Why Does Plenković Not Declassify the Defence Inspectorate’s Report and Protect the Chief of the General Staff from False Accusations?

The Defence Inspectorate’s findings of 10 January 2022 – which conclude that the Chief of the General Staff Admiral Robert Hranj and the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces did not transgress the law in implementing a decision of the Defence Minister or in providing support to the Office of the President – are further being concealed from the public. Evidently neither Defence Minister Mario Banožić, who ordered the inspection, nor Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, from whom the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović requested the declassification of the report, wants the public to learn the truth. And the truth is, as confirmed by the Proceedings of the Defence Inspectorate, that the Defence Minister has lied when he publicly accused Admiral Hranj of violating the Defence Act, and publicly called on him to resign. In this way he has done grave disservice to the Croatian Armed Forces.

Since we are dealing with people who lie in public, and conceal the truth, we will remind the public of how the smearing campaign of the military leadership was conducted and how attempts are still being made to conceal the truth. And the truth is even being concealed by abusing the Data Protection Law since they do not wish to remove the classification of “restricted” from the Inspectorate’s findings for which there is no justification. Moreover, it is in the public’s and in the CAF’s interest to clearly and publicly confirm that the Chief of the General Staff Admiral Robert Hranj did not violate the law, instead of the Defence Minister further hindering his work and falsely accusing him, accusations which were denied by the inspection ordered by the Minister.

Therefore the key issue is why Plenković and Banožić – the Defence Inspectorate is in the jurisdiction of the Croatian Government – do not wish to declassify the inspection’s findings even though the Minister has repeatedly stated that everything will be clear when the findings are complete?

According to the Data Protection Act, “restricted” is the lowest security classification level. Article 9 of the same Act stipulates that the ‘restricted’ classification level is defined for data whose unauthorized disclosure would harm the work and the execution of tasks of state bodies in carrying out activities described in Article 5 of this Act”. In this case the intention is to show that the classification “restricted” protects the Chief of the General Staff in his activity and in carrying out his tasks.

This is indeed a distorted interpretation of the Data Protection Act because the real issue is: how to do disservice to the Chief of the General Staff in his work and in carrying out his tasks if the findings would be disclosed indicating that he has not violated the law? Exactly the opposite, by publishing the findings – whereby he has not violated the law – the Chief of the General Staff would be protected in his work since the smear campaign would be over. By keeping the lowest security classification “restricted” on the Defence Inspectorate’s conclusions – just enough as not to give access to the public – is exclusively a wicked scheme by Plenković and Banožić to maintain false suspicion on Admiral Hranj.

Furthermore, it was ill-intentioned from the start when the Defence Minister told the press on 29 October 2021 in Požega that an extraordinary inspection of the General Staff and of the commands given by the Chief of the General Staff Admiral Hranj would be held.

“In carrying out your work if you do not abide by the law, do not exercise this function, this is my clear message. I have requested an extraordinary inspection of the cabinet of the General Staff and of all the commands that were given today and the other day with regard to Burčul, Commander of the Honourary and Protection Battalion”, the Defence Minister stated.

In the Ministry of Defence’s press release of the same day, he even more clearly accused the President of the Republic and the Chief of the General Staff of breaking the law.

“With such conduct the President of the Republic of Croatia as Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces and the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces violated the Defence Act. It is the first time in history that a Defence Minister was prohibited from speaking at an event in the Armed Forces, and Defence Minister Mario Banožić demanded that the Chief of the General Staff Admiral Robert Hranj resign”, the Minister’s press release stated.

It is therefore clear that the Minister is not just ordering an extraordinary inspection and alleging violations of the law, but is insinuating beforehand the results of the inspection. He has abused his position as well as the Ministry of Defence for a personal vendetta against the Chief of the General Staff, and has put pressure on the Defence Inspectorate, under his jurisdiction, by clearly stating that he expects the Inspectorate to corroborate his allegations.

About ten days after publicly accusing Admiral Hranj of violating the law, journalists asked Minister Banožić about the Defence Inspectorate’s findings.

“The inspection is still going on. The deadline was 15 days, and when this is all over, the situation will be clear… since there are practically a few inspections. What I expect is the inspection to be over and that we will concretely discuss issues, first of all the use of material resources which is the main issue”, Minister Banožić told journalists on 8 November 2021.

From the Minister’s words it is clear that he expects the findings of the inspection by mid-November, but also a “clear situation”, therefore their publication in order to, as he said, “to concretely discuss issues”.

However, the inspection’s findings were not completed until 10 January 2022, and have yet to be disclosed. The Defence Inspectorate’s findings were classified as “restricted” thereby cunningly concealed from the public, Plenković is not even interested – because evidently he is not interested in the truth or the reputation of the military leadership – and the Defence Minister with his statement of 20 January 2022 was caught in one more lie. Namely, he is setting conditions for the declassification of “restricted” from the Defence Inspectorate’s findings in exchange for declassifying documents from the Office of the President of the Republic and therefore, incompetent as he is, recognizes that the findings of the Defence Inspectorate are not restricted because they have to be, but because he does not want the public to know the truth.

The President of the Republic has called upon the Prime Minister to declassify the Proceedings of the Defence Inspectorate in order to remove suspicion and false accusations from the military leadership – Admiral Hranj and the General Staff as a whole, of violations of the law thus enabling an orderly functioning and command in the Croatian Armed Forces. Plenković is obliged to tell the public: why he is not interested and not concerned about the unfounded finger-pointing and accusations of the military leadership by his lying and incompetent Defence Minister? Not even after the extraordinary inspection under his jurisdiction has established that the Chief of the General Staff has acted according to the law.