Mate Boban
Encyclopedia
Mate Boban was a Bosnian Croat politician and the only president of the short lived and self proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
that existed between 1991−1994 during the Bosnian war
.
in the Municipality of Grude
in Herzegovina
. He finished elementary school in Sovići and later he attended seminary in Sinj
and gymnasium in Đakovo. In 1958 right after he became an adult, Boban joined League of Communists of Yugoslavia
and after that he attended Higher College of Economics in Zagreb
where he became a master of science. He was retiring and unambitious, and his students remember that he always emphasized the Communist Party badge on his suit. After shorter work in Grude, he employed in Imotski
in 1966 where he was leader of trading company "Napredak", which becomes very successful under his leadership.
In 1980 he was jailed in Split because of economic frauds, even though he claimed during 1990s that he was imprisoned because of his nationalism and political ineligibility. His political associates also lied that he was imprisoned because of nationalism, more correctly because he visited grave of Ante Pavelić
in Madrid. At the end of 1980s he was director of Tobacco Factory Zagreb.
The most loyal Boban's associates were also former Communist Party members. Vladimir Šoljić was party secretary in Široki Brijeg
, Valentin Ćorić in Čitluk
, Pero Marković in Čapljina
, Branko Kvesić was investigative judge in Mostar who was known for imprisoning kids for singing Ustaše
songs, Bruno Stojić was also member of the Communist Party, while Jadranko Prlić
was vice-president of the last communist government.
On November 12, 1991, Mate Boban and Dario Kordić
held the Joint Meeting of the Crisis Staffs of Herzegovina and Travnik Regional Communities. The two communities decided that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina should institute a policy to bring about "our age-old dream, a common Croatian State" and should call for a proclamation of a Croatian banovina
in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the "initial phase leading towards the final solution of the Croation question and the creation of sovereign Croatia within its ethnic and historical borders".
On November 18, 1991, Boban proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole", on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was in line with Karađorđevo agreement
between Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Serbia
n president Slobodan Milošević
(then of Yugoslavia) to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia.
Boban met with Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadžić
during May 1992 in Graz
, Austria
where they agreed on mutual cooperation in the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina that became known as the Graz agreement
(the pair met again on September 2, 1993 in Montenegro
in order to coordinate their actions after the Bosniaks
rejected the Vance-Owen peace plan). Boban said "the Serbs are our brothers in Christ, but the Muslims are nothing to us, apart from the fact that for hundreds of years they raped our mothers and sisters."
The deal called for the Serbs to aid the Croats in defeating the Bosniaks and carving a piece of Bosnia and Herzegovina and incorporating it into Croatia. Tensions mounted from June 1992 until early 1993. After many provocations and hostile acts by Croats, open warfare broke out in April 1993 between Croats and Bosniaks. The Croat militia, the HVO, attacked and expelled Bosniaks all over central and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, all the while they committed many atrocities against civilians. Examples of this include the massacres in Stupni Do
and Ahmići
. By early 1994 the tide was turning against the Croats. he US forced a peace treaty, known as the Washington Accords, which was signed in March 1994. Subsequently Pope John Paul II and the US government forced the ouster of Boban.
Boban ordered the assassination of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats who opposed his plans. The most well known were Stjepan Kljuić
, Blaž Kraljević
and Tomislav Dretar
. Kraljević was lured to a meeting on August 9, 1992 and was assassinated along with eight of his deputies. Dretar survived assassination attempts but was isolated in the Bihać
enclave throughout the war and as such could not oppose Boban effectively. Stjepan Kljuić remained opposed to Boban for the duration of the war.
and died three days later at a hospital in Mostar
. His funeral attracted no foreign dignitaries, but did attract many like minded Croats such as Gojko Šušak
. There are persistent but unproven rumors that his death was faked to avoid being tried for war crimes.
A street in downtown Grude was named after him. Memorial plaque in his honor and Herzeg Bosnia was placed also in the same street in Grude.
