Ante Prkačin (born 14 November 1953) is a Croatian politician and businessman and a former general of the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council.
Ante Prkačin | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament | |
| Assumed office 22 July 2020 | |
| Constituency | District VII |
| In office 30 May 1990 – 27 January 2000 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 November 1953 Slavonski Brod, PR Croatia, Yugoslavia |
| Political party | Homeland Movement (2020-2023) |
| Other political affiliations | Croatian Christian Democratic Unionc/Croatian Democratic Party (1990–1991) New Croatia (1999–2000) Croatian party of rights(2011–2020) |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Croatia (1991) Herzeg-Bosnia (1992–1995) |
| Branch/service | Croatian Defence Forces Croatian Defence Council |
| Years of service | 1991–1995 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Unit | Croatian Defence Forces |
| Commands | Croatian Defence Forces |
| Battles/wars | Croatian War of Independence Bosnian War |
Biography
editPrkačin was born in Slavonski Brod, where he also studied at the Faculty of Economics, in addition to the Faculty of Petrochemistry in Sisak.
In 1989, as a Croatian nationalist, he joined the christian democratic Croatian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska stranka) and won a seat in the first assembly of the Croatian Parliament in the 1990 elections, when his party was aligned with the Coalition of People's Accord.[1]
In the late 1991, Prkačin moved to the Croatian Party of Rights. He soon became one of its representatives in Croatian Parliament, after the second Sabor election.[1]
In 1992, when the war escalated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prkačin took part as a leader of the HSP militia Croatian Defence Forces (Hrvatske obrambene snage, HOS) with the rank of general, and had close co-operation with government of Alija Izetbegović. In the fall of the same year, he was a member of the joint command of Croatian Defence Council and Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1]
After HOS was disbanded, Prkačin was commander of the defence of Posavina as HVO officer.
Upon his return to Croatia, he began to distance himself from Dobroslav Paraga and spent the rest of his time in the Sabor as independent representative. He left HSP in 1995.[1]
In October 1999, he founded a new party called New Croatia (Nova Hrvatska), and under its banner ran for Croatian President.[1] In the first round of the 2000 Croatian presidential election he won just 0.28% of the vote, finishing 7th, and was eliminated.
Prkačin managed to remain in public spotlight by often appearing in various talk shows and being involved in Croatian entertainment industry. In 2001 he tried acting and played the role of a priest in a movie Slow Surrender.[citation needed]
In 2004, Prkačin was briefly in the public spotlight after two of his friends engaged in an urban gunfight in Slavonski Brod because of a conflict between him and Mladen Kruljac, another officer from the Croatian war.[2]
In January 2009, Prkačin testified as a witness before a court in Sarajevo regarding the 1999 assassination of Jozo Leutar, the then-Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[3] Three months later, Ante Jelavić said Prkačin had implicated him and accused him of being a former member of Yugoslav secret service KOS.[4]
In August 2009, one Sakib Balić, a former HOS soldier, publicly accused Prkačin of commanding HOS units that participated in the Sijekovac killings, when numerous Serb civilians were killed in the village of Sijekovac near Bosanski Brod on 26 March 1992.[5] The same accusation was echoed by one Ane Mihajlović, a veteran from the Army of Republika Srpska, at the event in May 2010 when Ivo Josipović and Sulejman Tihić visited the site to pay respect to around fifty civilian victims of the March 1992 events.[6] Prkačin denied any connection to the killings in Sijekovac.[7] The site and the visit provoked some controversy in the Croatian public, with allegations of impropriety levelled against President Josipović and the authorities of Republika Srpska.[8]
In 2011 Prkačin returned to Croatian Party of Rights.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "Životopisi predsjedničkih kandidata - Ante Prkačin" (in Croatian). Croatian Radiotelevision. 2000-01-08. Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ Berislav Jelinić (2004-06-15). "Za pokolj je kriva policija jer se plaši Kruljca i Prkačina" [The police is to blame for the bloodshed because it fears Kruljac and Prkačin]. Nacional (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Prkačin u Sarajevu svjedočio o ubojicama Joze Leutara". Index.hr (in Croatian). 2009-01-29. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Razlozi otmice - Ante Jelavić: Prkačin je bivši KOS-ovac". T-portal.hr (in Croatian). 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Balić: "Ante Prkačin odgovoran za zločine nad srpskim civilima"". Srna/24sata.info (in Bosnian). 2009-08-27. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Hrvatski predsjednik dočekan pljeskom - Josipović odao počast ubijenim srpskim civilima". Novi list (in Croatian). 2010-05-30. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
Član Predsjedništva Saveza logoraša Republike Srpske Ane Mihajlović rekao je u izjavi novinarima [...] »Zločin su 26. ožujka 1992. godine počinili pripadnici Interventnog voda koji je bio u sastavu Armije BiH a sudjelovali su i pripadnici HOS-a predvođeni Antom Prkačinom kao i regularne snage Hrvatske vojske, koje su u Brod ušle 3. ožujka 1992. godine«
- ^ "Ante Prkačin "udario" po Sanaderu u BiH medijima". Index.hr (in Croatian). 20 August 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
- ^ "Posavljaci iz BiH mole hrvatskog predsjednika da se ne odlazi pokloniti pred spomenik u Sijekovcu kod Bosanskog Broda, jer smatraju da srpska strana krivotvori ratna događanja - Posavljaci Josipoviću - Ne idite u Bosansku Posavinu, Dodik će vas prevariti". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Croatian). 2010-05-29. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2010-06-02.