Veljko Kadijević

Veljko Kadijević Вељко Кадијевић
5th Federal Secretary of People's Defense of Yugoslavia
In office 15 May 1988 – 8 January 1992
Preceded by	Branko Mamula
Succeeded by	Blagoje Adžić (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1925-11-21)21 November 1925 Glavina Donja, Imotski, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	Moscow, Russia
Nationality	Serb, Russian
Political party	League of Communists of Yugoslavia
Military service
Allegiance	Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Service/branch	Yugoslav People's Army
Years of service	1943–1992
Rank	General of the Army
Commands	Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
Battles/wars	World War II in Yugoslavia, Ten-Day War, Croatian War of Independence

Veljko Kadijević (Serbian Cyrillic: Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Yugoslav government from 1988 until his resignation in 1992, which made him the de facto commander-in-chief of the JNA during the Ten-Day War in Slovenia and the initial stages of the Croatian War of Independence.

Biography

Veljko Kadijević was born on 21 November 1925 in the village of Glavina Donja, near Imotski, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. His father was a Serb and his mother was an ethnic Croat. Kadijević self-declared as a "pro-Yugoslav Serb". He joined the Yugoslav Partisans in 1941, following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II. In 1943, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). He was given the task of performing important duties almost immediately. He remained an active soldier after the war and graduated from the Military Academy in Belgrade.

Kadijević became the fifth Minister of Defence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 15 May 1988. Following the collapse of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, 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 on 6 January 1992, Kadijević retired to live in Serbia.

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) tried to contact him in the spring of 2001. He was to be called as witness, he however fled to Moscow the next day. He applied for refugee status in 2005 and received Russian citizenship on 13 August 2008 by decree of president Dmitry Medvedev.

Legal proceedings

The first indictment for Kadijević was issued in November 1992 in Bjelovar, the second one in 2002 in Vukovar and the third one in May 2006 by Osijek-Baranja County's attorney general. On 21 March 2007, the Croatian Ministry of Interior issued an arrest warrant for Kadijević for "war crimes against the civilian population". Interpol issued an arrest warrant on 23 March. After Kadijević received Russian citizenship the Croatian Government sent a request to Russia for his extradition. It is still unknown whether Russia will comply with the request.

According to Marko Attila Hoare, a former employee at the ICTY, an investigative team worked on indictments of senior members of the ‘joint criminal enterprise’, including Milošević, Kadijević, Blagoje Adžić, Borisav Jović, Branko Kostić, Momir Bulatović, 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.

November 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 Florida, United States, 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 bunkers in Iraq, and also that he is in Moscow as a guest of Dmitry Yazov. 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 Iraq, 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 9 November 2007 he was interviewed by journalist Olivera Jovićević from Serbian public broadcaster RTS and the interview aired 13 November 2007 in prime time as a special edition of her Upitnik programme. The very next day, 14 November, Croatian Radiotelevision'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 Vukovar massacre only after retiring because the head of his intelligence, General Aleksandar Vasiljević, didn't inform him of this event. Kadijević claims that neither he nor the JNA 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 trying to prevent illegal armament and to defend Yugoslavia from emerging paramilitaries and dismissed the ICTY as being a political institution which he does not recognize.

Furthermore, he stated that he and the JNA never considered orchestrating a military coup to solve the Yugoslav crisis. This statement is in stark contrast with the claims of president of the Yugoslavia presidency Borisav Jović who says that precisely Kadijević and the army suggested a coup 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 March 1991 meeting two days after the huge protests organized by Vuk Drašković on the streets of Belgrade in Jović's office to which Kadijević had been invited by Slobodan Milošević 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

• Interpol arrest warrant for Kadijević
• Interview by RTS in Moscow 2007: Part 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5 (Serbian)

Political offices
Preceded by Branko Mamula	Federal Secretary of People's Defense of Yugoslavia 15 May 1988 – 8 January 1992	Succeeded by Blagoje Adžić Acting