Blagoje Adžić

Blagoje Adžić (Serbian Cyrillic: Благоје Аџић; 2 September 1932 – 1 March 2012) was the acting minister of defence in the Yugoslav government. He was of Serbian ethnicity. Although his rank was Colonel General, he was in charge of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) after the resignation of Veljko Kadijević in 1992. He held office from 29 September 1989 until 8 May 1992, when he resigned. He was succeeded by Života Panić.^[1]

Adžić was born near Gacko, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a child, he witnessed (while hidden in a tree) the slaughter of his entire family by Ustasha forces rampaging through his village.^[2]

After his third year in industrial school, he graduated from officer training school in 1953. After he had graduated, he also received a diploma in foreign languages from the JNA military school. He traveled to the Soviet Union and graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy in 1969, and then graduated from military academy in 1973. Adžić then graduated from the People's Defence School in 1987. He held a number of posts in the JNA including commander of the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 4th Proletariat Infantry Regiment, commander of the 25th and 26th Infantry Division and commander of 52nd Corps. He served ten other smaller posts all throughout his military career.

He became Deputy Commander of the 7th Army in 1986 and held that position until 1987, when he was promoted to Lieutenant General. He held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff in Yugoslav Army Headquarters until 1989 when he was promoted to Colonel General. According to Marko Hoare, a former employee at the ICTY, an investigative team worked on indictments of persons whom they labelled a 'joint criminal enterprise', including Adžić, Slobodan Milošević, Veljko Kadijević, Borisav Jović, Branko Kostić, Momir Bulatović and others. Hoare claims that, due to Carla del Ponte's intervention, these drafts were rejected, and the indictment limited to Milošević alone, as a result of which most of these individuals were never indicted.^[3] Adžić died on March 2012, aged 79, in Belgrade.

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