Defense Minister Constantly Lies to Mislead Croatian Public
Defense Minister Mario Banožić continues to tell untruths in order to justify his decision on the early retirement of the commander of the Honorary and Protection Battalion. Instead of explaining to the public why he dismissed overnight a model, decorated and best evaluated Croatian Army officer, Minister Banožić tells the following lies:
- The Minister claims he received at the last moment, i.e. the day before the term of the commander of the Honoraray and Protection Battalion ended the proposal to extend his term for a period of two and a half months, until the end of 2021. The Defense Minister is lying. The Minister received the proposal in writing from the Chief of the General Staff, Admiral Robert Hranj, on 11 October. (see attachment)
- The Minister is lying when he claims that he first heard about the proposal from Dragan Lozančić, Adviser to the President for Defense and National Security, which is not true. Mr. Lozančić went to ask the Minister why he does not wish to reply to the proposal to extend Colonel Burčul’s term until the end of the year. Once again we note that officials from the Office of the President of the Republic followed suit since they spoke directly to and cautioned Croatian Government officials as well as the Office of the Prime Minister on this matter.
- The Minister is lying about the year the law under which Colonel Burčul was retired was passed. That law was adopted in 1999 and is still in force. No matter how long the law has been in force, no law authorizes a minister to harass soldiers, non-commissioned and commissioned officers according to his political and personal criteria, and to dismiss them overnight from the victorious Croatian Army. It is regrettable that the Defense Minister is not familiar with the laws, and to this day has not given an explanation to the Croatian public why he dismissed overnight a model officer from the Croatian Army.
About the number of lies told by the Minister and his claim that Colonel Burčul could have remained commander for another year: namely, not only that he didn’t want Colonel Burčul to remain commander for another year, but he didn’t want him to stay in that post for even a further two and a half months, so on 20 October he immediately sent him into early retirement. The Defense Minister and the Croatian Government bluntly attacked the orderly functioning of the Croatian Armed Forces, and the President of the Republic will not permit soldiers, non-commissioned and commissioned officers to be treated in such a fashion. The Office of the President and the public to this day have not been given answers as to why Colonel Burčul had to retire, and we call on the Minister to stop lying and finally tell the truth about the Colonel’s dismissal.
