Josip Boljkovac (; 12 November 1920 – 10 November 2014) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n politician who served as the first Minister of Internal Affairs in the

Croatian Government The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...

, thus being one of the closest associates of former President

Franjo Tudjman Franjo is a Croatian masculine given name. In Croatia, the name Franjo was among the top ten most common masculine given names in the decades up to 1949. Notable people with the name include: *Franjo Arapović (born 1965), former Croatian basketb ...

Biography

Born in Vukova Gorica near Karlovac, Boljkovac was an active member of the anti-fascist movement before World War II.Balkan Insight
/ref> During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Boljkovac fought with the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод� ...

since the very beginning of the anti-fascist uprising. He even met

Randolph Churchill Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill (28 May 1911 – 6 June 1968) was an English journalist, writer, soldier, and politician. He served as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Preston from 1940 to 1945. The only son of British ...

during his military mission. After the war, he served as the local chief of the Yugoslav secret police OZNA in Karlovac. He was later appointed as mayor of Karlovac, a post he held from 1963 to 1969. After democratic reforms in Croatia in 1990, Boljkovac joined the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and became the country's first Minister of Internal Affairs. He was removed from office by Tudjman one year later. Profiling himself as a moderate, in 1994 he left the party and became a fierce critic of Tudjman's policy. He joined the Croatian Independent Democrats (HND) and later, with that party's marginalization, the liberal

Croatian People's Party Croatian may refer to: *Croatia *Croatian language *Croatian people *Croatians (demonym) See also * * * Croatan (disambiguation) * Croatia (disambiguation) * Croatoan (disambiguation) * Hrvatski (disambiguation) * Hrvatsko (disambiguation) * Se ...

(HNS). Boljkovac also ran on the electoral list of the

Croatian Party of Pensioners The Croatian Party of Pensioners ( hr, Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika or HSU) is a Croatian Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Croatia, political party that is currently led by Veselko Gabričević. When the party was ...

(HSU) and the

Independent Democratic Serb Party The Independent Democratic Serb Party ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Самостална демократска српска странка, Samostalna demokratska srpska stranka, SDSS) is a social-democratic political party in Croatia representing the intere ...

(SDSS) in separate elections. In 2008, Boljkovac launched a bid to form a '' Josip Broz Tito Society'', to celebrate the role of the former Yugoslav president. Local police investigated Boljkovac's role in World War II and post-war

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Sociali ...

, which led to his arrest on 2 November 2011 on charges of war crimes for his role in the massacre of 21 civilians in the vicinity of

Duga Resa Duga Resa is a town in Karlovac County, Croatia. It is located about 65 km southwest of Zagreb and 100 km east of Rijeka. Name The earliest reference to Duga Resa is from the year 1380. There are several theories on how the then-villa ...

in May 1945. He was transferred to Remetinec prison where he was detained for one month due to the severity of the charges. After only two days in detention, he was transferred to a hospital for prisoners due to his bad health. Following the appeal to the Constitutional Court, charges against him were dropped on 29 November 2011. Following a trial before the County Court, Boljkovac was acquitted on 22 May 2014. “Not a single witness nor a single document indicated the guilt of Josip Boljkovac,” the judge said. His lawyer, Anto Nobilo, claimed that Boljkovac's trial, as well as the one of

Josip Manolić Josip Manolić (; born 22 March 1920) is a Croatian former politician and communist revolutionary during World War II in Yugoslavia. He served as a high-ranking official of the Yugoslav State Security Administration (OZNA or UDBA) and later as ...

, had been set up by former interior minister

Tomislav Karamarko Tomislav Karamarko (; born 25 May 1959) is a Croatian politician who served as First Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from January to June 2016. He served in the Cabinet of Jadranka Kosor as Minister of the Interior from 2008 to 2011. Career ...

to secure his own election at the helm of HDZ.The Economist
/ref> Boljkovac died later the same year.

References

External links

Mira Petrak: Majka i ja skrivale smo se od Boljkovca punih 12 godina

Slobodna Dalmacija ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' () is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split. The first issue of ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' was published on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the cit ...

Depeše Udbe: “Likvidirajte i ženu jer zaslužuje smrt”

Večernji list ''Večernji list'' (also known as ''Večernjak''; ) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Zagreb. History and profile ''Večernji list'' was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its ancestor ''Večernji vjesnik'' ("Evening Courier") appeared for the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boljkovac, Josip 1920 births 2014 deaths People from Netretić Yugoslav Partisans members Yugoslav secret police agents League of Communists of Croatia politicians Croatian Democratic Union politicians Croatian Independent Democrats politicians Interior ministers of Croatia People indicted for war crimes Mayors of places in Croatia Prisoners and detainees of Croatia