Ivan Stambolić

Ivan Stambolić (1986)

Ivan Stambolić ( Cyrillic  Иван Стамболић ; born November 5, 1936 in Brezova , † August 25, 2000 in Zmajevac ) was a Yugoslav politician. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was, among other things, Prime Minister and later President of the Socialist Republic of Serbia as well as party leader of the Union of Communists of Serbia . Before the elections in September 2000, Stambolić , who was once a friend and later rival of Slobodan Milošević, was kidnapped by members of the notorious “ Red Berets ” unit and later murdered.

Stambolić had been friends with the later President Slobodan Milošević since his student days. Both achieved high positions in the Serbian economy and were politically active. Stambolić was the first to switch full-time into politics and was Prime Minister of Serbia from 1975 to 1979. From 1982 he was party leader of Belgrade and from 1984 of the Serbian republic. The split from Milošević began when Stambolić took over the presidency of Serbia in 1986. Milošević seized power in 1987, Stambolić was deported to a director's post. In the 1990s he was one of the few prominent Serbs who took steps towards reconciliation with the war opponents in the Balkan conflict and the democratization of Serbia.

Stambolić was kidnapped on August 25, 2000 near his home. At this time, presidential elections were due, which Milošević hoped to win, but which instead would cost him his office and a little later his freedom. Stambolić's body was only discovered in March 2003. A few weeks earlier, the winner of the 2001 elections and Milošević's successor, Zoran Đinđić , had been murdered. Both acts are attributed to members of the special unit "Red Berets" and are said to have been covered by intelligence circles. The accusation that Milošević himself ordered the murder or kidnapping persist and a corresponding complaint was filed. In July 2005, a Serbian court sentenced seven members of the unit, including Milorad "Legija" Luković and the chief secret service officer in charge, Radomir Marković , to terms of between four years and life in prison .

Web links

Commons : Ivan Stambolić  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ian Traynor: Obituary: Ivan Stambolic. In: The Guardian , April 1, 2003 (English, obituary).