AYS Daily Digest 06.09.2019: Two Thousand Police Brought out of Retirement to “secure” Croatia
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Croatia, Digest, Detention, Police, Refugees

AYS Daily Digest 06.09.2019: Two Thousand Police Brought out of Retirement to “secure” Croatia

Approximately 142 people arrived in Greece today// Turkish man illegally detained in pre-deportation centre in Italy// 3 people on Alan Kurdi allowed to disembark on Malta//Court in the Netherlands suspends the deportation of two people to Romania… Are You Syrious? Follow Sep 6, 2019 · 8 min read

Credit: Anna Pantelia

FEATURE

The Croatian Ministry of the Interior is re-introducing 2000 retired officers to duty in order to “manage” migration.

For the first time after the war in Croatia in the 1990’s, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior is re-introducing 2000 retired police officers into service. Auxiliary units are needed in the context of migration, entry into the Schengen area and preparations for the Croatian EU presidency, the Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović said in a short statement to Croatian media.

Seeing as the EU Presidency was recently previously hosted in Bulgaria, which is renowned for its abuse and terrorizing of people on the move, it is no surprise that the anti-migration Croatian government is taking this approach. Another possible contributing factor that the Minister of the Interior is perhaps leaving out of the story is the possible need to reinforce the ranks of police officers due to the possible refusal of members of the police force to participate. As regular readers can remember, the Croatian Ombudswoman published an anonymized letter sent to her by members of the police force in rural Croatia describing their horror at the systematic terrorizing of people crossing into Croatia. A programme of horror that the Croatian government alternates between flat out denying and then justifying, depending on the weather. The letter specifically describes how police officers are repeatedly brought from other counties and locations as their “freshness” at the position and distance from the site of the crime emboldens them. However, we wonder how long this cycle can last.

Is it possible that in addition to the causes referenced by the minister of the interior, that the need to call in more police has to do with dissention in the ranks? A crucial component of this story has to do with the public image of the police in Croatia. Due to the role of the police in the Croatian war for independence, the institution has long been held in high regard. This is part of why the letter to the Ombudswoman of Croatia was such a noticeable development. When reports of police abuse and violence were first surfacing as early as 2016, the initial public response was that of denial — that it was impossible that members of an institution so revered would participate in such brutality. Then an intensive publicity campaign of demonization of people on the move was enacted slowly but surely in order to pave the way to transition from the denial of abuse, to the endorsement of it. “Well, perhaps ‘our boys’ were doing harsh things, but it’s entirely merited in this case.”

The leveraging of the very real EU requirements upon Croatia to “secure” its extensive border in order to gain Schengen membership has also been a key component of this campaign. The letter from within the police force appealed to the fact that there were members of this institution who recognized the incomprehensible brutality that is ongoing. “This is not what we signed up to do.”*

Within a week of the letter to the Ombudsman, another anonymous letter from a member of the police was released and published in Croatian media, from someone whose post was in a reception centre, thoroughly demonizing the residents of the centre. Fighting fire with fire is clearly the game. And it will only intensify, with the goal of fragmenting society and coalescing support for the powerful police institution in Croatia.

It should be known that these kinds of testimonies and this commentary is not meant to indicate that the author of the piece is eager to justify police or erase the systemic violence of the institution as a whole. Similar testimony by ICE agents has been published in the United States, and the author is aware that this risks opening the Pandora’s box of: ‘but what about the good apples’ in an overwhelmingly violent and oppressive structure. What is intended in this commentary is to position the tit for tat and contextualize it in the public discourse.