Name Aco Apolonio | ||
Aleksandar "Aco" Apolonio (sometimes written Apolonijo) was a Yugoslav lawyer in Dubrovnik who gained brief notoriety during the Siege of Dubrovnik in the Croatian War of Independence, during which he proclaimed the Dubrovnik Republic, an autonomist state.
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Early life
Apolonio was born 11 November 1916 in Kamenari near Herceg-Novi, son of Virgilio, an Istrian Italian from Piran, and Marica Sukovic from Dubrovnik.
War in Croatia
Apolonio was the President of the self-declared Dubrovnik Republic founded in October 1991. Apolonio was a resident of Dubrovnik and in the past had served as a public prosecutor there. As a leader of the Autonomist Movement in Dubrovnik, he was condemned and sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Croatian government. He fled to Cavtat and created the Dubrovnik Republic with others refugees from Dubrovnik.
ICTY and death
During the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the ICTY, a witness had described Apolonio as a Croat, but the Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj said as a witness that Apolonio was a "Catholic Serb" (see Serbs in Dubrovnik). Apolonio only described himself as "Ragusan".
He died in Belgrade, and was buried in his hometown.