Mirko Norac
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Mirko Norac (born September 19, 1967) is a former general of the Croatian Army. In 2003 he was the first general of the Croatian Army to be found guilty of war crimes by a Croatian court and is serving a 12 year sentence[1].
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[edit] Military service
Norac was born on 19 September 1967 in Keve, near the village of Otok, Yugoslavia, now Croatia, and attended school in Sinj.[2]. After finishing school, he worked as a waiter for a couple of years (although that is disputed by some[3]).
Soon after the first multi-party elections in Croatia in August of 1990, Norac joined the Ministry of Interior. On September 12 of that year he became a member of the Lučko anti-terrorist unit (ATJ Lučko), a unit of the Croatian police, and in 1991 it was used to deal with early incidents which developed into the Croatian War of Independence. As a member of ATJ Lučko, Norac took part in several early operations of the Croatian police forces[2] including the Plitvice Lakes incident[3].
[edit] Defence of Gospić
In September 1991 Norac left the police force and moved to Gospić where he took part in fighting against local Serbs and units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). On September 12 or 13 Norac was appointed commander of the 118th Brigade of the Croatian Army[4]. One month later he took part in an event known as the Gospić massacre when around 100 to 120 local Serbs were murdered by men under his command. In early 1992 (at the age of 25) he became the youngest colonel of the Croatian Army[2]. ććć
[edit] Maslenica and Medak
In November of 1992 Norac became commander of the 6th Guards Brigade which was soon renamed to the 9th Guards Motorised Brigade[4]. He took part in operation Maslenica (early 1993). In September of the same year he commanded operation Medak pocket, during which war crimes against local Serb population were committed. In the operation Norac was wounded in both hands and legs by an unexploded land mine[5]. He spent a month in a hospital in Zagreb, and then returned to Gospić. In 1994 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier and appointed commander of the Gospić Operational Zone[4]. That same year he became the duke of Alkarsko društvo, which is the highest honour a man from Sinj can receive. Zagreb diplomatic corps issued a public announcement that they were not going to attend the Sinjska alka as long as Norac was still a member of the Alkarsko društvo [1] However, this didn't stop Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić and other top Croatian officials from attending the event. [2]
[edit] Operation Storm and after
Norac took part in Operation Storm in August 1995 and on September 25, 1995 he was promoted to the rank of Major General[4]. On March 15, 1996, Norac was appointed commander of the Knin Corps District[4]. The President of Croatia discharged him from the Croatian Army on September 29, 2000 after he signed an open letter against the criminalization of the Croatian War of Independence which, being a political move, was deemed illegal for active Croatian servicemen.
[edit] War crimes
[edit] Gospić killings
On October 16 [6] 1991 Tihomir Orešković (Secretary of Lika Crisis Headquarters) called a meeting to organise the killing of Serb civilians in the area.[1] During that meeting a list of Serbs to be executed was made[6]. Norac attended the meeting, and he was in group of masked and unmasked soldiers and civil policemen which raided houses in Gospić and took Serb civilians, informing them that they were to be interrogated[6]. He organised and directed the executions of the civilians on no man's land near the town[6]. He executed one woman himself to incite the killing.[1]
On February 8, 2001 an arrest warrant for Norac was issued by the Ministry of Interior, and Norac, then living in Zagreb, came to Zagreb police department and asked if he could turn himself in in Rijeka to evade a crowd and media[6]. He was allowed to do this and used the opportunity to escape in an unknown direction. Sixteen days later (on February 22), after recieving assurances he would not be transfered to the Hague, he turned himself in and denied all charges.[3] On March 5, 2001, an indictment against Norac, Tihomir Orešković, Stjepan Grandić, Ivica Rožić and Milan Canić was issued. It accused them of murdering 50 civilians in Karlobag, Pazarište and Lipova glavica[1].
The trial at Rijeka County Court lasted for 14 months and over 150 witnesses testified, including Croatian soldiers and civilians. On March 24, 2003 Norac was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Orešković and Grandić were sentenced to 15 and 10 years and Rožić and Canić were acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence. He is currently serving his sentence in Glina, and has recently been allowed out to go home for a weekend to visit family in Sinj. [4]
[edit] Operation Medak pocket
On May 20, 2004 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued an indictment against Mirko Norac (together with Rahim Ademi and Janko Bobetko) for crimes committed during Operation Medak pocket in 1993.
The indictment against Norac stated that as a result of the Croatian military operation, "...the Medak Pocket became uninhabitable. The villages of the Pocket were completely destroyed, thereby depriving the Serbian civilian population of their homes and livelihood."[7]. He was accused of having "planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of persecutions of Serb civilians of the Medak Pocket on racial, political or religious grounds", and of the "mutilation and desecration of the body of Boja Pjevac; the public killing of Boja Vujnovic by burning her alive[7].
[edit] Norac in ICTY court
On July 8, 2004 Norac was transferred to an ICTY courtroom in The Hague where he pleaded not guilty to all five charges brought against him. The judge ruled that he did not have to remain in the ICTY prison and could be returned to prison in Croatia. On September 14, 2005 the ICTY decided to transfer the Ademi-Norac case (Bobetko had died in the meantime) to Croatian jurisdiction as the first ICTY case to be transferred to a local court.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Outreach programme article on Mirko Norac
- ^ a b c (Croatian) Biography of Mirko Norac
- ^ a b (Croatian) Article on Mirko Norac in "Slobodna Dalmacija" daily
- ^ a b c d e ICTY Case Information Sheet on Mirko Norac
- ^
- ^ a b c d e Zoran Daskalović: "Crystal Power", article in "Feral Tribune" magazine, February 10, 2001
- ^ a b
