Mitja Ribičič (19 May 1919 – 28 November 2013) was a Slovenian and Yugoslav

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician. He was the

Prime Minister of Yugoslavia The prime minister of Yugoslavia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Премијер Југославије, Premijer Jugoslavije) was the head of government of the Yugoslav state, from the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 until the ...

—the only Slovenian to hold the office—from 1969 to 1971.

Life and career

He was born in a Slovene-speaking family in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. His father was the Slovene author Josip Ribičič (born in town Baška, Isle of Krk, Croatia). His mother, Roza Ribičič, née Arrigler or Arigler, was a teacher in Slovene schools in Trieste, and an editor and public figure. She was the niece of the poet Anton Medved. In 1925 the family moved to Rakek, Slovenia, then part of the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

(Yugoslavia), where Ribičič attended elementary school. In 1929 they settled in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. In 1938 Ribičič enrolled in the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

, where he studied law. In his student years, he became a member of several

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politic ...

youth organizations, and associations of Slovene emigrants from the

Julian March The Julian March ( Croatian and ), also called Julian Venetia (; ; ; ), is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia.

. In April 1941, when Yugoslavia was invaded by the Nazis, he volunteered for the

Royal Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the principal Army, ground force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It existed from the establishment of ...

. After the Yugoslav defeat in late April, he joined the

Liberation Front of the Slovenian People The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (), or simply Liberation Front (''Osvobodilna fronta'', OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (''Protiimperialistična fronta'', PIF), was a Slovene anti-fascist political party. The Anti-Imp ...

. In October 1941 he became a member of the

Yugoslav Communist Party The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the founding and ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia. It was formed in 1919 as the main communist opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats a ...

's (KPJ) Slovenian branch. In May 1942 he joined the Partisan resistance. He fought in various units parts of Slovenia that had been annexed by Germany, first in

Lower Styria Styria (, ), also known as Slovenian Styria (; ) or Lower Styria (; ) to differentiate it from Austrian Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of St ...

, then in

Upper Carniola Upper Carniola ( ; ; ) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The largest town in the region is Kranj, and other urban centers include Kamnik, Jesenice, Jesenice, Jesenice, Domžale and ...

, and in southern

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

. In November 1944 he was sent to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

for training. After his return in early 1945, he served as a high-ranking official of the

OZNA The Department for Protection of the People, commonly known under its Serbo-Croatian acronym as OZNA, was the secret police of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia that existed between 1944 and 1946. Founding The OZNA w ...

, the Yugoslav military intelligence, and then in the

UDBA The State Security Service, also known by its original name as the Directorate for State Security, was the secret police organization of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia. It was at all times best known by the acrony ...

, the secret police. He was in charge of political repression of the anti-communist opposition in Slovenia. Between 1951 and 1952 he served as chief prosecutor for the

Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia (, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Socialist Slovenia or simply Slovenia, was one ...

, and then until 1957 as the Secretary of the Interior of the

. Between 1957 and 1963 he was a member of the Slovenian government, and then a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia. In 1966 he rose to the leadership of the

, serving first as a member of the Executive Central Committee of the Party, and then as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the Yugoslav Federal Executive Council. Between 1974 and 1982 he was president of the Socialist Union of the Working People of Slovenia, the official platform that included all professional and voluntary associations in Slovenia. Between 1982 and 1983, he became president of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and was one of its members until 1986, when he retired. He died on 28 November 2013 at the age of 94 in Ljubljana and is buried in the family grave in Žale cemetery in Ljubljana. His son, Ciril is a

politician (member of the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

) and lawyer, as of 2013 a member of the Slovenian

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

Accusations of human rights violations

Several victims of Communist political persecution accused him of brutal treatment during the time when he was an official with the secret police, including Angela Vode and

Ljubo Sirc Ljubo Sirc CBE (19 April 1920 – 1 December 2016) was a British- Slovene economist and prominent dissident from Yugoslavia. Life and work Sirc was born in Kranj, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, in a wealthy and ren ...

. In 1970, when Ribičič visited

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

as the head of the Yugoslav Government, Sirc, a British citizen, launched a public protest, disclosing the mistreatment suffered at the hands of Ribičič in 1946. In May 2005, the

Slovenian Police The Slovenian National Police Force is the national government agency that handles the responsibility of law enforcement of the Republic of Slovenia. It is composed of the eight police directorates in Celje, Koper, Kranj, Ljubljana, Maribor, Mur ...

filed an indictment against Ribičič for genocide. The evidence, involving the actions of the Yugoslav Army against prisoners of war and civilians in the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, was investigated by the Slovenian Supreme State Prosecutor's Office first for

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

and later for war crime against civilians. Pursuant to this, a proposal to open a case was brought forward to the District Court in Ljubljana in April 2006, but the court rejected it due to the principle of non-retroactivity in criminal law and lack of evidence. This decision was then appealed by the Prosecutor's Office to the High Court, which also dismissed it as lacking direct evidence, without providing the precise reasoning, but found the basic principles of humanity to be above the prohibition of retroactivity in such a setting. The historian Jože Dežman, head of the Slovenian commission investigating concealed mass graves, criticised the rejection as "extremely indecent". Another

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 ...

, based on the presumed newly discovered evidence, was lodged against Ribičič at the Slovenian Prosecutor's Office due to suspected genocide and

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

by the freelance journalist and investigator of post-war killings in October 2013, but the Prosecutor's Office dismissed it in December 2013 due to Ribičič's death.

References

Sources

Primorski slovenski bibliografski leksikon: 'Mitja Ribičič'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribicic, Mitja 1919 births 2013 deaths Politicians from Ljubljana People indicted for war crimes Yugoslav people of World War II Yugoslav Partisans members Slovenian atheists Slovenian people of Croatian descent Presidents of the Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Slovenia politicians Ethnic Slovene people University of Ljubljana alumni Officers of the Yugoslav People's Army Burials at Žale War crimes in Slovenia Recipients of the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour Members of the Presidency of the 9th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia Members of the Presidency of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia Members of the Central Committee of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia