Terrorism in Yugoslavia


This article includes information on terrorist acts and groups in or against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Federal Yugoslavia. Many of the terrorist acts were carried out outside Yugoslavia against Yugoslav subjects. The post-war period until circa 1985 was marked by frequent terrorist attacks on Yugoslav institutions organized by extremist emigrant organizations. Between 1962 and 1982, they carried out 128 terrorist attacks against Yugoslav civilian and military targets.

Socialist Yugoslavia

Ustaše terrorism

Ustaše terrorism continued over the years after Ante Pavelić's death. The Croatian Liberation Movement conducted several assassinations and attacks on Yugoslav diplomacy and JAT representations in Australia. Between 1962 and 1982, Croatian nationalists carried out 128 terror attacks against Yugoslav civilian and military targets. Croat fascist and HSO member Miljenko Hrkać carried out the bombing of a Belgrade cinema in September 1968, leaving one dead and 85 wounded. In 1969, two Yugoslav diplomats in Western Germany were shot and wounded by Ustaše assassins. In 1970, Yugoslav secretary Vladimir Rolović handed over information on Ustaše and their involvement in terrorist actions to the Australian government. The following year, two Ustaše youngsters murdered Rolović while he was the ambassador to Sweden. In January 1972 a JAT plane was bombed allegedly by Croatian ultranationalist agents, killing everyone on board except for one survivor, Vesna Vulović. The crackdown on the Croatian leadership led to heightened anti-Yugoslav activity by Croat emigrant groups. On 29 March 1972 a Yugoslav tourist office was bombed in Stockholm. The last members of the Bugojno group were captured, tried and sentenced on 21 December 1972.

Chetnik terrorism

In 1975, Nikola Kavaja, a diaspora Chetnik-sympathizer living in Chicago and belonging to the Serbian National Defense Council, was responsible for the bombing of a Yugoslav consul's home, the first in a series of attacks targeting the Yugoslav state in the United States and Canada. He and his co-conspirators were captured in a sting set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and convicted for terrorism for the incident and for planning to bomb two Yugoslav receptions on Yugoslavia's National Day. Later that year, during his flight to receive his sentence, he hijacked the American Airlines Flight 293 with the intention of crashing the plane into Tito's Belgrade headquarters, but was dissuaded; he ultimately received a 67-year prison sentence.

Events

Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–41)

Federal Yugoslavia (1945–92)

Groups

Notable people