basin Serbs. 
Meanwhile, the SDSS, which garnered three seats in national 
parliament in the last general election, opened a branch 
office in Pula to better represent the approximately 6, 600 
Serbs living in Istria.  (DMeges) 
 
¶5.  (U) DCM SPEAKS ABOUT THE AMERICAN DREAM TO ZAGREB HIGH 
SCHOOL STUDENTS: 
Deputy Chief of Mission Vivian Walker gave a lecture about 
the American Dream on January 28 to over 60 Zagreb high 
school students.  Drawing on themes from U.S. history, 
politics, culture, and literature, the DCM discussed 
contemporary social issues in both the United States and 
Croatia.  The speech generated numerous questions about 
President Obama and the priorities of the new administration. 
 This lecture is a part of Embassy Zagreb's continuing 
efforts to explain American values to the successor 
generation in Croatia.  (KWetzel) 
BRADTKE