Croatian general

Janko Bobetko (10 January 1919 – 29 April 2003) was a Croatian general who had participated in World War II and later in the Croatian War of Independence. He was one of the founding members of 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment, the first anti-fascist military unit during World War II in Yugoslavia. He later had a military career in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

In 1992, Bobetko became the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Army (HV). He served in this capacity until his retirement in 1995. Bobetko had been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia but died before he could be tried; a later verdict in another case found him culpable for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but was reversed on appeal.

Contents

• 1 Biography
  • 1.1 World War II and Yugoslav army career
  • 1.2 Service in independent Croatia
• 2 Legacy
• 3 Honors
• 4 References

Biography

Bobetko was born in the village of Crnac, Sisak in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He studied at the veterinary faculty in the University of Zagreb, but Croatian pro-National Socialist German Workers' Party authorities expelled him from university at the start of World War II for his anti-fascist views.

World War II and Yugoslav army career

In July 1941, he joined an antifascist unit, the 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment in the Brezovica Forest near Sisak. Bobetko fought for the Yugoslav Partisans from 1941-45. His father and three brothers were killed by the National Socialist German Workers' Party-affiliated Ustashe. He was heavily wounded at Dravograd in Slovenia, but survived to become a Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer.

In the post-war period, he graduated from the Military Academy of the Yugoslav People's Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general. During the Croatian Spring period of the early 1970s, he supported greater autonomy for Croatia in Yugoslavia, and was demoted and expelled from the JNA in 1972 after *o's crackdown on perceived separatists and nationalists in the cons*uent parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Service in independent Croatia

After the 1990 Croatian parliamentary elections, Bobetko refused to accept the position of defense minister. His involvement in the Croatian War of Independence began in Banovina and continued on the Southern Front, where he took command on 10 April 1992. On 20 November 1992, Bobetko was named the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia.

In 1993, during Operation Medak pocket against Serb Krajina strongholds that controlled the town of Gospić, the Croatian soldiers were accused of committing crimes against humanity and violating the laws or customs of war, which Bobetko denied. In his 1996 memoir, All My Battles, which contained many military maps and commands, he wrote that the action—aimed at ending the Serbian bombardment of Gospić—was brilliant.

Bobetko had the status of a fully disabled person, caused both by his leg injury he sustained during World War II, and later by an onset of cardiac decompensation in 1994. Because of this he was hospitalized in 1995 during Operation Flash. The extent of his disability was at one point disputed by the Ministry of Defense, but it was later fully reinstated by a court order.

On 15 July 1995, shortly before Operation Storm, President Franjo Tuđman formally replaced Bobetko as the Chief of General Staff with Zvonimir Červenko. Later that year, he was elected in the 1995 Croatian parliamentary election on the electoral list of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and served as an MP until 1999.

In 2000, Bobetko was the most prominent signatory to the Twelve Generals' Letter. In September 2002, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted Bobetko. He was the most senior Croatian officer sought at the tribunal. Bobetko refused to accept the indictment or surrender to the court, claiming the indictment questioned the legitimacy of the entire military operation. The crisis stretched out as popular opinion agreed with Bobetko, and the Croatian government under the SDP-HSLS coalition would not *ert an unambiguous position over his extradition.

By that time, Bobetko was already gravely ill, as well. In 2002, the United Kingdom halted its ratification process for the Stabilisation and *ociation Agreement of Croatia with the European Union due to the Croatian government's handling of the Bobetko case.

Bobetko died in 2003, aged 84, before any final decision was reached regarding his extradition.

Legacy

Bobetko was survived by his widow, Magdalena, and three sons.

The treaty ratification problem was subsequently rectified in 2004.

In May 2013, the ICTY, in a first-instance verdict against Jadranko Prlić, found that Bobetko took part in the joint criminal enterprise against the non-Croat population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July 2016 the Appeals Chamber in the case announced that the "Trial Chamber made no explicit findings concerning participation in the JCE and did not find guilty of any crimes."

