Croatian Defence Council

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The Croatian Defence Council (Croatian Hrvatsko vijeće obrane, HVO) was the main military formation of the Croats during the Bosnian War charged with achieving the military objectives of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.

The HVO was established on April 8, 1992 in Grude by the political leadership of Herzeg Bosnia which were all members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union(Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica) party. They declared that all other military groups on territory claimed by the HB were illegal and the enemy. Throughout their existence they were supplied and financed by the Republic of Croatia.

During the first few months of the Bosnian War the HVO was engaged in defending Bosnia from the Serbs and a large number of its soldiers were Bosniaks Once the Serbs were stopped the HVO turned to fighting Bosniaks and to eliminating Croats who did not support their plan: See Blaz Kraljevic. From April 1993 until March 1994 they fought the Bosniaks but in 1994 the US and the Vatican pressured them into signing a peace treaty. Following that the HVO was active in some actions against the Serbs. After the Dayton Accords the HVO was absorbed by the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was itself molded into the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1 Organization
2 War crimes indictments
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Organization

HVO was divided into four operational zones: South-Eastern and North-Western Herzegovina, Central Bosnia and Posavina. While first three zones were grouped more or less together, Posavina was completely isolated in northern Bosnia on right bank of Sava river around Orašje and was entirely depended on support from Croatia.

[edit] War crimes indictments

Much of the top military and political leadership of the HVO was indicted for war crimes in April 2004 and went on trial during the summer of 2006;Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić are presently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on charges including Crimes Against Humanity, Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War.

Other HVO figures have already been tried for war crimes. Tihomir Blaškić, Mladen Naletilić, Vinko Martinović, Vlatko Kuprešić, Zoran Kuprešić, Mirjan Kuprešić, Drago Josipović, Dragan Papić, Vladimir Santić, Zlatko Aleskovski, Miroslav Bralo Cicko, Anto Furundžija, Dario Kordić, Mario Čerkez, Paško Ljubičić, and Zoran Marinić (indictment withdrawn), all had their cases finalized before the ICTY.