Jelisić was born in 1968 in Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia.[4]: 66–67 a town that was at the time 40% Bosniaks. Born to a working mother, he was raised primarily by his grandmother, and he had a variety of Serb and Bosniak friends.[4]: 72 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.[5][4]: 73–75 After committing cheque fraud in Bosnia, he was imprisoned for several months.
Bosnian War
He was released in February 1992 with the opportunity to volunteer for Republika Srpska's war effort.[4]: 74 In May, Goran Jelisić arrived in Brčko.[4]: 74
During the war, Jelisić commanded the Luka camp, which was one of the most notorious prison camps during the Bosnian War.[5] It was located on the most important arterial road near Brčko in north Bosnia, which connected the two parts of Republika Srpska.[6] Jelisić later confessed his crimes during his trial as a war criminal at the Hague tribunal.[4]: 80 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.[7][8]
During Jelisić's trial, many witnesses came forward, describing other acts by him during the war. An old Bosniak friend of Jelisić's noted that Jelisić gave his wife money while he was in captivity to help her flee abroad. Another friend of Jelisić's 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 Bosniaks and non-Bosniaks friends before and during the war.[4]: 75 In his hometown of Bijeljina, Jelisić paid hospital costs for Bosniaks.[6]
He styled himself, and has been referred to in the media, as "Serb Adolf".[5]
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.[9][1] 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.[10] 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).[9] 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.[9]
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.[9]
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".[1] 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.[5]
In 1999, Jelisić pleaded guilty to the charges of crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war.[1] He was acquitted on the charge of genocide as the court did not believe the prosecution had proved this beyond reasonable doubt.[5] He was sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment. The same sentence was confirmed by the appeals chamber.[11] 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.[5] In 2001, the prosecution requested a retrial on Jelisić's dismissed charge of genocide, but an appeals court upheld his 40-year sentence.[12] 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.[1]
Jelisić's trial is considered important for setting a high standard of evidence for charges of genocide.[5] His was also significant for being one of only three people to admit to their crimes before the Hague tribunal (as of 2004).[4]: 80
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.[4]: 73
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.[7] 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.[8]
Memorial Plaque in the Zanatski Center
From 2023, the non-governmental agencyUDIK demands from the Brčko District authorities to place a memorial plaque in the Zanatski Center in Brčko. The photographs of the execution of two Bosniaks, Hajrudin Muzurović and Husein Kršo in that location on May 7, 1992, testified to the war crimes and ethnic cleansing of Brčko.[13][14]
On May 7, 2024, UDIK with the members of 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.[15][16]
^ abBecker, Jens (2004). "Just normal guys – The observations of Slavenka Drakulić from the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague". SEER: Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe. 7 (2): 163–165. ISSN1435-2869. JSTOR43294000.
