Goran Jelisić

Goran Jelisić (Template:Lang-sr-Cyrl; born 7 June 1968) is a Bosnian Serb soldier who was found guilty of having committed crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Luka camp in Brčko during the Bosnian War.<ref name="ICTY-CIS">Case Information Sheet: Goran Jelisić (IT-95-10), ICTY.org; accessed 27 April 2015.</ref>

Jelisić called himself the "Serb Adolf Hitler" and admitted that his "motivation and goal was to kill Muslims".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BI21">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1999, Jelisić pled guilty to sixteen counts of violating the customs of war and fifteen counts of crimes against humanity and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was acquitted of the charge of genocide as the court found that it had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt.<ref name="Butcher1999">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Biography

Jelisić was born in 1968 in Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia.<ref name="HurtFly2004">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp a town that was at the time 40% Bosniak. Born to a working mother, he was raised primarily by his grandmother, and he had a variety of Serb and Bosniak friends.<ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp Prior to the war, Jelisić worked as a farmhand and enjoyed fishing. During his trial, members of his fishing groups defended him as character witnesses.<ref name="Butcher1999"/><ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp

Bosnian War

He was released in February 1992 with the opportunity to volunteer for Republika Srpska's war effort.<ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp In May, Goran Jelisić arrived in Brčko.<ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp

During the war, Jelisić commanded the Luka camp, which was one of the most notorious prison camps during the Bosnian War.<ref name="Butcher1999"/> It was located on the most important arterial road near Brčko in north Bosnia, which connected the two parts of Republika Srpska.<ref name="JustNormalReview">Template:Cite journal</ref> Jelisić later confessed his crimes during his trial as a war criminal at the Hague tribunal.<ref name="HurtFly2004" />Template:Rp His wife, Monika Karan-Ilić (aka Monika Simeunović), was also found guilty of participating in torture, inhumane treatment and infliction of suffering on Bosniak and Croat civilians at Luka camp and Brčko police station in May and June 1992.<ref name="salon" /><ref name=":0" />

During Jelisić's trial, many witnesses came forward, describing other acts by him during the war. An old Bosniak friend of Jelisić noted that Jelisić gave his wife money while he was in captivity to help her flee abroad. Another friend described how he helped the friend's sister and her husband escape in a similar way. Others submitted similar testimony regarding Jelisić's acts to safeguard and help Bosniak and non-Bosniak friends before and during the war.<ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp In his hometown of Bijeljina, Jelisić paid hospital costs for Bosniaks.<ref name="JustNormalReview"/>

He styled himself, and has been referred to in the media, as the "Serb Adolf Hitler" and admitted that his "motivation and goal was to kill Muslims".<ref name="BI21" /><ref name="Butcher1999" />

Trial

On 22 January 1998, Jelisić was apprehended in Serb-dominated Bijeljina by Task Force Razorback—a joint CIA–DOD unit attached to Operation Amber Star.<ref name="UScapture">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=ICTY-CIS/> This was the culmination of a months-long intelligence operation (codenamed Operation Amber Light) led by Lt Col Rick Francona. The Navy SEAL team which executed the arrest was led by Ryan Zinke, who would later be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Jelisić's apartment was surrounded by U.S. forces, and he was taken without incident. This capture was the first performed by U.S. forces against a Bosnian war criminal (though U.S. forces had served as backup for Dutch and British forces in the previous year).<ref name="UScapture"/> After his capture, Jelisić was transferred to a U.S. base at Tuzla, taken into custody by an FBI Special Agent and flown to The Hague.<ref name="UScapture"/>

U.S. forces reported that the operation was planned in advance. The operation occurred during a week in which human rights groups were pressuring the Clinton administration to use U.S. troops to help detain some of the dozens of war criminals still at large.<ref name="UScapture"/>

Jelisić faced trial for one count of genocide, sixteen counts of violating the customs of war and fifteen counts of crimes against humanity in relation to his involvement in the inhumane treatment and systematic killing of detainees at the Luka camp, where he was alleged to have, every day, "entered Luka's main hangar, where most detainees were kept, selected detainees for interrogation, beat them and then often shot and killed them".<ref name=ICTY-CIS/> A specific instance of this type of allegation is that Jelisić beat an elderly Bosniak man to death with a metal pipe, a shovel, and a wooden stick.<ref name="Butcher1999"/>

In 1999, Jelisić pleaded guilty to the charges of crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war.<ref name=ICTY-CIS/> He was acquitted on the charge of genocide as the court did not believe the prosecution had proved this beyond reasonable doubt.<ref name="Butcher1999"/> He was sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment. The same sentence was confirmed by the appeals chamber.<ref>Goran Jelisić acquitted of genocide and found guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war Press release, The Hague, 19 October 1999 JL/P.I.S./441-E.</ref> The sentence was at that time the most severe given by the Hague, superseding the 20-year ruling against Duško Tadić. The court also suggested Jelisić receive psychiatric treatment.<ref name="Butcher1999"/> In 2001, the prosecution requested a retrial on Jelisić's dismissed charge of genocide, but an appeals court upheld his 40-year sentence.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 29 May 2003, Jelisić was transferred to Italy to serve the remainder of his sentence with credit for time served since his 1998 arrest.<ref name=ICTY-CIS/>

Jelisić's trial is considered important for setting a high standard of evidence for charges of genocide.<ref name="Butcher1999" /> Olaf Jenssen, of the University of Leicester, argued that the court set an unreasonably high standard of evidence for proving genocidal intent – so high, that even some of the perpetrators of the Holocaust would be found not guilty of genocide by court's standards.<ref name="Jensen_Jelisic">Template:Cite journal</ref> He was also significant for being one of only three people to admit to their crimes before the Hague tribunal (as of 2004).<ref name="HurtFly2004" />Template:Rp

Jelisić later attended the war crimes trial of Esad Landžo, a Bosniak who committed war crimes against Serbs at the Čelebići camp. He provided a passionate character witness in defense of the Bosniak, noting how Landžo had aided other prisoners in the prison at The Hague.<ref name="HurtFly2004"/>Template:Rp

In 2017, Jelisić was denied early release. A second appeal for early release filed in 2021 after he had served two-thirds of his sentence was also rejected.<ref name="BI21" />

Personal life

Flowers laid for the victims of Goran Jelisić at the Zanatski Center in Brčko, May 2024.

On 21 December 2011, his wife, Monika Karan-Ilić (aka Monika Simeunović), was detained on suspicion of having committed war crimes against non-Serbs at the Luka camp.<ref name=salon>Template:Cite news</ref> A native of Brčko, she was found guilty of having participated in torture, inhumane treatment and infliction of suffering on Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Luka camp and Brčko police station between May and June 1992, when she was a teenager. Her sentence was reduced to two-and-a-half years of prison in 2013.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She died on 21 August 2021 in a car accident.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Memorial

Since 2023, the non-governmental agency UDIK has demanded that Brčko District authorities place a memorial plaque in the Zanatski Center in Brčko commemorating Jelisić's execution of two Muslims at the site, Hajrudin Muzurović and Husein Kršo, on 7 May 1992. According to the organization, photographs of the victims would testify to the war crimes and ethnic cleansing of Brčko.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 7 May 2024, UDIK with the members of the Muzurović and Kršo families laid flowers at the place of the murder. It was the first commemoration held in street of Zanatski Center in Brčko which Goran Jelisić used as an execution ground.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The following year, UDIK published an obituary in Oslobođenje dedicated to victims with the message that the crime scene was not marked.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>