Milan Martic (18 November 1954-) was President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina from 26 January 1994 to 7 August 1995, succeeding Goran Hadzic.
Biography[]
Milan Martic was born in Knin, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia in 1954 to a family of Serbs, and he became a policeman in his hometown. At the time of Croatia's declaration of independence on 25 July 1991, Martic was the police chief of Knin, and he refused to wear the same uniforms that the fascist Ustase had worn during World War II, or be loyal to the fascist checkerboard flag. Instead, he became a local Serb leader, organizing a militia force to rebel against Croatia. During the 1993 Serbian Krajina presidential election, Martic was supported by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, and he won the election. On 15 May 2002, he surrendered to the ICTY war crimes tribunal, and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2007 for forcibly removing, deporting, or killing the non-Serbs of Krajina.