Goran Hadzic, Croatian politician of Serbian origin: biography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Goran Hadzic (September 7, 1958 - July 12, 2016) was President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina during the war between Serbia and Croatia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia finds him guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.

Hadzic charged with fourteen counts. He was accused of being involved in "the deportation or forced displacement of tens of thousands of Croats and other non-Serb civilians". These actions took place on the territory of Croatia between June 1991 and December 1993; among those illegally resettled are 20,000 people from the city of Vukovar. In addition, Hadzic was accused of using forced labor of prisoners, exterminating hundreds of civilians in dozens of Croatian cities and villages, including Vukovar, as well as beating, torturing and killing detainees.

Hadzic was hiding from the tribunal much longer than the rest of the defendants in the case: the Serbian authorities managed to catch him only on July 20, 2011. The trial was terminated in 2014 due tothat the defendant was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Early years

Hadzic was born in the village of Pacetin, in Croatia, which was then part of the SFRY. During his youth he was an active member of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia. Before the Croatian war, Hadzic worked as a storekeeper and was also known as the leader of the Serbian community in Pacetina. In the spring of 1990, he was elected to the city committee of Vukovar as a representative of the Union of Communists for Democratic Change.

June 10, 1990 Goran Hadzic joined the Serbian Democratic Party (SDP), and after some time became chairman of its branch in Vukovar. In March 1991, he was appointed chairman of the city committee of Vukovar, as well as a member of the main and executive committee of the Serbian Democratic Party in Knin. In addition, he was the chairman of the regional committee of the same party and the leader of the Serbian Democratic Forum in the regions of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem.

Croatian War

Goran Hadzic was directly involved in the incident on the Plitvice Lakes, from which, at the end of March 1991, hostilities began between the Croatian army and units of the Serbian Krajina. On June 25, 1991, Serbs from the regions of Eastern Slavonia, Baranya and Western Srem held a congress at which they decided to create the Serbian Autonomous Region (SAO) and secede from the Republic of Croatia, then still part of Yugoslavia. Hadzic was supposed to be the leaderautonomy governments.

On February 26, 1992, two regions of Western Slavonia joined the Serbian Krajina. Around the same time, Goran Hadzic replaced Milan Babić and became the new head of the unrecognized republic. Babić was removed because he opposed the Vance peace plan, so he ruined his relationship with Milosevic. Hadzic reportedly boasted of being "an envoy of Slobodan Milosevic". He held a senior position until December 1993.

In September 1993, when Croatia launched Operation Medak Pocket, the President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina sent an urgent request to Belgrade, hoping to receive reinforcements, weapons and equipment. The Serbian authorities ignored the request, but a paramilitary group of about 4,000 people (Serbian Volunteer Guards) under the command of Zeljko Razhnatovic, nicknamed Arkan, came to the aid of the Serbian Krajina army. Hadzic's rule lasted until February 1994, when Milan Martic, a Croatian politician of Serbian origin, was elected president.

After Operation Storm in August 1995, units of the RSK army in Eastern Slavonia remained outside the zone of control of the Croatian government. From 1996 to 1997, Hadzic was the head of the region of Srem Baranya, after which the region was peacefully returned to Croatia in accordance with the provisions of the Erdut Agreement. Later Hadzic moved to Serbia. In 2000, in Belgrade, he attended the funeral of Zeljko Razhnatovic (Arkan) and spoke very respectfully about this man, calling himhero.

War crimes allegations during the war in Croatia

A Croatian court convicted Hadzic in absentia on two counts: in 1995, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for rocket attacks on the cities of Sibenik and Vodice; in 1999, for war crimes in Tenye, another 20 years of imprisonment were added. Later, Hadzic was included in the Interpol list of the most wanted fugitives.

In 2002, the Croatian prosecutor's office brought yet another charge against Hadzic, representatives of the so-called "Vukovar Troika" (Veselin Shlivanchanin, Mile Mkrsic and Miroslav Radic), as well as senior commanders of the Yugoslav People's Army. They were considered guilty of the murder of almost 1300 Croats in Vukovar, Osijek, Vinkovci, Zupanje and some other settlements.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

On June 4, 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) also charged Hadzic with war crimes.

He was charged with 14 counts of war crimes related to his alleged involvement in the forced deportation and murder of thousands of civilians in Croatia between 1991 and 1993. He was accused of killing 250 Croats in a Vukovar hospital in 1991; crimes in Dali, Erdut and Lovas; participation in the creation of concentration camps in Staichevo, Torak and Sremska-Mitrovica; as well as the wanton destruction of homes, religious and cultural monuments.

