Franjo Tuđman

Franjo Tuđman 14 May 1922 10 December 1999 was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia from 1990 until his death in 1999 He served following the countrys independence from Yugoslavia Tuđman also was the ninth and last president of the Presidency of SR Croatia from May to July 1990 Tuđman was born in Veliko Trgovišće In his youth he fought during World War II as a member of the Yugoslav Partisans After the war he took a post in the Ministry of Defence later attaining the rank of major general of the Yugoslav Peoples Army in 1960 After his military career he dedicated himself to the study of geopolitics In 1963 he became a professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences He received a doctorate in history in 1965 and worked as a historian until coming into conflict with the regime Tuđman participated in the Croatian Spring movement that called for reforms in the country and was imprisoned for his activities in 1972 He lived relatively anonymously in the following years until the end of communism whereupon he began his political career by founding the Croatian Democratic Union HDZ in 1989 HDZ won the first Croatian parliamentary elections in 1990 and Tuđman became the President of the Presidency of SR Croatia As president Tuđman introduced a new constitution and pressed for the creation of an independent Croatia On 19 May 1991 an independence referendum was held which was approved by 93 percent of voters Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991 Areas with a Serb majority revolted backed by the Yugoslav Army and Tuđman led Croatia during its War of Independence A ceasefire was signed in 1992 but the war had spread into Bosnia and Herzegovina where Croats fought in an alliance with Bosniaks Their cooperation fell apart in late 1992 and Tuđmans government sided with HerzegBosnia during the CroatBosniak War a move that brought criticism from the international community In a final verdict of war crimes trial of former highranking officials of HercegBosnia the ICTY stated that Tuđman shared in their joint criminal enterprise goal of establishing an entity to reunite the Croatian people which was to be implemented through the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims However it did not find him guilty of any specific crimes In March 1994 he signed the Washington Agreement with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović that reallied Croats and Bosniaks In August 1995 he authorized a major offensive known as Operation Storm which effectively ended the war in Croatia In the same year he was one of the signatories of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War He was reelected president in 1992 and 1997 and remained in power until his death in 1999 While supporters point out his role in achieving Croatian independence critics have described his presidency as authoritarian Surveys after Tuđmans death have generally shown a high favorability rating among the Croatian public Description above from the Wikipedia article Franjo Tuđman licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia