Asked to comment on the replacement of more than 100 police officers in Zadar, as reported by today's papers, Franic said that this had nothing to do with Gotovina. He added that police department heads were the most responsible and decided freely about possible replacements and personnel changes.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun said that 147 police officers from the Zadar Police Department had been transferred in the past year, adding that those officers were not replaced but that their transfers were part of normal police functioning and decisions that were within the jurisdiction of police department heads.
The press today quoted the chief prosecutor of the Hague war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, as saying at her meeting with the EU task force evaluating Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal on Tuesday that the news of replacement of more than 100 police officers in Zadar was very important. She warned, though, that this blow to the network protecting Gotovina was not strong enough to affect people in higher positions of power.
Addressing a news conference that was dedicated to crime in the country, security situation and police activities in the first quarter of this year, Franic would not comment on announcements from the government that there would be more replacements in the police. He also would not comment on the case of Hrvoje Petrac, a businessman sentenced to six years in prison for his involvement in the kidnapping of General Vladimir Zagorac's son.
Asked whether the police were cooperating with other institutions in efforts to have Petrac extradited by Israel where he is reportedly hiding, Franic only briefly said that the police were acting in line with the law in both Petrac and Gotovina cases.