Dragoljub Ojdanić

Dragoljub Ojdanić was a senior military officer in the Yugoslav People's Army and the Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro who rose to the rank of General of the Army. He served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army and later as the Federal Minister of Defence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. Ojdanić was subsequently indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his role in the NATO bombing campaign and related military operations, leading to his conviction for deportation and other crimes against humanity.

Early life and education

Dragoljub Ojdanić was born on 1 June 1941 in the village of Ravni, near Užice, in what was then German-occupied Serbia during World War II. He completed his primary and secondary education in the Socialist Republic of Serbia before pursuing a military career. Ojdanić graduated from the Military Academy of the Yugoslav People's Army in Belgrade, an institution that trained many senior officers for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. His early postings included various command and staff positions within the Yugoslav Ground Forces, where he developed a reputation as a competent and disciplined officer.

Military career

Ojdanić's military career progressed steadily through the ranks of the Yugoslav People's Army during the latter decades of the Cold War. He held several significant command positions, including leading the Third Army, one of the key regional commands of the Yugoslav Ground Forces. In 1998, following the retirement of General Momčilo Perišić, Ojdanić was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army by President Slobodan Milošević. In this pivotal role, he was responsible for overseeing the entire military structure of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during a period of intense regional conflict and international pressure.

Role in the Yugoslav Wars

Ojdanić's most prominent and controversial role was as the senior military commander during the Kosovo War in 1998 and 1999. As Chief of the General Staff, he exercised command over the Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro and the Ministry of Internal Affairs forces during their operations against the Kosovo Liberation Army. His tenure coincided with the escalation of the conflict, leading to the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. In May 1999, Ojdanić was appointed Federal Minister of Defence, replacing Pavle Bulatović, placing him in direct control of military strategy during the NATO intervention in Kosovo. The operations under his command were later the subject of intense scrutiny for alleged widespread crimes against the Albanian civilian population in Kosovo.

Indictment and trial

In 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued a sealed indictment against Ojdanić. It was made public in 2002 after he surrendered voluntarily to the tribunal in The Hague. He was charged on the basis of superior criminal responsibility with multiple counts, including deportation, persecution, and murder as crimes against humanity, related to the forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians during the Kosovo War. His trial, known as the Milošević and others case, was later joined with those of other senior officials, including Nikola Šainović and Nebojša Pavković. In 2009, the trial chamber found Ojdanić guilty of deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 15 years' imprisonment. The Appeals Chamber later reduced his sentence to 12 years.

Later life and death

Following his conviction, Ojdanić served his sentence in Germany. In 2013, after serving two-thirds of his sentence, he was granted early release by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and returned to Serbia. He lived a largely private life in Belgrade after his release. Dragoljub Ojdanić died on 6 September 2020 in Belgrade at the age of 79. His death was reported by Serbian media, marking the end of a life that was deeply intertwined with the most turbulent chapters of modern Balkan history, from the stability of the SFR Yugoslavia to the fragmentation of the Yugoslav Wars.

Category:1941 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Yugoslav military personnel Category:People convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia