Name Mile Mrksic | ||
 | ||
Born 1 May 1947
Vrginmost, Yugoslavia ( 1947-05-01 ) Died 16 August 2015(2015-08-16) (aged 68)
Lisbon, Portugal Allegiance Yugoslavia
Serbian Krajina
FR Yugoslavia Service/branch Yugoslav People\'s Army
Military of Serbian Krajina
Military of FR Yugoslavia Rank Lieutenant Colonel,
General Unit 1st Motorized Guards Brigade Commands held Commander of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Army | ||
Mile mrk i preminuo u zatvoru
Mile Mrkšić (Serbian: Миле Мркшић; 1 May 1947 – 16 August 2015) was a Serb Colonel of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in charge of the unit involved in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. He was convicted for not preventing the mass killing of 264 Croats that followed the fall of Vukovar, and sentenced to 20 years.
Contents
Biography
After the battle of Vukovar, he was promoted to General in the JNA and later Commander in Chief of the Military of Serbian Krajina (SVK) in May 1995. After the fall of Krajina in August 1995, he was denied entry into Serbia for a while since many blamed him for the military defeat. At one point he was placed under house arrest, sent into early retirement and ended up selling produce at a green market.
Mrkšić was indicted in 1995, along with Miroslav Radić, Veselin Šljivančanin and Slavko Dokmanović, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Dokmanović later committed suicide. Mrkšić voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY on 15 May 2002, and was transferred to the court the same day. The trial against him commenced in October 2005 and ended proceedings in 2007, where he was convicted.
Charges
On 27 September 2007, the Trial Chamber found Mrkšić guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of civilians and prisoners of war at Ovčara, aiding and abetting their torture, and aiding and abetting the cruel treatment given there. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. The verdicts caused indignation in Croatia, which had hoped for far more severe sentences. State-run radio called the outcome "shocking", while the Croatian prime minister said the verdicts were "shameful".
Sentence
In August 2012, Mrkšić was sentenced to 20 years in prison to be served in the high security prison of Monsanto (in Portugal) for the charges upon which he was convicted. He died three years later on 16 August 2015, aged 68.
