Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalić and Agrokor extraordinary commissioner Ante Ramljak were allegedly among those put under surveillance.
“In accordance with the Law on Protection of the Secret Data and the Law on the Intelligence and Security Agency, the Court would violate the law if it were to answer the questions raised.” This was a response from the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the question whether the Bosnian Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) had eavesdropped and put under surveillance government officials and businesspeople from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to prevent “economic undermining of the country,” which was alleged by Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektić, reports Večernji List on September 22, 2017.
The Croatian weekly Nacional reported that OSA agents, led by Osman Mehmadagić Osmica, a close associate of the Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegović, were eavesdropping on Croatian businesspeople and politicians with regards to the issues of Agrokor, Konzum, the Mostar Aluminium plant and its privatisation, and the Electric Company of Herzeg Bosna. It is believed that some of the targets of eavesdropping were directors of Konzum, Velpro and Aluminium in Bosnia Herzegovina, and through them the government-appointed commissioner of Agrokor Ante Ramljak, as well as the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Martina Dalić.
Bosnian Deputy Minister of Security Mijo Krešić stated that he did not know about OSA’s secret operations. “The fact is that there has been lots of pressure on Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent times, in particular on those holding posts at different levels. The OSA must not take part in such activities because we will all pay the price for these abuses. The OSA is not a private institution, but a government agency financed by taxpayers,” Krešić said.
The most controversial allegations are that, within the OSA structure, there are still parastructures of the former Bosniak secret service AID, as well as the Bosnian Serb service.
Over the last two years, several attempts have been made to compromise Croatian officials in various ways, and the primary target was Croatian leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Čović. There were attempts to link him to the murder of the Interior Minister Jozo Leutar, to the corruption affair of the dismissed director of Indirect Taxation Administration Kemal Čaušević, as well as claims that his associates were related to kidnappings or allegations that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina were against the NATO and EU membership.
The latest scandal has broken out at the time when relations between Bosniak and Croat parties, as well as Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegović and Croatian leader Dragan Čović, are in crisis due to changes to the provisions of the Bosnian electoral law, which should make Bosnian Croats equal to Bosniaks and Serbs. Also, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and the Bosniak leadership are in disagreement about the level of danger coming from radical Islamists and the number of such persons living in Bosnia.
Translated from Večernji List.
