Tihomir Orešković is a Croatian officer who was convicted of war crimes committed during the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s. He served prison time between 2003 and 2012 for crimes against humanity, war crimes against the civilian population, and violations of international law in the Gospić massacre.
Described as "right hand man" to Croatian General Mirko Norac, he was charged along with Norac and three others. Orešković, Norac, and Stjepan Grandić were convicted on 24 September 2003 in Rijeka County Court while Ivica Rožić and Milan Canić were acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence. The judges concluded that Orešković and Norac had ordered the abduction of civilians from their homes and cellars as well as their imprisonment and execution in and around Gospić, specifically "ordering and taking part in the killings of at least 24 Serbs ... in October 1991". [1] [2]
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Croatia which rendered a verdict in 2004 which established how Orešković, while formally a secretary to the government commissioner for the coordination of crisis headquarters within the jurisdiction of the Gospić Police Directorate, assumed the role of the head of the military police as well as civilian police units, and together with Norac directed them to commit numerous crimes. [3]
In late 2012 Orešković was released from prison on parole, having served two thirds of his 15-year sentence. [4]
Rahim Ademi is a retired Croatian Army general of Kosovar Albanian origin.
Tihomir Blaškić is a retired general of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) who served during the Bosnian War and the Croat–Bosniak War. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted him on war crimes charges and in 2000 he was sentenced to 45 years of prison. In July 2004, the ICTY, on appeal, determined that his command responsibility for most of the charges was non-existent and his sentence was lessened to nine years imprisonment. He was released the following month.
Operation Medak Pocket was a military operation undertaken by the Croatian Army between 9 – 17 September 1993, in which a salient reaching the south suburbs of Gospić, in the south-central Lika region of Croatia then under the control of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, was attacked by Croatian forces. The pocket was named after the village of Medak.
Branimir Glavaš is a Croatian former major general and right-wing politician. He was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party which was in power in the 1990s and one of its key figures until a split in 2006. In 2009 he was found guilty for war crimes.
Dragan Vasiljković, nicknamed Captain Dragan was the commander of a Croatian Serb paramilitary unit called the Knindže or during the Yugoslav Wars. In 2005, prosecutors in Croatia accused him of committing war crimes during the wars. A warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued by Interpol. He was arrested in Australia in January 2006, and ordered to prison by the High Court of Australia in anticipation for extradition to Croatia to face prosecution for his alleged crimes. He was extradited to Croatia on 8 July 2015 after losing his thirteenth appeal and sentenced to 15 years in prison on 26 September 2017 by the County Court in the city of Split. He was released from prison in March 2020.
Mirko Norac is a former Croatian general of the Croatian Army (HV), and a convicted war criminal. He was the first Croatian Army general to be found guilty of war crimes by a Croatian court, in 2003, after his case was transferred from The Hague to Zagreb. He was released on probation in November 2011.
Mile Mrkšić was a colonel of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in charge of the unit involved in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. He was convicted for not preventing the mass killing of 264 Croats that followed the fall of Vukovar, and sentenced to 20 years.
The Gospić massacre was the mass killing of 100–120 predominantly Serb civilians in Gospić, Croatia during the last two weeks of October 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The majority of the victims were ethnic Serbs but also included some Croats, arrested in Gospić and the nearby coastal town of Karlobag. Most of them were arrested on 16–17 October. Some of the detainees were taken to the Perušić barracks and executed in Lipova Glavica near the town, while others were shot in the Pazarište area of Gospić. The killings were ordered by the Secretary of Lika Crisis Headquarters, Tihomir Orešković, and the commander of the 118th Infantry Brigade of the Croatian National Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Mirko Norac.
Valentin Ćorić is a former Bosnian Croat official in the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Vladimir Šeks is a Croatian lawyer and centre-right politician. He has been as a representative in the Croatian Parliament since the nation's independence, and has held the posts of the Speaker of the Parliament, as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the Government. He also served as acting President of the Croatian Democratic Union and Leader of the Opposition from 5 January to 30 April 2000.
There was a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the area of the town of Foča committed by Serb military, police, and paramilitary forces on Bosniak civilians from 7 April 1992 to January 1994 during the Bosnian War. By one estimate, around 21,000 non-Serbs left Foča after July 1992.
The Široka Kula massacre was the killing of 41 civilians in the village of Široka Kula near Gospić, Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence. The killings began on 13 October 1991 and continued until late October. They were perpetrated by the Croatian Serb SAO Krajina police and generally targeted ethnic Croat civilians in Široka Kula. Several victims were ethnic Serbs suspected by the police of collaboration with Croatian authorities. Most of the victims' bodies were thrown into the Golubnjača Pit, a nearby karst cave.
Serbia was involved in the Yugoslav Wars in the period between 1991 and 1999—the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and the war in Kosovo. During this period from 1991 to 1997, Slobodan Milošević was the President of Serbia, Serbia was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has established that Milošević was in control of Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the wars which were fought there from 1991 to 1995.
Tomislav Merčep was a Croatian politician and paramilitary leader during the Croatian War of Independence who was later convicted of war crimes.
The Battle of Gospić was fought in the environs of Gospić, Croatia, from 29 August until 22 September 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. The battle pitted the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), stationed in five barracks in the town, and paramilitary elements of the Serbian Guard against the Croatian National Guard (ZNG), police forces based in Gospić and police reinforcements from elsewhere in Croatia. Fighting in the eastern districts of Gospić, controlled by JNA forces with supporting artillery, was largely static but the balance shifted in favor of the Croatian forces following the capture of several JNA depots and barracks on 14 September. The remaining barracks were captured by 20 September leading to the expulsion of the JNA and Serbian Guard forces from the town.
The murder of the Zec family occurred in Zagreb, Croatia on 7 December 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, when a squad of five Croatian militiamen shot dead three members of a Serb family: Mihajlo Zec, his wife Marija, and their 12-year-old daughter, Aleksandra. Two other Zec children escaped. The murderers were apprehended, but released after a controversial court decision in 1992.
The Paulin Dvor massacre was an act of mass murder committed by soldiers of the Croatian Army (HV) in the village of Paulin Dvor, near the town of Osijek on 11 December 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. Of the nineteen victims, eighteen were ethnic Serbs, and one was a Hungarian national. The ages of the victims, eight women and eleven men, ranged from 41 to 85. Two former Croatian soldiers were convicted for their role in the killings and were sentenced to 15 and 11 years, respectively. In November 2010, Croatian President Ivo Josipović laid a wreath at the graveyard of the massacre victims and officially apologized for the killings.
The Zrinski Battalion was a special forces unit of the Croatian National Guard and later of the Croatian Army established in Kumrovec on 18 May 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The unit drew personnel from the special police forces and a former French Foreign Legion troops serving as its core. The battalion was set up and initially commanded by Ante Roso, while Major Miljenko Filipović took over as the commanding officer in August.
Božo Petrov is a Croatian politician and psychiatrist who served as the 11th Speaker of the Croatian Parliament since independence and the 21st speaker overall, from 2016 to 2017. Since 2012 he has been president of the Bridge of Independent Lists party.
Tihomir "Tim" Orešković is a Croatian Canadian businessman who was Prime Minister of Croatia from January to October 2016.