A street named after him are also Kupres, Čapljina, Livno
, Posušje
, Ljubuški and some other places with Croatian ethnic majority.
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia was an unrecognised entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina that existed between 1991 and 1994 during the Bosnian war. It was proclaimed on November 18, 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, and claimed to be a separate or distinct "political,...
that existed between 1991−1994 during the Bosnian war
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
.
Pre-war life
Mata Boban was born on 12 February 1940 in a large family in SovićiSovici
Gorica is a village in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is in the West Herzegovina Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is part of the Grude municipality....
in the Municipality of Grude
Grude
Grude is a town and municipality in western Bosnia and Herzegovina.- Geography :Grude is 49 kilometers from Mostar,19 kilometers from Imotski, and 100 km from Split....
in Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
. He finished elementary school in Sovići and later he attended seminary in Sinj
Sinj
Sinj is a town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The town itself has a population of 11,448, while the population of the administrative municipality which includes surrounding villages is 24,832 ....
and gymnasium in Đakovo. In 1958 right after he became an adult, Boban joined League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
and after that he attended Higher College of Economics in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
where he became a master of science. He was retiring and unambitious, and his students remember that he always emphasized the Communist Party badge on his suit. After shorter work in Grude, he employed in Imotski
Imotski
Imotski , is a small town situated on the northern side of Biokovo massif, Dalmatian hinterland, Croatia. The town was first mentioned as Imotski for the first time in the 10th century and it was held by the Turks from the fall of Bosnia until 1717 when it was captured by the Venetians. The town...
in 1966 where he was leader of trading company "Napredak", which becomes very successful under his leadership.
In 1980 he was jailed in Split because of economic frauds, even though he claimed during 1990s that he was imprisoned because of his nationalism and political ineligibility. His political associates also lied that he was imprisoned because of nationalism, more correctly because he visited grave of Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
in Madrid. At the end of 1980s he was director of Tobacco Factory Zagreb.
War in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The most loyal Boban's associates were also former Communist Party members. Vladimir Šoljić was party secretary in Široki Brijeg
Široki Brijeg
-Name:The name of the city means "the wide hill" in Croatian . The city is also sometime referred to as "Široki Brig" and among the inhabitants of Herzegovina simply as "Široki" . Between 1945 and 1990, the name was officially Lištica, after the river that flows through it.-Geography:The river...
, Valentin Ćorić in Čitluk
Citluk
Čitluk is a town and municipality located in Herzegovina, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a municipality of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Pero Marković in Čapljina
Capljina
Čapljina is a town and municipality of the same name in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Čapljina is located on the border with Croatia a mere from the Adriatic Sea....
, Branko Kvesić was investigative judge in Mostar who was known for imprisoning kids for singing Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
songs, Bruno Stojić was also member of the Communist Party, while Jadranko Prlić
Jadranko Prlic
Jadranko Prlić is a Croatian politician who is among six accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia , in relation to the joint criminal enterprise which included mass war crimes and ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Muslim population.-History:Son of Mile, was born on...
was vice-president of the last communist government.
On November 12, 1991, Mate Boban and Dario Kordić
Dario Kordic
Dario Kordić is a former Bosnian Croat politician, military commander of the HVO forces between 1992 and 1994, and vice president of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia...
held the Joint Meeting of the Crisis Staffs of Herzegovina and Travnik Regional Communities. The two communities decided that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina should institute a policy to bring about "our age-old dream, a common Croatian State" and should call for a proclamation of a Croatian banovina
Banovina of Croatia
The Banovina of Croatia or Banate of Croatia was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1939 and 1943 . Its capital was at Zagreb and it included most of present-day Croatia along with portions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia...
in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the "initial phase leading towards the final solution of the Croation question and the creation of sovereign Croatia within its ethnic and historical borders".
On November 18, 1991, Boban proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole", on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was in line with Karađorđevo agreement
Karađorđevo agreement
In 1991, Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević had a series of discussions which became known as the Karađorđevo agreement or, less commonly, the Karađorđevo meeting. These discussions commenced as early as March, 1991...
between Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n president Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
(then of Yugoslavia) to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia.
