UNS ACCUSES SZUP DENIES SUPERVISION OVER ITS ACTIVITIES

ZAGREB, Nov 4 (Hina) - The smouldering conflict in the Croatian intelligence community culminated on Friday when the Office for National Security (UNS) and the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP) exchanged mutual accusations of illegal activity and politicization. UNS, the umbrella organisation among else in charge of controlling intelligence services, accused SZUP, which operates as part of the interior ministry, of denying it permission to supervise the enforcement of measures for secret data gathering, for instance wire-tapping and the like. SZUP's head Franjo Turek immediately countered by saying it was a "tendentious lie." "UNS' supervisory service, despite the fact that their Work Rule Book is illegal, has supervised and continues to supervise SZUP activity," he told Croatian Television on Friday evening. Turek sees UNS' request to supervise the gathering of confidential data as an attempt to control the work of a state commission in charge of monitoring the enforcement of measures for secret data gathering. The state commission has had no complaints on SZUP's enforcement of said measures, he said. Turek accused UNS of recent lobbying in connection with constitutional amendments, saying UNS' accusations of SZUP were the same kind of political activity. He was alluding to the fact that Tomislav Karamarko, as the UNS head appointed by the president of the republic, was "the president's man", and the fact that in the harmonisation of a final constitutional amendments motion, the motions submitted by the president's and government's think-tanks differed. Asked to comment on the accusation of lobbying, Karamarko accused Turek of inappropriate political activity, saying he was politicising the situation which as SZUP's head "he shouldn't be doing." Presidential spokeswoman Vjera Suman commented the UNS-SZUP dispute on state television on Friday evening by briefly stating that UNS was the umbrella service of the intelligence community which analysed, coordinated and controlled intelligence services. Asked if this meant SZUP had broken the law, she said: "You can judge that by yourself." Asked to comment on the dispute before departing for Rome on Saturday, President Mesic said it "will be best if both services work exclusively according to the law." "The issue has to be solved by someone in the hierarchy, because I certainly can't," he said. Asked if it was correct that his associates knew that state officials were being wire-tapped, himself included, Mesic said: "There is no such suspicion and I don't know where this information comes from." The information comes from Vecernji list daily which in Saturday's issue says: "According to Vecernji's source at the Office, SZUP's refusal to bow down to the umbrella organisation may also mean that SZUP is following and wire-tapping some highly positioned state officials, keeping it secret from UNS." Interior Minister Sime Lucin told Zagreb's Radio 101 today that SZUP had nothing against UNS' supervision but was looking for a legal interpretation since the law on UNS does not state that supervision of measures for secret data gathering is strictly under this body's competence. SZUP denied UNS supervision over said SZUP measures, claiming the matter was under the competence of a three-member state commission, which parliament appointed last May, said Lucin. (hina) ha jn