Ljubo Ćesić (born 20 February 1958), best known by his nickname Rojs, is a retired

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 army general and politician.

Military service

A native Herzegovinian Croat, Ćesić moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

in 1984, where he got a job as a bus driver. He came into public spotlight during the 1990s and

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

(

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used. was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croats, Croat forces loyal to the Governmen ...

and

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

) as commander of the 66th Engineering Regiment of the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( or HKoV) is the land force branch of the Croatian Armed Forces. It is numerically the largest of the three branches of the Croatian Armed Forces. The HKoV is the main force for the defense of the country against external threa ...

. His unit built mountain roads on the border between the two countries, which ultimately allowed Croatian Army to outflank the Serb Krajina and Bosnian Serb forces during and after

Operation Storm Operation Storm ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Operacija Oluja, separator=" / ", Операција Олуја) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory f ...

in August 1995. For his exploits, Ćesić was promoted to the rank of general. His critics often point out the fact that before the war, he was a bus driver, becoming the official driver of Croatia's defence minister Gojko Šušak in 1991, after which he was given military command despite lack of formal qualification.

Post-war

His post-war activities included the use of his unit for civilian contracts and the alleged breach of labour and other laws did not prevent Ćesić from rising through the ranks of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) political party.

Political activities

In the early 2000s, while a member of

Croatian Parliament The Croatian Parliament () or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people and is vested with legislative power. ...

, Ćesić gradually began distancing himself from

Ivo Sanader Ivo Sanader (; born 8 June 1953) is a Croatian former politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009. He is currently serving a 18-year prison sentence for corruption in Lipovica penitentiary. Sanader is to date the second ...

and the new centrist course of HDZ. He nevertheless formally remained in the party, while keeping himself in public spotlight with a series of statements that were as colorful as they were controversial. One example was his public offer to

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

to volunteer in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. One of his controversial public episodes was an altercation and alleged physical attack on a fellow parliament member Dino Debeljuh in 2001, which resulted in Ljubo Ćesić's removal from that day's parliament session. In the 2005 presidential election he ran as an independent candidate. During the campaign he claimed to be in contact with the general Ante Gotovina, at the time a fugitive wanted on war crimes charges, which prompted a police inquiry. Ćesić eventually finished 6th in the first round with 1.85% of the votes cast. Ćesić has since left HDZ and is currently a member of Only Croatia – Movement for Croatia. After his political career he started appearing in numerous comedy shows on Croatian television such as Robert Knjaz's ''Mjenjačnica'', in which two or more celebrities exchange lives with each other for a brief period of time. In the episode where he appeared, his companion was Croatia's most famous and controversial stylist Neven Ciganović. In 2023, Rojs was expelled from the Croatian Generals Association following an open letter in which he, along with 11 others, questioned the Association's decision to meet with the Generals Society of BiH.

Honours

Orders

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesic-Rojs, Ljubo 1958 births Living people People from Posušje Croatian army officers Military personnel of the Croatian War of Independence Croat politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian Democratic Union politicians Candidates for President of Croatia Order of Ante Starčević recipients Representatives in the modern Croatian Parliament