The Amendment to Internal Affairs Act passed on April 18, 1991 introduced the protection of Constitutional Order in the area of security operations of internal affairs, and defined the activities of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (hereinafter: SZUP) among other police services organized within the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia.
The above mentioned Act determines that SDS passes over its activities to SZUP, the legality of which is under the oversight of the Commission for the Oversight of the Legality of SZUP’s operations, especially regarding the realization of civil rights and liberties, rights and liberties of legal persons, government and other bodies as determined by the Constitution and Law, as well as rights and liberties as determined by international laws.
In addition to its basic task of protecting the Constitutional order and providing counterintelligence protection on the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia, SZUP was also in charge of preventing actions and intentions of violent threats and acts against the state, which included terrorism and organized crime, regardless of whether the persons involved were Croatian or foreign citizens.
SZUP had no authority to exercise its means and methods of work or to act outside the territory of the Republic of Croatia, with the exception of matters involving Croatian citizens.
The establishment of sovereign, independent Republic of Croatia and the War for Independence represent key moments in which SZUP developed into a modern service which did not target citizens of opposite political views, either in regulations or in practice, but rather protected the Constitutional order on the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia against unconstitutional and illegal acts.
In short, SZUP’s area of operations can be described as collection of all relevant data on any unconstitutional or illegal activity directed against the Constitutional Order of the Republic of Croatia. As a part of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia, SZUP’s employees also assumed some police powers which enabled them to actively participate in certain operative actions of thwarting unconstitutional or illegal activities on the territory of the Republic of Croatia.
SZUP Directors, from 1990 to 2000
- Deputy Minister of Interior
from 20 August 1990 to 04 March 1991
- Assistant Minister of Interior / SZUP Director
from 05 March 1991 to 23 June 1992
- Assistant Minister of Interior / SZUP Director
from 24 June 1992 to 27 January 1997
- Assistant Minister of Interior / SZUP Director
from 27 January 1997 to 10 February 2000