Mate Boban
Mate Boban (* 12. February 1940 in Sovici to Grude , Kingdom of Yugoslavia , † 7. July 1997 in Mostar , Bosnia and Herzegovina ) was a leading politician of the Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Bosnian war . As co-founder and party leader of the Croatian Democratic Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) and an ally of the Croatian President Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999), he was President of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna . He was considered a hardliner and extremely nationalist .
Life
Pre-war period
At the age of 18 he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPJ) . Boban received a higher education in economics as well as important positions in Yugoslav state companies and local party bodies. The trained economist was considered a subservient citizen of the communist state apparatus and an informant for the UDBA , the Yugoslav secret service. Even then, he was influencing people in Bosnia through his gift for speech. But he was against the idea of the multicultural state and preferred a separation of ethnic groups according to ethnicity and religion in clearly structured territories. In his view, the Croatian territory should include central Bosnia , the Posavina region and the western part of Herzegovina . Because of embezzlement, according to his account because of his Croatian national attitude, he came into conflict with the communist regime.
Wartime
With the collapse of Yugoslavia , when the multi-party system and free elections took hold and the Bosnian War broke out a little later , he headed the Bosnian HDZ (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica, Croatian Democratic Community), a center-right party. The HDZ , active in Croatia, was the ruling party in Croatia and supported its Bosnian party colleagues. Boban's radicalization during the war and the idea of a Para-Republic of Herceg-Bosna or even an annexation to Croatia put a strain on relations with the Bosniaks . Early on, he saw a split between the Croatian military forces and the Bosniaks as essential. In 1992 the Serbian offensive on Kupres was successfully repulsed by Croatian and Bosniak troops with the support of Franjo Tuđman , the then President of Croatia. On May 6, 1992, Boban met with Radovan Karadžić , the then political leader of the Serbian para-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to divide the country into two territories. The meeting remained fruitless due to international pressure. In the Croatian Republic within Bosnia-Herzegovina he also had opponents, the supporters of Stjepan Kljujić . These did not see themselves as Croats living in Bosnia, but as Catholics living in Bosnia. These groups therefore felt obliged to Sarajevo and not to Mostar.
post war period
Mate Boban reached an agreement on a federation of Croats and Bosniaks with the leader of the Bosniaks Alija Izetbegović . The two signed the UN peace plan on March 25, 1993. During the negotiations on the Washington Agreement for the establishment of the Bosnian-Croatian Federation in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Boban had to resign from his position as chairman on December 20, 1993 at the meeting of the central committee of the HDZ BiH . However, Boban remained in control informally until his death. The signing of the Washington Agreement on March 2, 1994 led to the ceasefire in the Croatian-Bosniak War . The structures of the Herceg-Bosna Republic were retained for a longer period of time, but Boban's influence steadily declined after the Dayton Agreement , which marked the end of the Bosnian War. Some politicians, who with him formed the cabinet of the government of the state, were convicted by the Hague War Crimes Tribunal because they were attributed to the evictions of non-Croatian civilians on what was then the territory of the republic. At the age of 57, Mate Boban suffered a stroke on July 4, 1997 and died three days later in a hospital in Mostar.
Web links
literature
- Paul R. Bartrop: Mate Boban (1940-1997) . In: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good . ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38679-4 , pp. 43 f .
Individual evidence
- ^ Norman M. Naimark: Flaming Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in the 20th Century . CH Beck, Munich 2004, p. 214 .
- ↑ Chris Hedges: Mate Boban , New York Times , July 8, 1997
- ↑ Zitomislici ( July 13, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), Haverford University, undated
- ^ Chronicle 1993 , German Historical Museum
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Boban, mate |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bosnian-Herzegovinian politician, President of the Republic of Herceg-Bosna |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1940 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sovići |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 7, 1997 |
| Place of death | Mostar |