Stojan Zupljanin

Stojan Zupljanin was born on 28 September 1951 in Maslovare, in the municipality of Kotor Varos, Bosnia-Herzegovina. After graduating in law from the University of Sarajevo he started out, in 1975, on a long career with the Secretariat of Internal Affairs (SUP) in Banja Luka. In 1978, he was appointed Commander of the police station in Medjan, Banja Luka then, in 1981, became Chief Superintendent of the Centar police station in Banja Luka. In 1985, he became Chief of the Department for the Prevention of General Crime based at the SUP in Banja Luka.

In the nineties, given the difficulty to maintain the unity of Yugoslavia, certain regions in Bosnia Herzegovina began to organise themselves into regional structures based on the concept of Associations of Municipalities such as existed under the 1974 Yugoslavian constitution. The Municipality Association of Bosanka and Krajina, based in Banja Luka, was created in April and May 1991.This Association adopted a Serbian political programme.

On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. In Croatia, fighting broke out during the summer of 1991 between the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) and the Croatian Armed Forces. With the war dragging on in Croatia, it became probable that Bosnia Herzegovina would also declare its independence from the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia (FSRY). The Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDS) realising that it could not keep Bosnia Herzegovina within the FSRY, undertook the creation of a separate Serb entity within Bosnia Herzegovina. In September and October 1991 the Associations of Municipalities mentioned above were transformed into autonomous Serb districts. The Municipality Association of Bosanka Krajina was transformed into the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK)

On 9 January 1992, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina was proclaimed and re-baptised as the Republika Srpska on 12 August 1992. The leaders of the SDS felt that the large Muslim and Croatian population, living in the zones they had claimed as part of the Serb Republic of Bosnia, presented a major obstacle to the creation of their State. The creation of this State and the protection of its boundaries therefore implied, in time, the complete evacuation, or “ethnic cleansing”, of practically the whole Bosnian Muslim and Croatian population.

A strategic plan was adopted and set going under the impetus of Radovan Karadzic. Crises groups were formed to act as organs of coordination and execution of the main elements of the operational phase of the plan and to take over the administration of the regions and the municipalities. The ARK Crisis Staff was set up on 5 May 1992 with Radoslav Brdjanin as its President.

From 1991, Stojan Zupljanin was in command of the Regional Security Services Centre of Banja Luka (CSB). Between 5 May 1992 and at least until July 1992, he was a member of the Crisis Staff for the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK) and, in 1994, he became Internal Affairs Advisor to the President of Republika Srpska.

In his position as Commander of the CSB, Stojan Zupljanin was the most senior authority in the ARK police. He exercised operational control (at times in conjunction with the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS) over the municipal and regional police forces within the ARK zone, in particular over those in charge of the running of the detention centres.

In his capacity as member and representative of the police within the ARK Crises Staff, Stojan Zupljanin took part individually, or in league with others, in the plan related to the conduct of hostilities and the destruction of the Muslim and Bosnian Croat communities in the ARK zone.

After the dissolution of the ARK Crises Staff, Stojan Zupljanin continued with the implementation of this plan in his capacity as Commander of the CSB of Banja Luka.

Stojan Zupljanin was arrested near Belgrade on 11 June 2008.