Honors

• Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV

References

Prelude

• Milošević–Tuđman Karađorđevo meeting
• Zulfikarpašić–Karadžić agreement
• RAM Plan
• Serb Autonomous Regions
  • Bosanska Krajina
  • Herzegovina
  • North-East Bosnia
  • Romanija
• Establishment of Republika Srpska
• Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum
• Sarajevo wedding shooting
• Declaration of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Battle of Bosanski Brod
• Sijekovac killings
• Bijeljina m*acre
• 1992 anti-war protests in Sarajevo

1992

• Battle of Kupres
• Siege of Sarajevo
• Kazani pit killings
• Foča ethnic cleansing
• Bosanski Šamac ethnic cleansing
• Siege of Srebrenica
• Zvornik m*acre
• Doboj
• Snagovo m*acre
• Prijedor ethnic cleansing
• Sarajevo column incident
• Siege of Goražde
• Graz agreement
• Glogova m*acre
• Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
• Tuzla column incident
• Zaklopača m*acre
• Siege of Doboj
• Bradina m*acre
• Bijeli Potok m*acre
• Pionirska Street fire
• Operation Jackal
• Višegrad m*acres
  • Bosanska Jagodina
  • Paklenik
  • Barimo
  • Sjeverin
• Čemerno m*acre
• Siege of Bihać
• Ahatovići m*acre
• Croat–Bosniak War
• Operation Vrbas '92
• Operation Corridor 92
• Bikavac fire
• :Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
• Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia
• Korićani Cliffs m*acre
• Gornja Jošanica m*acre

1993

• Kravica attack
• Duša killings
• Skelani m*acre
• Štrpci
• Siege of Mostar
• Srebrenica shelling
• Ahmići m*acre
• Trusina killings
• Sovići and Doljani killings
• Zenica m*acre
• Vranica case
• Dobrinja mortar attack
• Battle of Žepče
• Operation Irma
• Operation Neretva '93
• Grabovica m*acre
• Mokronoge m*acre
• Stupni Do m*acre
• Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia
• Operation Deny Flight
• Križančevo Selo killings

1994

• Operation Tvigi 94
• First Markale m*acre
• Banja Luka incident
• Washington Agreement
• :Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Operation Bøllebank
• Attack on Spin magazine journalists
• Operation Tiger
• Battle of Kupres
• Operation Amanda
• Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347
• Operation Spider
• Operation Winter '94

1995

• Operation Vlašić
• Operation Leap 1
• Battle of Orašje
• Operation Leap 2
• Split Agreement
• Operation Summer '95
• Pale air strikes
• Tuzla shelling
• Battle of Vrbanja Bridge
• Srebrenica m*acre
  • Kravica
• Battle of Vozuća
• Operation Miracle
• Operation Storm
• Second Markale m*acre
• NATO bombing campaign
• Operation Mistral 2
• Operation Sana
• Operation Una
• Operation Southern Move
• Exodus of Sarajevo Serbs
• Dayton Agreement
• :Bosnia and Herzegovina

Internment camps

• Silos
• Manjača
• Liplje
• Luka
• Vilina Vlas
• Omarska
• Keraterm
• Trnopolje
• Sušica
• Čelebići
• Musala
• Batković
• Dretelj
• Uzamnica
• Heliodrom
• Gabela
• Vojno

Aspects

• Ethnic cleansing and m*acres
  • Bosnian genocide
  • Bosnian genocide denial
• Internment camps
• Rape
• Peace plans
• NATO intervention
• Foreign support
• Foreign fighters

Timeline of the Bosnian War (Timeline of the Croat–Bosniak War)

• Category
• Commons

Consequences

• Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001)
• Ethnic cleansing
• Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
• Ten-Day War (1991)
• Bosnian War (1992–1995)
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–)
• Graz agreement (1992)
• Sanctions against Yugoslavia (1991-2001)
• Hyperinflation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–1994)
• Dayton Agreement (1996)
• Joint Criminal Enterprise
• Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control (1996)
• International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993–2017)
• Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević (2000)

Nationalism

• Greater Albania
• Greater Croatia
• United Macedonia
• Greater Serbia
• United Slovenia
• Anti-Serbian sentiment
• Islamophobia
• Albanian nationalism
• Bosniak nationalism
• Croatian nationalism
• Macedonian nationalism
• Montenegrin nationalism
• Serbian nationalism
• Serbian–Montenegrin unionism
• Slovenian nationalism
• Yugoslavism

• Category

• Category
• Commons