Miro Barešić

Miro Barešić
Born	10 September 1950(1950-09-10) Šibenik, Croatia
Died	31 July 1991(1991-07-31) (aged 40) Croatia
Other names	Toni Šarić, Tony Favik
Organization	Croatian National Resistance[1]
Political movement	Croatian nationalism/post-World War II Ustasa-movement

Miro Barešić (10 September 1950 - 31 July 1991) was a terrorist, Croatian nationalist militant convicted for the murder of the Yugoslavian ambassador to Sweden in 1971 and later released as a demand made in the hijacking of a Scandinavian Airlines domestic flight.^[2][3]

Early life

Miro Barešić was born on 10 September 1950 in Šibenik, Croatia (then part of communist Yugoslavia). In 1968, as was required by any 18 year old, Barešić was called to attend military service. However, due to his political beliefs that the Croatian nation was deprived of any human rights, and that many of his relatives were killed by the communists, he refused the military service. As a result, he was convicted and forced to serve 6 months in the infamous Goli Otok prison, known as the "Alcatraz of Europe". In 1969, after the completion of his sentence, he escaped Yugoslavia to Italy where he was linked with members of the Croatian National Resistance movement, whom assisted him through Germany and ultimately Sweden.

History and murder in the Yugoslav embassy

In Sweden, Barešić associated with people connected with the Croatian National Resistance and other Croatian extreme nationalists and Barešić was very positive in the Swedish groups plans to start a new organization called The Black Legion (Crna Legija) in Sweden, as a revolt against Yugoslavia.

Baresic and another Croatian militant were convicted in 1971 for the murder of the Yugoslavian ambassador to Sweden, Vladimir Rolovic, the former head of the Yugloslav Secret Police, UDBA. On 7 April 1971, Miro Barešić and his friend Andjelko Brajkovic drove in a rented car to Stockholm with 4 other partners involved in plotting the coming murder. The two men walked into the embassy and started looking at some visas in the reception in order not to draw attention to them. Once they saw Rolovic near the reception they drew their guns and shouted "we are armed!" Barešić then hit the ambassador in his face with his own gun and they both forced him into his office, there Barešić hit him another time so that he fell to the floor. When Andjelko then thought that Rolovic wasn't lying still he decided to tie him to a chair with a rope around his hand and feet and a belt around his throat so that he would choke on his own blood. During this time Barešić was guarding the door and outside the building masses of people, the media, police and paramedics had arrived on the scene. When Barešić was looking out from the balcony of the room he saw the police coming closer and thought the original plan to take the ambassador hostage now seemed to have failed if the police would storm the building, so after hitting Rolovic again Brajkovic who also got blood on his hands from tying him up walked outside to the balcony and urinated on his hands to get the blood off, then wiped them with the curtain. Barešić who has seen the chaos outside picked up a framed photo of Josip Broz Tito from the wall and threw it out, smashing it to the ground. They both heard the police moving in on the building and Brajkovic at this time took his gun, put it in Rolovic's mouth and shot him in the head. The police, hearing the shot and the chaotic sounds inside the office, told both men to surrender, and they put their guns on the floor and kicked them outside the door and let themselves be arrested without any resistance. When being taken out from the murder scene in handcuffs the newsteams of several mediastations was filming the whole incident as Barešić kisses Brajkovic on his cheek and then begins to yell "long live the Independent state of Croatia" and "long live Ante Pavelić" on the way to the parked police cars.

They began serving their sentences at a Swedish high security prison, but were released the following year as part of demand made by the hijackers of a domestic airline at Sweden's Bulltofta airport.

The hijackers managed to get the Swedish authorities to refuel the airplane and flew to Madrid. They surrendered themselves to the Spanish authorities once it was confirmed that Barešić was released from the Swedish prison and flown to Spain (then ruled by Francisco Franco). The hijackers served a short prison sentence and Barešić was later acquitted of any involvement in the hijacking and was released from Spanish custody after 19 months. During these 19 months, the Swedish authorities made no request to Spain for his extradition, despite the two countries having an extradition treaty with one another. After his release, the Spanish and Paraguayan governments agreed that Barešić's life was in danger by the UDBA and arranged for Barešić to fly to Paraguay, where he was given a new identity, Toni Sarić.

Life in Paraguay

His new identity in Paraguay was Toni Saric. Under that name he joined the Paraguay armed forces and rose to become a captain. Barešić was a close combat trainer and a professional karate athlete. He was later employed by the Paraguayan foreign service as the bodyguard for the Paraguayan ambassador to the USA in Washington, D.C.

Sources are conflicted as to how his real identity was discovered. Some say that Barešić was part of an extortion ring that targeted Yugoslav immigrants; others say that he demanded that a Croatian flag should be raised during the medal ceremony of a karate competition that he had won.^{[citation needed]}

After his identity was discovered he was convicted by the American authorities for several offenses and deported to Sweden to serve the remainder of his life sentence there. In the Swedish book about the Swedish serial killer John Ausonius, who shot 11 immigrants, called "Lasermannen" it is stated that during his time in jail he met John Ausonius, who saw Barešić as a role model and could listen to Barešić telling stories about his life for hours.

Barešić's act of murder came in a time during the 1970s when many Yugoslavian immigrants lived in Sweden, and many of them in fear of the exiled Ustasa-movement that had a network of Croatian terrorist groups and people in Europe. One example of one of these groups is the Hrvatski narodni odpor (Croatian National Resistance) who were created- and led by Maks Luburić himself, a World War II war criminal who was the commandant of the Jasenovac concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia. In Sweden a series of death threats and acts of terror against Yugoslavian immigrants had been committed by people associated with these post-World War II Ustasa-movements after World War II who were telling the police and the media that they were Ustashas who were going to kill Olof Palme and communists, blow up Yugoslavian clubs and government buildings with bombs^{[citation needed]}, therefore Barešić also got extremely much attention in the Swedish media during the time of his murder of the Yugoslav ambassador. The fact that his act of terror was the first in Sweden ever committed by a person of non-Swedish background also made it into the headlines in the media.

Barešić was released in 1988 and returned to Paraguay.

Death

When the civil war started in Yugoslavia in 1991, Barešić returned to Croatia from Paraguay. He was killed in fighting with Serb forces in July the same year, at the age of 40.

References

1. ^ Hrvatska Politička Emigracija I Hrvatska Država
2. ^ Paraguay Accepts Terrorist and Stir Is Minor - New York Times
3. ^ http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2007-0403-200232/c3.pdf

External links

• Dagens Nyheter (Swedish)
• New York Times

Persondata
Name	Baresic, Miro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 10, 1950
Place of birth	Šibenik, Croatia
Date of death	July 31, 1991
Place of death	Croatia