Veljko Kadijević is a former General of the
Yugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
(JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the
Yugoslav governmentThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
from 1988 until his resignation in 1992, which made him
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
commander of JNA during the
Ten-Day War in SloveniaThe Ten-Day War or the Slovenian Independence War was a military conflict between the Slovenian Territorial Defence and the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 following Slovenia's declaration of independence.-Background:...
and the initial stages of
the War in CroatiaThe Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
.
Biography
Kadijević was born in the village of Glavina Donja (part of
ImotskiImotski , is a small town situated on the northern side of Biokovo massif, Dalmatian hinterland, Croatia. The town was first mentioned as Imotski for the first time in the 10th century and it was held by the Turks from the fall of Bosnia until 1717 when it was captured by the Venetians. The town...
), then part of the
Kingdom of YugoslaviaThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
, to a
Serb fatherVišeslav of Serbia, a contemporary of Charlemagne , ruled the Županias of Neretva, Tara, Piva, Lim, his ancestral lands. According to the Royal Frankish Annals , Duke of Pannonia Ljudevit Posavski fled, during the Frankish invasion, from his seat in Sisak to the Serbs in western Bosnia, who...
and
Croatian motherCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
. He self-declared as a
YugoslavYugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
. In 1942 he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and their armed wing,
Yugoslav partisansThe Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
, amid World War II in Yugoslavia. He remained in active duty after the war and finished the
U.S. ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Command and General Staff CollegeThe United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as a...
in 1963.
Kadijević became the fifth minister of defence in
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. Following the collapse of the
League of Communists of YugoslaviaLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
, he was one of the founders of the party called League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia. In May 1991 he stated that if federal and republic officials "failed to ensure Peace, the Yugoslav armed forces could efficiently do so themselves." After resigning from his post at federal secretary of people's defence, Kadijević retired and lived in Serbia.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) tried to contact him in the spring of 2001. He was to be called as witness, he however fled to
MoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
the next day. He applied for
refugeeA refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status in 2005 and received Russian citizenship on 13 August 2008 by decree of president
Dmitry MedvedevDmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
. As of 2008 he is still living in Moscow.
Legal proceedings
The first
indictmentAn indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
for Kadijević was issued in November 1992 in
BjelovarBjelovar is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. During the 2001 census, there were 41,869 inhabitants, 90.51% which are Croats....
, second one in 2002 in
VukovarVukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
and third one in May 2006 by
Osijek-Baranja CountyOsijek-Baranja county is a county in Croatia, located in northeastern Slavonia and Baranja. Its center is Osijek; other cities include Đakovo, Našice, Valpovo, Belišće, Beli Manastir.-Administrative divisions:Osijek-Baranja county is divided into:...
's
attorney generalIn most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
. On March 21, 2007
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n Ministry of Interior issued an arrest warrant for Kadijević for "war crimes against the civilian population".
InterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
issued an arrest warrant on March 23, 2007.
After Kadijević received Russian citizenship the Croatian Government sent a request to Russia for the extradition of Kadijević. However it is still unknown whether Russia will comply.
According to
Marko Attila HoareMarko Attila Hoare is a British historian of the former Yugoslavia who also writes about the current affairs of Southeast Europe, especially the Balkans including Turkey and the Caucasus.-Biography:...
, a former employee at the ICTY, an investigative team worked on indictments of senior members of the ‘joint criminal enterprise’, including Milošević, Kadijević,
Blagoje AdžićBlagoje Adžić was the acting minister of defence in the Yugoslav government. He is of Serbian ethnicity. Although his rank was Colonel General, he was in charge of the Yugoslav People's Army after the resignation of general Veljko Kadijević in 1992...
,
Borisav JovićBorisav Jović is a former Serbian communist politician, who served as the Serbian member of the collective presidency of Yugoslavia during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
,
Branko KostićBranko Kostić was a Montenegrin Serb politician. He served as the President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro from March 1989 to December 1990, and then as the acting Chairman of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1992...
,
Momir BulatovićMomir Bulatović , formerly served as a Yugoslavian and Montenegrin politician. Bulatović became federal President of Montenegro while Montenegro was part of a Yugoslav federation, and also Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
, among others. However, upon Carla del Ponte’s intervention, these drafts were rejected, and the indictment limited to Milošević alone, as a result of which most of these individuals were never indicted.
2007 Public appearance
Public interest in Kadijević and his whereabouts intensified again in 2007. It was widely speculated at the time that he was living in
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which proved to be false. In March 2007 Croatian press reported seemingly contradictory information: that Kadijević is working as a special counsel to the U.S. Army in search for
bunkerA military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
s in
IraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, and also that he is in Moscow as a guest of
Dmitry YazovDmitry Timofeyevich Yazov was the last Marshal of the Soviet Union to be appointed before the collapse of the Soviet Union . He was the only Marshal of the Soviet Union to be born in Siberia....
. On 26 March 2007, the Croatian news portal published an interview with Kadijević in which he confirmed that he is a military adviser to the
Coalition in IraqThe Multi-National Force – Iraq was a military command, led by the United States, which was responsible for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Multi-National Force – Iraq replaced the previous force, Combined Joint Task Force 7, on 15 May 2004, and was later itself reorganized into its successor, United...
, but stated that it "doesn't mean that he is permanently located there", without stating his current whereabouts.
In early October 2007 Kadijević finally surfaced in Moscow where he attended the presentation of his latest book
Kontraudar: Moj pogled na raspad Jugoslavije. After that, 81-year-old Kadijević gave interviews to both Serbian and Croatian media. On November 9, 2007 he was interviewed by journalist Olivera Jovićević from Serbian public broadcaster
RTSRadio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
and the interview aired November 13, 2007 in prime time as a special edition of her
Upitnik programme. The very next day, November 14,
Croatian RadiotelevisionCroatian Radiotelevision is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite...
's journalist Josip Sarić conducted an interview with Kadijević .
In those interviews Kadijević stated that he lives in Russia since 2000 where he has a refugee status. Ha said that he found out about the
Ovčara massacreThe Vukovar massacre, also known as Vukovar hospital massacre or simply Ovčara, was a war crime that took place between November 20 and November 21, 1991 near the city of Vukovar, a mixed Croat/Serb community in northeastern Croatia...
only after retiring because the head of his intelligence, general
Aleksandar VasiljevićAleksandar Vasiljević was a major general and the leader of the Kontra-Obaveštajna Služba . Vasiljević was instrumental in the JBTZ-trial as he was the interrogation official responsible to talking with Janez Janša which was centered around Slovene dissidents and publishing of sensitive information...
didn't inform him of this event. He claims that neither he nor the
Yugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
committed any war crimes in former Yugoslavia because it was the only legal armed force in Yugoslavia at the time. He also stated that both he and the JNA were just trying to prevent illegal armament and to defend Yugoslavia from emerging paramilitaries. He also stated that ICTY is not a court but a political institution, so he does not recognize that court.
Furthermore, he stated that he and the army never considered military putsch as an option in solving the Yugoslav crisis. This statement is in stark contrast with the claims of president of SFRY presidency
Borisav JovićBorisav Jović is a former Serbian communist politician, who served as the Serbian member of the collective presidency of Yugoslavia during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
who says that precisely Kadijević and the army suggested the putsch as a way out of the crisis but then changed their minds four days later. Kadijević's response to this was that "Jović is lying". Kadijević proceeded to mention a meeting two days after the
huge protests organized by Vuk Drašković on the streets of BelgradeMarch 9, 1991 protest refers to a mass rally on the streets of Belgrade that turned into a riot featuring vicious clashes between the protesters and police. It was organized by Vuk Drašković's Serbian Renewal Movement on March 9, 1991...
in Jović's office to which Kadijević had been invited by
Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
where, according to Kadijević, Milošević requested that the army take control of the country through a military coup. Kadijević's apparent response was informing Milošević that he couldn't make such a decision by himself, and that he'd discuss the request with army leaders and later inform Jović's office about their decision. Kadijević then said that their decision was against the putsch and that he informed Jović's office in written form about it. Jović for his part, claims that such document doesn't exist.
External links