Rahim Ademi

Rahim Ademi (born 30 January 1954) is a retired Croatian Army general of Kosovar Albanian origin. He was one of the few Croatian generals prosecuted for war crimes against Serbian civilians during the Yugoslav Wars.

Biography Born and raised in the village of Karač, Vushtrri, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (modern day Kosovo), Ademi graduated from the Yugoslav Military Academy in Belgrade in 1976. He was assigned to a station in Rogoznica near Šibenik in Croatia where he married and had two children.

In 1986, the Military Court in Sarajevo convicted him of counterrevolutionary acts and Albanian irredentism, but after serving a year and a half in prison, the Supreme Military Court agreed with his appeal and acquitted him. He would spend the next years serving as an officer in Sinj until 1990 when the war in Croatia was starting and he deserted the Yugoslav People's Army in order to help create Croatian army formations. In 1993 he was assigned to the post of sub commander of the Gospić military district, but was relieved of duty later that year, after the controversial Operation Medak pocket. He later served as a sub-commander of the Split military district and was promoted to brigadier general for his achievements in Operation Storm in 1995. He remained there until 1999 when he was reassigned to the post of the Assistant Chief Inspector of the Armed Forces in Zagreb.

During campaign for the 2014–15 presidential election, Ademi worked as a co-coordinator for Ivo Josipović.

War crime trial During the Yugoslav Wars, Ademi was accused of committing war crimes against Serbian civilians. Canadian colonel J.O Michel Maisonneuve confronted Ademi, warning him that his forces engaging in ethnic cleansing was a contravention of international law.

In 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Ademi for crimes against humanity allegedly committed against the Croatian Serbs in the Medak pocket. He was originally in the custody of the Court but was later allowed to prepare his defense free. In November 2005, in line with its completion strategy, the ICTY referred the Ademi-Norac case to the Croatian judiciary. The trial began on 18 June 2007 in front of a special bench of the Zagreb County Court with Judge Marin Mrčela presiding. In addition, important witnesses refused to testify in the trial due to intimidations and threats.

Ademi claims that the Croatian government, under international pressure, relieved him of duty in Gospić in 1993 in order to make him a scapegoat, rather than implicating commanding officers Janko Bobetko,

In March 2010, the Supreme Court of Croatia upheld Ademi's acquittal.