Srećko Rover

Srećko Blaž Rover (3 February 1920 – 10 September 2005) was a member of the fascist, Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Ustaše Surveillance Service and the Ustaše Militia where he was involved in the mass imprisonment and executions of people deemed enemies of the Independent State of Croatia. After the defeat of the Nazis and their collaborators, Rover escaped to Australia, where he became a leading figure of the Ustaše in Australia.

Early life Srećko Rover was born in Sarajevo, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in 1920. His father was customs official Josip Rover and his mother was Katerina (Katica) Mulanović. As a child, he attended St. Vinko primary school.

Joins the Ustaše movement In 1938, at the age of eighteen, Rover joined the ultra-nationalist Croatian terrorist group called the Ustaše. This group led by Ante Pavelić, advocated for the violent overthrow of the Yugoslav government and the creation of an independent Croatian nation. Rover soon became close with the leaders of the Ustaše in Sarajevo including Božidar Kavran and Drago Jilek. In 1939, Rover, Kavran and others were arrested by the Yugoslav police for their suspected involvement in a plot to assassinate King Peter II of Yugoslavia. They were imprisoned in Belgrade but were released three months later under a general amnesty, upon which Rover returned to Sarajevo.

By the end of 1944, with Pavelić's puppet regime collapsing under the strength and resistance of the anti-fascist Yugoslav Partisans, Rover was transferred to the re-organised Croatian Armed Forces, joining in the retreat to the north-west. In April 1945, Rover with the other remaining members of the Ustaše officialdom had fled to the Austrian border, hoping to surrender to the Allied forces stationed there.

Factional split and move to Melbourne By 1954, Rover was the main contact in Australia for the exiled Ustaše. However, in 1955 a major split occurred in the movement both in Australia and world-wide. Pavelić had a major falling out with Vjekoslav Luburić, who was an infamous general of the NDH regime. Luburić, who was located in Spain, accused the Argentina-residing Pavelić of losing commitment to the fascist cause. Luburić created a militant breakaway organisation called the Croatian National Resistance (HNO), while Pavelić in return established the rival Croatian Liberation Movement (HOP). Rover, who was a close associate of Luburić during WW2, decided to join the HNO in Australia, while other Ustaše in Australia such as Fabijan Lovoković remained loyal to Pavelić and joined the HOP.

This factional split was bitter and Rover was publicly denounced by Pavelić as a traitor who caused the deaths of 92 Ustaše patriots during the ill-fated Kavran Crusaders mission. Rover was ostracised from the Croatian associations in Sydney, and was forced to move to Melbourne in 1955. There he became a sales engineer for AWA and was able to obtain Australian citizenship in 1956. Accusations of being a traitor followed him though, and in 1957 he took Stanko Ivanković to court for defamation after he vilified Rover by saying that he handed Croats over to the communists during the Crusaders' operations. Rover won the case and was awarded £500, with the judge citing Rover's bravery award as a Nazi-collaborator as proof.

Leader of the HNO in Australia In the early 1960s, Rover was permitted by the Australian government and the ASIO intelligence agency to help develop other splinter Ustaše groups. In 1962, he became the Australian chief representative of the precursor to the Croatian National Council (CNC), and he was also able to take control of the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood (HRB), which was formed in Australia in 1961. In 1963, a group of nine Australian trained HRB insurgents were captured in Yugoslavia trying unsuccessfully to foment an anti-communist insurrection. Australian authorities believed Rover was centrally involved in the organisation of this failed mission.

By 1965, Rover had control in Australia over the HNO, HRB, CNC and another Ustaše organisation called the United Croats. Additionally, he was also an executive board member of the Melbourne Croatia football club. These groups were involved in carrying out intimidation and terrorism of Yugoslav interests in Australia during the 1960s including various beatings, bombings and shootings. Violent factional disputes within the Australian Ustaše directed toward Rover also still continued. In 1966, former HOP member Vlado Pernar attacked Rover and his wife at their electrical repair shop in Prahran with a knife. Both survived and Pernar was jailed for 3 years. During the attack, Rover's wife made a direct call to ASIO indicating a close relationship between the Rovers and the spy agency.

During the same period, the Ustaše in Australia increased the level of their attacks, orchestrating a large number of bombings and other violence on Yugoslav interests in the major cities. Similar terrorist activities were concurrently occurring overseas, including the 1971 Yugoslav Embassy shooting and the 1972 bombing of the Yugoslav airliner JAT Flight 367.

Rover was implicated in a number of these activities. In early 1972, he also started a campaign to unify all the Australian Ustaše groups into a single entity under his leadership called the Coordinating Committee of Croatian Organisations (KOHDA), and founded a new extremist newspaper called Pregled which praised the terrorists involved in the recent attacks. Rover also aggressively tried to take control of the finances of the Australian Ustaše, namely by attempting to make himself president of the Melbourne Croatia football club and use its equity to fund insurgent operations overseas. Despite causing a disturbance with 100 of his followers at a meeting of the club's executive and forcing them to resign, Rover failed to take control of Melbourne Croatia mainly due to the club being forcibly expelled from all competitions for the continual political violence displayed by its Ustaše fan base.

In April 1972, Rover travelled to overseas in an attempt to become world leader of the HNO at a conference of the terrorist group in Canada. The Australian intelligence authorities regarded this possibility as a serious threat to national security and organised for his passport to be cancelled while he was in Canada. This interfered with Rover's global terrorist leadership ambitions and he was forced to return to Australia. When he arrived back, Rover faced increased scrutiny from the authorities and the national media both due to this incident and also a series of major bombings in Sydney and Melbourne. Rover was linked to these bombings and was also implicated in the organisation of another failed Australian-trained insurgent mission to Yugoslav, called the Bugojno group. Rover and his associates were under sustained police surveillance which successfully disrupted their activities. Rover had a nervous breakdown, became suicidal and was hospitalised in a mental health ward in Melbourne. Rover subsequently resigned from all Croatian ultranationalist leadership positions.

War criminal investigation and later life Rover avoided arrest and maintained a low profile after the dramatic events of the early 1970s. However, he still managed to come under the eye of the authorities and had his passport cancelled again in 1982 due to national security concerns after he expressed support for a plan involving a Soviet Union invasion of Yugoslavia in return for partial Croatian autonomy. In 1986, he was exposed by the Nazis in Australia program on the ABC and was later investigated for war crimes during his time as an Ustaše official in the NDH, but no prosecutions were ever made.