Veljko Kadijević (Cyrillic: Вељко Кадијевић) (born November 21, 1925) is a former General of the Army in the Yugoslav People's Army. He was the Minister of Defence in the Yugoslav government from 1988 to 1992,[1] which made him de facto commander of Yugoslav People's Army during the Slovenian Independence War and initial stages of Croatian War of Independence.
Biography
Kadijević was born in the village of Glavina Donja near Imotski to a Croatian mother and a Serbian father, he always declared himself as a Yugoslav.citation needed In 1942 he joined the Yugoslav partisans and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He remained in active duty after the war and finished United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1963.
Kadijević became the fifth minister of defence in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 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."[2]
After resigning from post of federal secretary of people's defence, Kadijević retired and lived in Serbia.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) tried to contact him in Spring of 2001. He was to be called as witness, but he fled to Moscow the other day nevertheless.[3] He applied for refugee status in 2005 and received Russian citizenship on 13 August 2008 by decree of president Dmitry Medvedev.[4] As of 2008 he is still living in Moscow.[3]
Legal proceedings
The first indictment for Kadijević was issued in November 1992 in Bjelovar, second one in 2002 in Vukovar and third one in May 2006 by Osijek Osijek-Baranja County attorney general. On March 21, 2007 Croatian Ministry of Interior issued an arrest warrant for Kadijević for "war crimes against the civilian population".[5] Interpol issued an arrest warrant on March 23, 2007.[6]
After Kadijević received Russian citizenship the Croatian Government sent a request to Russia for the extradition of Kadijević. However it is still unknown weather Russia will comply.[7]
Public appearance
Public interest for Kadijević and his whereabouts intensified again in 2007. It was widely speculated that he was living in Florida, United States, which proved to be false.[8] In March 2007 Serbian press reported 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.[9] On 26 March 2007, the Croatian news portal published an interview with Kadijević in which he confirmed that he is a military advisor to the Coalition in Iraq, but stated that it "doesn't mean that he is permanently situated there", without stating his current whereabouts.[10] In early October of 2007 he finally surfaced in Moscow where he attended presentation of his book.[11] After that he gave several interviews to both Serbian and Croatian media: in November of 2007 he gave an interview to Radio Television of Serbia and few days later to Croatian Radiotelevision.[12]
In those interviews Kadijević stated that he found out about the Vukovar massacre only after retiring and that the head of his intelligence, general Aleksandar Vasiljević didn't inform him of this event.[8] He claims that neither he nor the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) committed any war crimes in former Yugoslavia due to the fact that the JNA was the only legal armed force in Yugoslavia at the time. He also stated that both he and the JNA were just trying to prevent illegal armament and to defend Yugoslavia from emerging paramilitaries. He also stated that ICTY is not a court but a political institution, so he does not recognise that court.[13]
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