Borislav Mikelić

Borislav Mikelić (; 13 September 1939 – 12 May 2018) was a Serbian businessman and politician. He was of Croatian Serb background.

Early life A Serb born in Dobrljin, a village near Kostajnica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the time part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Numerous members of Mikelić's family, including his parents, were killed in the Second World War by the Ustaše either in mass killings or at the Jasenovac concentration camp.

The party essentially supported the status quo ante bellum, i.e. preservation of federal Yugoslavia and Croatia as a federal republic of that federation, with the Serbs as a constituent nation, opposing both demands for confederalisation and Croatian independence and autonomy for the Serbs or the redrawing of any state borders.

In late September 1990, when Croatian police were sent to investigate Serb forces being organized in Petrinja, the Serb forces attacked the Croatian police force without warning. Mikelić, whose party was the first to inform the Federal Presidency of these dramatic events, was accused of organising a Serbian rebellion by the Croatian government. A court in Sisak sentenced him in absentia to 20 years in prison in 1993. After 11 years, he requested a review of the proceedings, and the Zagreb County Court dismissed the indictment in 2011. As Prime Minister, Mikelić promoted economic, monetary and judicial ties with the Republic of Serbia (Belgrade), supported the idea of unification with Republika Srpska (the "United Serb Republic"), and was leading Krajina towards eventual unification with Serbia and Montenegro, with Belgrade's backing.

Post-war Mikelić was arrested by Serbian police for allegedly being involved in the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in March 2003. He spent three months in custody before being released by a decision of the Supreme Court.

Death Mikelić died on 12 May 2018 at the age of 79 in Belgrade, Serbia.