Boban met with Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
during May 1992 in Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
where they agreed on mutual cooperation in the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina that became known as the Graz agreement
Graz agreement
The Graz agreement was a partition agreement signed between Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić and Bosnian Croat leader Mate Boban on 6 May 1992 in the town of Graz, Austria. The agreement was meant to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina between Republika Srpska and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia...
(the pair met again on September 2, 1993 in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
in order to coordinate their actions after the Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
rejected the Vance-Owen peace plan). Boban said "the Serbs are our brothers in Christ, but the Muslims are nothing to us, apart from the fact that for hundreds of years they raped our mothers and sisters."
The deal called for the Serbs to aid the Croats in defeating the Bosniaks and carving a piece of Bosnia and Herzegovina and incorporating it into Croatia. Tensions mounted from June 1992 until early 1993. After many provocations and hostile acts by Croats, open warfare broke out in April 1993 between Croats and Bosniaks. The Croat militia, the HVO, attacked and expelled Bosniaks all over central and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, all the while they committed many atrocities against civilians. Examples of this include the massacres in Stupni Do
Stupni Do
Stupni Do is a village in the municipality of Vareš in central Bosnia and Herzegovina It is located 3 km southeast of the city of Vareš. This small village has only received notoriety because of the atrocity committed there during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and...
and Ahmići
Ahmici massacre
Ahmići massacre was the culmination of the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing committed by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership on Bosniak civilians during the Croat-Bosniak war in April 1993...
. By early 1994 the tide was turning against the Croats. he US forced a peace treaty, known as the Washington Accords, which was signed in March 1994. Subsequently Pope John Paul II and the US government forced the ouster of Boban.
Boban ordered the assassination of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats who opposed his plans. The most well known were Stjepan Kljuić
Stjepan Kljuic
Stjepan Kljuić is a Bosnian Croat politician and academic who has been an active participant in Bosnian politics since Bosnian independence.-Career:...
, Blaž Kraljević
Blaž Kraljevic
Blaž Nikola Kraljević was a Bosnian Croat paramilitary leader during the first few months of the Bosnian War who commanded the Croatian Defence Forces...
and Tomislav Dretar
Tomislav Dretar
Tomislav Dretar is a Croatian, Bosnian, French and Belgian poet, writer, critic, and translator, as well as an academic, journalist, editor, political leader and president of Bihać's HVO...
. Kraljević was lured to a meeting on August 9, 1992 and was assassinated along with eight of his deputies. Dretar survived assassination attempts but was isolated in the Bihać
Bihac
Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. Bihać is located in the Una-Sana Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...
enclave throughout the war and as such could not oppose Boban effectively. Stjepan Kljuić remained opposed to Boban for the duration of the war.
Post war life and death
After the Washington accords ended Herzeg-Bosnia Boban went into retirement. On July 4, 1997 he had a strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
and died three days later at a hospital in Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
. His funeral attracted no foreign dignitaries, but did attract many like minded Croats such as Gojko Šušak
Gojko Šušak
Gojko Šušak was the Croatian Minister of Defence from 1991 to 1998. A Bosnian Croat emigreé to Canada, he entered the political life of Croat diaspora in North America, subsequently becoming a close friend and associate to Franjo Tuđman, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union, a nationalistic...
. There are persistent but unproven rumors that his death was faked to avoid being tried for war crimes.
A street in downtown Grude was named after him. Memorial plaque in his honor and Herzeg Bosnia was placed also in the same street in Grude.
A street named after him are also Kupres, Čapljina, Livno
Livno
Livno is a town in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located between Tomislavgrad, Glamoč, Bosansko Grahovo, Kupres and the Croatian border.- Position :...
, Posušje
Posušje
Posušje is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the West Herzegovina Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity.-Name:...
, Ljubuški and some other places with Croatian ethnic majority.