Martin Špegelj

Martin Špegelj (2011)

Martin Špegelj (born November 11, 1927 in Stari Gradac , Kingdom of Yugoslavia , † May 11, 2014 in Zagreb ) was Croatia's second defense minister , and later also inspector general of the Croatian army . Despite the difficulties of the Croatian War , he managed to build a powerful army. After some disagreements with the Croatian President Franjo Tuđmanhe resigned in 1992. At this point the war was frozen; Combat operations took place only sporadically. Špegelj was one of the few Croatian politicians who saw war as inevitable.

youth

Martin Špegelj was born in 1927 in the Slavonian town of Stari Gradac near the Hungarian border. He was a partisan soldier in World War II . So he ultimately became general of the 5th Brigade of the Yugoslav People's Army in the Zagreb district .

Špegelj videos

After Špegelj was seen on video recordings from October 1990 with a Yugoslav secret service agent , he had to resign in 1991. In this video, the defense minister spoke openly about the extermination and massacre of Serbs , called Slobodan Milošević a whore and mentioned several times the American support for Croatian independence through arms deliveries. He then fled to Austria.

Return to Croatia

In the run-up to the Croatian War, Špegelj returned to Croatia and supported the military leadership. When the 10-day war broke out in Slovenia , Špegelj demanded that the Yugoslav barracks in Croatia be attacked and the Slovenian army be helped. Tuđman, however, initially held back. As a result, Špegelj was demoted. A few months later, open war broke out between the JNA and the local Serbian forces on the one hand and Croatian units on the other.

literature

• Martin Špegelj: Sjećanje Vojnika (Memories of a Soldier), 2001
• Before Domazet: Hrvatska i Veliko Ratište (Croatia and the great battlefield)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Umro hrvatski general Martin Špegelj , Serbian , accessed on May 11, 2014
2. ↑ Video Špegelj (Serbian)