Dragoljub Ojdanić


Dragoljub Ojdanić is the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia and Minister of Defence of Yugoslavia. He was convicted of deportation and forcible transfers of Kosovo Albanians by the ICTY.

Education and career

In 1958, Ojdanić studied at the Yugoslav military academy and graduated in 1964. He was deputy commander of the 37th Corps, with command in Užice. He was promoted to Major General on 20 April 1992 and he became the commander of Užice korpus. Under his command, the Užice Corps was deployed in military operations in eastern Bosnia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He served as Chief of the General Staff First Army of FRY in 1993 and 1994. From 1994–96 he was commander of the First Army. In 1996 he became deputy commander Chief of the General Staff. In 1998 Slobodan Milošević placed Ojdanić as a Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army. He was also a Chief of General Staff during NATO's Operation Allied Force. In February 2000 after the death of defence minister Pavle Bulatović, he was made defence minister of Yugoslavia and promoted to General of the Army.

ICTY trial and sentence

On 25 April 2002, Ojdanić was transferred by the Yugoslav government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Ojdanić was allowed to attend Milošević's funeral after his death on 11 March 2006. On 26 February 2009, the ICTY sentenced Ojdanić to 15 years in prison, following a conviction for deportation and forcible transfers of Kosovo Albanians.
On 27 May 2009, Ojdanić's case was appealed. Ojdanić's co-counsel on appeal is Peter Robinson of the United States. In January 2013, Ojdanić, publicly admitted his participation in war crimes against Kosovo Albanians and withdrew the appeal against his conviction. In August 2013, Ojdanić was granted early release and has since lived in Serbia.