Croatia's president called an emergency session of the National Security Council after the October 23 car bombing in which a prominent journalist and his marketing chief were killed. Earlier, president Stjepan Mesic had called for institutions to do all they can to bring a halt to these incidents.

"Terrorism has arrived to the streets of Croatia's capital. It is a completely new challenge to everyone. The state institutions must react immediately and fiercely. Society must be united, there is no more time for waiting - it's either us or them," he urged.

High-profile Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic and his marketing chief, Niko Franjic were killed in a bomb blast in central Zagreb at 6.20pm local time (4.20pm GMT).

The bomb was placed next to his car, a Lexus in the car park of Pukanic's company NCL Media Group. The car had been parked since the morning. Two other employees - graphics technicians - were also injured.

The National Security Council concluded that measures brought in following the shocking murder of Ivana Hodak, the daughter of a prominent lawyer in broad daylight earlier this month, will have to be strengthened. Read more: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/analysis/13992/

Officials were mulling a state of emergency similar to the one declared in Serbia after the assassination of former Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003.

Novi List daily claims that soon after the murder, president Mesic started receiving appeals for the creation of an emergency government although a state of emergency has been rejected so far.

"There is neither need, nor legal basis for this," prime minister Ivo Sanader said. "We do not need state of emergency but we can promise that Croatia will be a secure country," he added.

However, Zagreb's police have drafted in 250 officers from other Croatian cities to deal with the crisis.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament's rapporteur for Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, said he was shocked by the deaths.

"This is a huge step back and prime minister Sanader will finally have to deal with the big fish," Swoboda urged.

Swoboda's comments came amid fears that rising violence could threaten Croatia's success during European Union accession talks next year and a crucial European Commission progress report is due to be released next month. Croatia hopes to become an EU member by 2011.

Prime minister Sanader sacked his interior and justice ministers, as well as the head of the national police, earlier this month in response to rising crime.

Police investigate bombing
Police say they are doing everything in their power to investigate the bombing. Police and ambulances immediately rushed to the scene, with the chief of police Vladimir Faber and Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic arriving soon after.

Pukanic's company also included a journalism school, and several dozen students were in the vicinity.

One witness saw a man in his thirties running down the street and a painter who lives next to the NCL building filmed the explosion site with his camera.

Police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said on the morning of October 24 that the police have spoken to 150 people over the night. "We have certain useful information that we will make public in the following hours or days," Borovec said.

They are expected to issue a sketch of the suspect on October 25.

Borovec also said three officials from the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Serbia, who were in Zagreb on the day of the explosion, immediately asked the police chiefs in their respective countries to help in the investigation.

According to the Novi List daily, experts assume the explosive used in the bomb was a plastic explosive called PEP, produced by the former Yugoslav army.

Earlier Assassination Attempt
Pukanic claimed he was targeted in an assassination attempt in April this year, amid a scandal that he forced his wife Mirjana to be taken into hospital care. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/9285

Pukanic claimed that his wife, who is the formal owner of some of his property, is mentally unstable and therefore unfit to manage their assets. Mirjana Pukanic later asked the human rights group, the Croatian Helsinki Committee, for protection.

The group later concluded her rights had been violated, but neither the doctors, nor any other party involved in her forced hospitalisation, including officials from the Zagreb Social Security Office, were found guilty of abusing their power.

After reporting the attempt on his life, Pukanic was given police protection, although this was lifted in August.

Croatia's new interior minister Tomislav Karamarko said at a press conference on the evening of October 23 that the police protection was withdrawn "in consultation with Pukanic".

However, on October 24, Pukanic's Nacional weekly published a denial claiming that "the police put pressure on Pukanic to revoke the protection" and claimed that "they don't have enough people to keep him and his daughter Sara under constant protection."

Later in the day, police condemned these claims saying Pukanic was still under protection but the measures were simply eased.
 
Meanwhile Pukanic's colleagues also insisted the Nacional boss "had information, including video tapes" on who attempted to kill him in April but "the police ignored it."

Controversial career
Pukanic began his career as a photographer in the 1980s and in 1991 joined the Globus weekly, where he covered the world of show-business. By the end of 1995, he and a group of Globus journalists left the weekly and founded the Nacional weekly.

Nacional covered several stories dealing with illegal privatisation programmes and organised crime. Later he was linked to underground criminal groups although none of these allegations were ever proven.

However his friendship with Hrvoje Peterac was well known. Peterac was a key boss of the Zagreb mafia in the 1990s and is currently serving a prison sentence for abducting the son of Vladimir Zagorec.

Vladimir Zagorec was extradited from Austria earlier this month to face trial for stealing $5 million (3.25 million euro) in jewels that to be used in a sanctions-busting purchase of weapons during the 1991/95 Croatian war. Read more: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/13650/

Ivana Hodak, who was murdered earlier this month, is the daughter of the lawyer set to defend Zagorec.

Pukanic was awarded for his contributions to journalism three times, including for an interview with the Croatian army general Ante Gotovina, who was hiding from The Hague war crimes tribunal at that time.

Earlier this year, the Croatian Journalists' Association, which had previously awarded him, expelled Pukanic after Nacional published the complete medical documentation of his wife, Mirjana.

Source: BalkanInsight.com