Rahim Ademi

Rahim Ademi (born January 30, 1954) is Croatian Army general of Kosovo-Albanian origin.

Related Topics:
January 30 - 1954 - Croatia - General - Kosovo - Albanian

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Born and raised in the village of Kara?, Vu?itrn municipality of Kosovo, Rahim Ademi finished the Yugoslav military academy in Belgrade in 1976 and was assigned to a station in Rogoznica near ?ibenik in Croatia, where he got married and had two children.

Related Topics:
Vu?itrn - Kosovo - Yugoslav - 1976 - ?ibenik

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In 1986, the Military Court in Sarajevo convicted him of counterrevolutionary acts and Albanian irredentism, but after serving a year and a half in jail, the Supreme Military Court agreed with his appeal and acquitted him. He would spend the next years serving as an officer in Sinj until 1990 when the war in Croatia was starting and he deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army in order to help create Croatian army formations in that part of the country.

Related Topics:
1986 - Sarajevo - Irredentism - Sinj - 1990 - Yugoslav People's Army

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He officially joined the Ministry of the Interior in 1990 and later became part of the Croatian Army forces. In 1993 he was assigned to the post of the subcommander of the Gospi? military district, but was relieved of duty later in the year, after the infamous Medak pocket operation.

Related Topics:
Ministry of the Interior - Croatian Army forces - 1993 - Gospi? - Medak pocket

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Ademi later served as a subcommander of the Split military district and was promoted to brigadier general for his achievements in Operation Storm in 1995. He remained there until 1999 when he was reassigned to the post of the Assistant Chief Inspector of the Armed Forces in Zagreb.

Related Topics:
Split - Brigadier general - Operation Storm - 1995 - 1999 - Zagreb

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In 2001 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia finally indicted Ademi for crimes against humanity (ethnic cleansing) committed against the Krajina Serbs in the aforementioned Medak pocket operation. He was in the custody of the Court but was later allowed to prepare his defence free.

Related Topics:
2001 - International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - Ethnic cleansing - Krajina - Serbs

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Ademi claims that the Croatian government, under pressure from the international community, relieved him of duty in Gospi? in 1993 in order to make him a scapegoat, rather than implicating actual commanding officers Janko Bobetko, Mirko Norac and Mladen Marka?.

Related Topics:
Janko Bobetko - Mirko Norac - Mladen Marka?

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He also claims that the Tribunal prosecution wanted him for questioning as far back as 1998 but that the government never allowed him to answer their questions. He is convinced that he is being sacrificed because of his Albanian descent.

Related Topics:
1998 - Albanian

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