Dragoljub Ojdanić

Dragoljub Ojdanić
Born	June 1, 1941 (1941-06-01) (age 70) Ravni near Užice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Allegiance	SFR Yugoslavia (to 1992) FR Yugoslavia (to 2000)
Service/branch	Yugoslav People's Army (to 1992) Yugoslav Army (2000)
Years of service	1964- 2000
Rank	General of the Army
Battles/wars	Kosovo War
Awards	Order of Freedom

Dragoljub Ojdanić (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Ојданић) (born June 1, 1941 in Ravni near Užice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was former Chief of the General Staff and Defence minister of Yugoslavia. He was convicted of deportation and forcible transfers by the ICTY.^[1]

In 1958 he studied at the Yugoslav military academy and graduated in 1964. He was deputy commander of 37 korpus, with command in Užice. He was promoted to Major General on 20 April 1992 and he became the commander of Užice korpus. Under his command Užice korpus was deployed in military operations in eastern Bosnia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He served as Chief of the General Staff First Army of FRY in 1993 and 1994. Between 1994-1996 he was commander of the First Army. In 1996 he became deputy commander Chief of the General Staff. In 1998 Slobodan Milosević placed Ojdanić as a Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav army. He was also a Chief of General Staff during NATO's Operation Allied Force.

In February 2000 after the death of defence minister Pavle Bulatović, he was made Defence minister of Yugoslavia and promoted to General of the Army.

On 25 April 2002 Ojdanić was transferred by the Yugoslav government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Ojdanić was allowed to attend Milosević's funeral after his death on 11 March 2006. On 26 February 2009, the ICTY sentenced Ojdanić to 15 years in prison, following a conviction for deportation and forcible transfers.^[1] On May 27, 2009, Ojdanic’s case was appealed ^[2]. Ojdanic’s co-counsel on appeal is Peter Robinson of the United States.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Kosovo trial clears Serbia leader". BBC News. 26 February 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7911761.stm. Retrieved 26 February 2009. 
2. ^ http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/eCache/DEF/6/056.html

External links

• Optuznica za ratne zlocine (Serbian)
• Presuda Haškog suda (Serbian)

Military offices
Preceded by Momčilo Perišić	Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army 26 November 1998–7 February 2000	Succeeded by Nebojša Pavković
Preceded by Pavle Bulatović	Federal Defence minister of Yugoslavia 7 February – 5 October 2000	Succeeded by Slobodan Krapović

Persondata
Name	Ojdanic, Dragoljub
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 June 1941
Place of birth	Ravni near Užice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Date of death
Place of death