Tomislav Merčep

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Tomislav Merčep is a controversial politician from Croatia.

A native of Vukovar, Merčep worked as an engineer before joining the Croatian Democratic Union. As the war began to escalate in 1991, Merčep was among the local Croatian officials setting up Croatian paramilitaries. Later he went to Zagreb, where he was in charge of a special police unit which took part in fighting in various battlefields.

Some members of that unit were later arrested and confessed to taking part in murder of ethnic Serb civilians. However, those charges were later dropped due to procedural errors and President Franjo Tuđman had them decorated, while other officials justified and even praised their actions.

A direct link between Merčep and those events was never proven, but his reputation suffered as a result. He became a member of the Chamber of Counties of Croatian Parliament in 1993.

In the 1990s Croatian media who had published allegations against Merčep, most notably Feral Tribune, had to pay record damages after losing libel suits. On September 1, 1997, Feral Tribune published a confession by one Miro Bajramović, a member of the paramilitary unit Jesenje kiše ("rains of autumn"). In the article Bajramović explicitly implicated Merčep as his commander who was responsible for many murders and other crimes such as torture.

In all that time there were speculations about ICTY showing interest in Merčep and his wartime activities, but those speculations later proved to be groundless. In the early 2000s there were reports about those activities being investigated by Croatian police and prosecutors instead.

In late 1990s Merčep decided to quit HDZ and instead founded his own party called Croatian Popular Party (Hrvatska pučka stranka, HPS). He ran as a candidate on 2000 presidential elections, finishing 6th.