Ante Roso

Ante Zorislav Roso (25 April 1952 – 16 September 2025) was a Herzegovinian-Croat army general. He was a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion, and upon his return to Croatia on the eve of the Croatian War of Independence, he organized the first special units of the Croatian Army, was the Chief of the Croatian Defence Council's Main Staff and carried out Operation Maslenica.

Biography Early life and the Foreign Legion Roso was born in Osijek on 25 April 1952. He is originally from Ljubuški in Herzegovina. During the SFR Yugoslavia, he was a political emigrant. He was a member of the French Foreign Legion in which he rose to the rank of sergeant; there he met Ante Gotovina. The Zrinski Battalion was formed with the intention of operating independently throughout the entire territory of Croatia and carrying out sabotage operations deep inside enemy territory in the form of smaller combat groups. Ante Roso and the battalion's deputy commander Miljenko Filipović conducted the training using the methods and experience they had gained in the Foreign Legion.

In August 1991, Ante Roso transferred to the Main Staff of the Croatian Army. He fought on the front lines of the battlefield, together with the soldiers. He was one of the commanders in Operation Maslenica. General Roso became part of the Joint Command of the HVO and the Armija BiH. He led the joint command of the HVO and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo together with Fikret Muslimović.

Post-war The then President of the Republic of Croatia Franjo Tuđman retired him in 1997.

Roso participated in the establishment of the Croatian Generals' Assembly in November 2005.

He died on 16 September 2025 in Port La Nouvelle.