Escape

A few weeks before his arrest, Hadzic disappeared without a trace from his home in Novi Sad. In 2005, Serbian media reported that he was hiding in an Orthodox monastery in Montenegro. Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, claimed in 2006 that Hadzic was hiding in a monastery somewhere on the Fruska Mountain in Serbia. At one time there were even rumors that he might be somewhere in Belarus.

In October 2007, the Serbian government's National Security Council offered 250,000 euros for information leading to the arrest of Hadzic. In 2010, the award was increased to $1.4 million. On October 9, 2009, Serbian police raided Hadzic's home and seized some of his belongings, but made no statement.

Following the arrest and extradition of Ratko Mladic, the penultimate fugitive accused of war crimes, the European Union continued to push for Hadzic's extradition to face trial. It was emphasized that while he was on the run, Serbia could not count on rapprochement with the EU.

Arrest

On July 20, 2011, Serbian President Boris Tadić announced the arrest of Hadžić and added that the arrest would end a "difficult chapter" in Serbian history.

The police found the fugitive near the village of Krushedol, located on the slope of the Frushsky ridge. Presumably, this is where he was all the time after the ICTY brought charges. A stolen painting by Modigliani helped investigators find his whereabouts. Hadzic was caught after trying to sell her.

At the time of his arrest, Goran Hadzic was the last defendant to be brought before the ICTY. After the detention, court hearings on extradition began, and soon a special court recognized that all the preliminary requirements for the extradition of Hadzic to The Hague were met.

Reaction

After the detention of Hadzic, one of the obstacles to Serbia's rapprochement with the European Union disappeared, and, as Western newspapers wrote, this country fulfilled its obligations to the international tribunal. EU leaders congratulated the Serbian leadership, calling the arrest a signal of Serbia's readiness for a "better European future." Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal spoke about the arrest as follows: “Another good step has been taken. After Mladic was arrested, we told the Serbs that now everything depends only on them, that they should take the last step and catch Hadzic. And this is happened. Serbia must protect human rights, fight corruption and fraud, put the economy in order and … cooperate with the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia. The last point is fully implemented."

The Russian Foreign Ministry spoke about the arrest in the following vein: "Goran Hadzic should be subjected to an objective and impartial trial, and his case should not be used to artificially delay the activities of the ICTY."

Extradition

July 22, Justice Minister Snejana Malovic said the defendant had been sent to The Hague in a small Cessna plane. Before departure Hadzicallowed a visit with his sick mother, wife, son and sister, after which, accompanied by a convoy of jeeps and police cars, he left the war criminals detention center and went first to Novi Sad, and then to the Belgrade airport named after Nikola Tesla. The Croatian government then instructed its General Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice to take all necessary measures and ensure that the Hadzic case was transferred to Croatia so that he would answer for other serious crimes of which he was accused in that country. There is a version that the Croatian government wanted to force Hadzic to serve two prison terms, to which he had previously been sentenced in absentia by a Croatian court.

Conviction and death

The reading of the charges at the ICTY took place on July 25 and lasted 15 minutes. Goran refused to plead guilty to any crimes related to the war in Croatia. Court-appointed lawyer Vladimir Petrovich said that Hadzic did not intend to answer the charges immediately, but was going to exercise the rights granted to him.

Hadzic pleaded not guilty on August 24, during his second appearance before the court. Prosecutors announced their intention to call 141 witnesses, including seven experts. Also announced were statements taken from eighty-two witnesses, twenty of whom are due to appear in court. Interrogation transcripts of the remaining sixty-two people were presented as evidence, after which the defense had the opportunity to cross-examine.

Totalcomplexity prosecutors received 185 hours to interrogate witnesses and experts. The trial began on October 16, 2012. In November 2013, the prosecution concluded its case, and in February 2014, the court rejected Hadzic's acquittal. The petition alleged that the prosecutor did not provide sufficient evidence for a conviction.

In November 2014, Hadzic was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. The trial was suspended because the defendant could not participate due to the side effects of the treatment. The prosecutor's office wanted to continue the process in his absence, but no decision was made on this issue. In April 2015, a court ordered the temporary release of Hadzic and his return to Serbia. Goran Hadzic passed away from cancer on July 12, 2016.