Goran Hadzic, Croatian politician of Serbian descent: biography

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 considers him guilty of crimes against humanity, as well as in violation of the laws and customs of war.

Hadzic charged with fourteen points. He was accused of involvement in "deportation, or the forcible transfer of tens of thousands of Croats and other civilians of non-Serb origin." These actions took place on the territory of Croatia between June 1991 and December 1993; Among the illegally displaced are 20,000 people from the city of Vukovar. In addition, Hadzic was accused of using forced labor of prisoners, extermination of hundreds of civilians in dozens of Croatian towns and villages, including Vukovar, as well as in beatings, tortures and killings of detainees.

Hadzic spent much longer than the other defendants in the case hiding from the tribunal: the Serbian authorities managed to catch him only on July 20, 2011. The trial was discontinued in 2014 due to the fact that the accused was diagnosed with brain cancer.

early years

Hadzic was born in the village of Pachetina, Croatia, which was then part of the SFRY. During his youth, he was an active member of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia. Prior to the Croatian war, Hadzic worked as a storekeeper, and was also known as the leader of the Serb community in Pachetin. 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 a while 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 chairman of the regional committee of the same party and 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 at the Plitvice Lakes, which in late March 1991 began fighting between the Croatian army and units of the Serbian Krajina. On June 25, 1991, the Serbs from the regions of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem held a congress in which they decided to create the Serbian Autonomous Region (SAO) and withdraw from the Republic of Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia. Hadzic was to become the head of the government of the autonomy.

On February 26, 1992 two regions of Western Slavonia joined the Serbian Krajina. Around the same time, Goran Hadzic replaced Milan Babich and became the new head of the unrecognized republic. Babich was biased because he opposed the peaceful plan of Vance, therefore spoiled his relationship with Milosevic. According to reports, Hadzic boasted that he was a "messenger of Slobodan Milosevic". He held a leading position until December 1993.

In September 1993, when Croatia launched Operation Medaka 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 (the Serbian Volunteer Guard), under the command of Zeljko Raznatovich, nicknamed Arkan, came to the aid of the army of the Serbian Krajina. Hadzic's rule lasted until February 1994, when the Croatian politician of Serbian origin Milan Martić was elected president.

After the operation "Storm" in August 1995, the units of the DGC army in Eastern Slavonia remained outside the control zone of the Croatian government. From 1996 to 1997, Hadzic was the head of the Srem-Baranja region, 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 Raznatovic (Arkan) and spoke very respectfully of this man, calling him a hero.

Accusations of war crimes during the war in Croatia

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

In 2002, the Croatian prosecutor's office put forward another accusation against Hadzic, representatives of the so-called "Vukovar Troika" (Veselin Shlivancanin, Mile Mkršić and Miroslav Radic), as well as senior commanders of the Yugoslav People's Army. They were found guilty of killing almost 1,300 Croats in Vukovar, Osijek, Vinkovtsi, Zupanje and some other settlements.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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

He was charged with 14 episodes of war crimes related to his alleged involvement in the forcible deportation and the killing of thousands of civilians in Croatia between 1991 and 1993. He was charged with the murder of 250 Croats in the 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 in the meaningless destruction of houses, religious and cultural monuments.

Escape

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

In October 2007, the Serbian government national security council offered 250,000 euros for information that would help arrest Hadzic. In 2010, the amount of remuneration was increased to 1.4 million dollars. On 9 October 2009, the Serbian police carried out a search of Hadzic's house and seized some of his belongings, but made no statements.

After the arrest and extradition of Ratko Mladic, the penultimate accused of war crimes of a fugitive, the European Union continued to insist on Hadzic's extradition in order to bring him before the court. It was stressed that while he was on the run, Serbia could not count on rapprochement with the EU.

Arrest

On July 20, 2011, Serbian President Boris Tadic announced the detention of Hadzic and added that this arrest would complete a "difficult chapter" in the history of the Serbs.

The police found a fugitive near the village of Krushedol, located on the slope of the Frush mountain range. Presumably, it was there that he was there all the time after the ICTY charged. To find his whereabouts the investigators were helped by the stolen picture of Modigliani's work. Hadzic was caught after trying to sell it.

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

Reaction

After Hadzic's arrest, 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 said of the arrest: "Another good step was taken." After Mladic was arrested, we told the Serbs that now everything depends on them only, that they should take the last step and catch Hadzic. Serbia should 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."

Approximately in the following vein, the Russian Foreign Ministry said about the arrest: "Goran Hadzic must be subjected to an objective and impartial court, and his case should not be used to artificially prolong the activities of the ICTY."

Extradition

On July 22, Justice Minister Snezhana Malovich said that the defendant was sent to The Hague on a small Cessna plane. Before the departure, Hadzic was allowed a meeting with a sick mother, wife, son and sister, then escorted by a convoy of jeeps and police cars, he left the detention facility for war criminals and went first to Novi Sad and then to the Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport. The Croatian government then instructed its General Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice to take all necessary measures and to secure the transfer of Hadzic's case to Croatia, so that he would answer for other serious crimes in which he is 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.

Condemnation and death

The reading of the charges at the ICTY was held on July 25 and lasted 15 minutes. Goran refused to plead guilty to any crimes related to the war in Croatia. The lawyer Vladimir Petrovich, appointed by the tribunal, said that Hadzic was not going to respond to the charges at once, but was going to take advantage of the rights granted to him.

Hadzic did not plead guilty and on August 24, during his second appearance before the court. Prosecutors announced their intention to call 141 witnesses, including seven experts. Also, it was announced that the testimony was taken from eighty-two witnesses, twenty of which should appear in court. The records of the interrogation of the remaining sixty-two people were presented as evidence, after which the defense had the opportunity to conduct cross-examination.

In total, prosecutors received 185 hours for questioning witnesses and experts. The trial started on October 16, 2012. In November 2013, the prosecution completed the presentation of its arguments, and in February 2014 the court rejected Hajic's petition for acquittal. The application alleged that the prosecutor did not provide sufficient evidence for conviction.

In November 2014, Hadzic discovered an inoperable brain cancer. The trial was suspended, as the defendant could not participate in it because of the side effects of the treatment. The prosecutor's office wanted to continue the process in his absence, but no decision was taken on this issue. In April 2015, the court ordered the release of Hadzic and send him back to Serbia. Goran Hadzic died of cancer on July 12, 2016.