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

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

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

Croatian Government The Government of Croatia (), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (), is the main executive branch of government in Croatia. It is led by the president of the Government (), infor ...

, thus being one of the closest associates of former President

Franjo Tudjman Franjo is a Croatian masculine given name. The name Franjo is of German origin and has a very long history. Franjo comes from the word "Frank", which means "brave and free man". The name Franjo was initially borne by men from the tribe of the Fran ...

Biography

Born in

Vukova Gorica Vukova Gorica is a village in Croatia. It is connected by the D3 highway. History In 1544, Nikola Šubić Zrinski settled Catholics from Rmanj in the nearby Vukova Gorica, Prilišće and Rosopajnik. After the Lujzijana was built, the ''Družt ...

near

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...

, 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 (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 ...

, Boljkovac fought with the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

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

Randolph Churchill Major (rank), Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer Churchill (28 May 1911 – 6 June 1968) was an English journalist, writer and politician. The only son of future List of British Prime Ministers, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill a ...

during his military mission. After the war, he served as the local chief of the Yugoslav secret police

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 ...

. He was later appointed as mayor of

, a post he held from 1963 to 1969. After democratic reforms in Croatia in 1990, Boljkovac joined the conservative

Croatian Democratic Union The Croatian Democratic Union (, , HDZ) is a major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. Since 2016, it has been the ruling political party in Croatia under the incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. It is one of the ...

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

Croatian Party of Pensioners The Croatian Party of Pensioners ( or HSU) is a Croatian centre-left political party that is currently led by Veselko Gabričević. When the party was founded, few people took it seriously and many commentators speculated that the ultimate pur ...

(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 interes ...

(SDSS) in separate elections. In 2008, Boljkovac launched a bid to form a ''

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

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), commonly abbreviated as SR Croatia and referred to as simply Croatia, was a ...

, 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-villag ...

in May 1945. He was transferred to

Remetinec prison Remetinec prison (officially ''Prison in Zagreb'', ) is a closed-type prison located in the Remetinec neighborhood of Zagreb, Croatia. The prison's capacity is 560 inmates, making it the largest prison in Croatia. In July 2012 it housed 904 pris ...

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 "Joža" Manolić (; 22 March 1920 – 15 April 2024) was a Croatian politician and Communism, communist revolutionary during World War II in Yugoslavia. He served as a high-ranking official of the SFR Yugoslavia, Yugoslav State Security Ad ...

, 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. Early li ...

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 (, where "Free" is an adjective) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split. History was first issued on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city was occupied by the I ...

Depeše Udbe: “Likvidirajte i ženu jer zaslužuje smrt”

Večernji list (also known as '; ) is a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian daily newspaper published in Zagreb and Mostar. History and profile was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its predecessor ' ('Evening Courier') appeared for the first time on 3 June 1957 in ...

{{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