Janko Bobetko

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. Afterwards he had a military career in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He became the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Army (HV) in 1992 and served 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.

Janko Bobetko
General Janko Bobetko in 1957
Born	(1919-01-10)10 January 1919 Crnac (part of Sisak), Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	29 April 2003(2003-04-29) (aged 84) Zagreb, Republic of Croatia
Allegiance	Croatian Army
Rank	Lieutenant General (YPA) General of the Army (HV)
Commands held	Chief of General Staff HV Commander of Southern Front HV Chief of Staff of 5th Army District YPA Political Commissar of 32nd Division Political Commissar of Brigade
Battles/wars	World War II Croatian War of Independence Deblockade of Dubrovnik (Op. Tigar) Operation Maslenica Operation Jackal (June Dawns) Operation Medak Pocket Operation Flash

Biography

Bobetko was born in the village of Crnac, Sisak in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.[1] He studied at the veterinary faculty in the University of Zagreb, but Croatian pro-Nazi authorities expelled him from university at the start of World War II for his anti-fascist views.[2]

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 Nazi-affiliated Ustashe.[2][3] He was heavily wounded at Dravograd in Slovenia, but survived to become a Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) 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 YPA in 1972 after Tito's crackdown on perceived separatists and nationalists in the constituent parts of the former Yugoslavia.[4]

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.[5]

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.[2]

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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8] He was the most senior Croatian officer sought at the tribunal.[9] 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 assert an unambiguous position over his extradition.[2]

By that time, Bobetko was already gravely ill, as well. In 2002, the United Kingdom halted its ratification process for the Stabilisation and Association 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.[2]

Legacy

Bobetko was survived by his widow, Magdalena, and three sons.[2]

The treaty ratification problem was subsequently rectified in 2004.[2]

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.[10] In July 2016 the Appeals Chamber in the case announced that the "Trial Chamber made no explicit findings concerning [Bobetko and others'] participation in the JCE and did not find [them] guilty of any crimes."[11][12]

Honors

• Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV[13]

References

1. "Janko Bobetko (Croatian military)". Britannica Online Encyclopedia (2009); accessed 6 September 2009.
2. "Janko Bobetko, 84, Is Dead; Fought to Free Croatians". The New York Times (30 April 2003). Accessed 6 August 2008.
3. General Janko Bobetko obituary, The Daily Telegraph (30 April 2003); accessed 6 September 2009.
4. "European Union". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 1 July 2009. international organisation comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies....
5. "Janko Bobetko (1919 - 2003)". Vojska.net. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
6. Robert Bajruši (8 May 2002). "25 hrvatskih generala su prevaranti; Svjesno su prevarili državu kako bi dobili invalidski status i povlastice" [25 Croatian generals are cheaters; They knowingly deceived the state to receive disability status and benefits]. Nacional (in Croatian). No. 338. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
7. https://www.vecernji.hr/enciklopedija/janko-bobetko-18263
8. Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor (23 August 2002). "ICTY Indictment, case no. IT-02-62" (PDF). ICTY. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
9. "Case Information Sheet - "MEDAK POCKET" (IT-02-62) - Janko Bobetko" (PDF). ICTY. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
10. "International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia". Icty.org. 29 May 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
11. "Ministry: ICTY confirms Croatia wasn't responsible". EBL News. 19 July 2016.
12. "ICTY denies Croatia's request to be included in Prlic et al appeal". EBL News. 19 July 2016.
13. "Odluka kojom se odlikuju VeleRedom kralja Petra Krešimira IV. s lentom i Danicom". Narodne novine (46/1995). 7 July 1995. Retrieved 8 October 2016.