Goran Radosavljević "Guri" (born 1957) is a Serbian former police

colonel general Colonel general is a military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically General officer#Old European system, general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, ...

and the Commander of the Gendarmery of Serbia from 2001 to 2004. During the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...

he was in the

Special Police Units (Serbia) The Special Police Units or Police Special Units (, PJP) was a special police force unit of Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP). It had several detachments and was part of the sector of the State Security Directorate. It was disbanded on ...

and the leader of a group of counter-terrorist teams that combated the

Kosovo Liberation Army The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; , UÇK) was an Albanians, ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Republic of R ...

(KLA).

Early life

He was born in 1957 in

Aranđelovac Aranđelovac ( sr-cyr, Аранђеловац, ) is a town and a municipality located in the Šumadija District of central Serbia. , the municipality has a population of 41,297 inhabitants, while the town has 22,881 inhabitants. It is situated ben ...

SR Serbia The Socialist Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Социјалистичка Република Србија, Socijalistička Republika Srbija), previously known as the People's Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / " ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. Radosavljević graduated from the Faculty for Physical Culture. He worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia since 1985. He initially taught in

special combat Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

, and then became the head of the relevant department.

After the Kosovo War

According to some analysts, Radosavljević as commander of operational police pursuit groups had prominent role in

overthrow of Slobodan Milošević The Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević began in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the general election on 24 September 2000 and culminated in the downfall of Slobodan Milošević's government on 5 October 2000. As such, it is commonly ...

, as he refused to intervene against demonstrators. As a credit to his decision, the new regime under

Zoran Đinđić Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the Prime Minister of Serbia, prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until Assassination of Zoran Đinđić, ...

appointed him to become the first commander of the re-established Gendarmery of Serbia on 28 June 2001 and stayed in that position until 17 August 2004. On 1 February 2005, he was retired from the service. In 2003, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

agreed to the deployment of 1,000 Yugoslav soldiers to Afghanistan, commanded by General Goran Radosavljević. On 17 December 2006, the Serbian police issued a warrant for Goran Radosavljević, however with no

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

being issued against him. In 2007, he went public and denounced the rumors that he had been hiding. By 2010, Radosavljević had decided to join the

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party (, SNS) is a major populist, catch-all party, catch-all List of political parties in Serbia, political party in Serbia. It has been the Ruling party, ruling party since 2012. Miloš Vučević, the former prime mi ...

and enrolled in politics. In May 2014, Radosavljević was named the Executive Committee member of the ruling

(SNS).

War crime allegations

During the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...

(1998–1999), he led a cluster of counter-terrorism teams that were known as the

Operational Group Operational Group (, GO) was the highest level type of tactical division of the Polish Army at various points in the 20th century, mainly during the Second World War. Polish-Bolshevik War (1919-1921) Operational groups first appeared in the Polis ...

(OPG). They were established to counter Kosovo Liberation Army which sought to separate

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

from Serbia. The OPG were later suspected of killing 41 ethnic-Albanian civilians in the Ćuška massacre in western Kosovo in May 1999. A number of human rights groups have claimed that the OPG committed war crimes against civilians. Radosavljević was the person in charge of the military operation in Račak on 15 January 1999, which would become known as the

Račak massacre The Račak massacre () or Račak operation () was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians that took place in the village of Račak () in central Kosovo in January 1999. The massacre was perpetrated by Serbian security forces in response to Albani ...

. The Serbian War Crime's prosecutor also brought him in connection with the killing of the Bytyqi brothers, three Albanian American brothers who came to Kosovo to fight on the side of the KLA. Radosavljević was in charge of a Serb police training facility at Petrovo Selo where the Bytyqi brothers were detained, tortured, executed, and buried in a mass grave. In December 2018,

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

issued sanctions on Radosavljević after credibly implicating him in the 1999 murder of the Bytyqi brothers. The sanctions ban Radosavljević, his wife and daughter from entering the United States.

References

External links

Goran Radosavljević Guri
at vreme.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Radosavljevic, Goran 1957 births Living people People from Aranđelovac Serbian police officers Gendarmerie personnel Colonel generals Serbian Gendarmerie Serbian military personnel of the Kosovo War Individuals sanctioned by the United States Department of State