Blagoje Jovović

Blagoje Jovović (Serbian: Благоје Јововић, Kosić, Zeta Area, Yugoslavia, 1922 – 2 June 1999, Rosario, Argentina) was a Montenegrin Serb participant of the antifascist war in Yugoslavia in both Partisan and Chetnik movements. He is credited with mortally wounding Croatian Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić.

Biography

Jovović was born near Danilovgrad. During World War II he fought for the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, and he was a member of the Bjepavlić Chetnik brigade. At the time when the World War II started, he was serving in Strumica, near the Yugoslav border with Greece. For his part in the April War he was honoured a medal. When the war was over, he came back to his birthplace, Kosić in Bjelopavlici. As of July 1941 he took part in antifascist war against Italy. With Kosić’s partisan unit he participated in the battle of Pljevlja, and later he became the commander of that unit.

He denied to perform the order of his commander Ivan Milutinović to attack Bajo Stanišić, who was his superior in NCO's school in Bileća before the war. Stanišić rebelled after finding out that communists were preparing to attack their political opponents, because “he didn’t want to take part in the brothers’ killing war”.

He later fought the Chetniks,^[1] under the command of Stanišić himself. As of September 1944, he was part of delegation, led by Dušan Vlahović and Jakov Jovović, that was sent from Kotor across the Adriatic Sea to Taranto to negotiate with the British. There they were informed about Allied change of support in favor of partisans as a result of Tehran Conference and stayed in Italy throughout the remainder of the war.

Jovović spent his time in Italy in several immigration camps. He was surrounded by the people tied to the intelligence service operations. On one such occasion, he met Randolph Churchill, of whom he reportedly did not hold a very high opinion.^[2]

Assassination of Ante Pavelić

At that time he also found out that the Catholic Church had been hiding Ante Pavelić inside the Vatican under the false name. Jovović conceived the idea of finding and executing Pavelić.

Jovović was known as a philanthropist, the founder and of Serbian Orthodox community “Saint Sava”, and one of the founders of the Organisation of Fighters “Draža Mihailović” as well as the member of the Board of the “Njegos” association. While living in Argentina and running a successful hotel enterprise that he owned, he received tips about Pavelić's whereabouts in Argentina. Jakov Jovović began the assassination plans, but Blagoje Jovović agreed to execute them.

In this, they were joined by Milo Krivokapić. The decision was made for the assassination to take place on 9 April 1957, the eve of the Independent State of Croatia's anniversary celebration, but it was decided that the assassination be delayed by one day.^[2] On 10 April at 9 p.m. local time, 16 years after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić, suspected someone was following him, so he turned back and fired several shots towards Jovović, who started running after Pavelić and fired five shots, with two hitting Pavelić, who staggered, bent and begged for mercy.^[2]

The assassination is illustrated in the following excerpt from the book “Two shots for Pavelić” („Два метка за Павелића”):^[2]

I went after him. Walking fast. Nearly running. I got close seven-eight meters. Pavelić sensed me, saw… He started shouting: “I fuck your Serbian-Jewish communist mother!” I hear the shot, don't know where it comes from. I’m not stopping. Running straight towards Pavelić. I came two-three meters away from him and then took a shot. Once. Twice! I shot him in the back, as he was running away. Two bullets got in to him. He falls down. As he was carrying the purse, it falls aside to a garden. He fells down, doesn’t move, I had to believe that he could be pretending to be dead, when two bullets hit him. At the moment, I'm thinking – perhaps it’s better to have him alive, because he’s going to a hospital, people will find out who he really was, and then he's going to face the trial. Do I beat him? And then I looked at that purse. His documents? It’d be nice to get them… But, if the money is in the purse, and then they catch me and say I’m a thief? And also that I killed him for the money! I'm gonna leave both Pavelić and his purse. Somebody is shouting: “They run, they run!” And shots are fired in my direction. I turn back and shoot towards that place. I shoot three times. I start running around the buildings in a semicircular street. People come out. They ask – what happened? Breathless I respond: “Look at those fools and what they're are doing there, drunk, and they shoot at everything!” “That guy is either drunk or crazy”, I yell so that the people on the windows could hear me. A gun was in my pocket. I left one bullet, just in case – picturesquely illustrates Jovović.

— Tihomir-Tiho Burzanović, Book About Blagoje Jovovic: Two Shots for Pavelic („Књига о Благоју Јововићу Два метка за Павелића”), Sveti Sava

Pavelić never recovered from injuries, also suffering from diabetes. He died on 28 December 1959 in Madrid, Spain as the result of those wounds.

Later years

Jovović visited Serbia and Montenegro for the first time after 55 years in 1999 when he visited Ostrog, where he met Metropolitan Amfilohije. He publicly confessed, right there, that he was the person responsible for assassinating Ante Pavelić.^[2]

Death

Jovović died on 2 June 1999 in Rosario, just few months after the visit to his birthplace.

References

1. ↑ Zlatar, Pero (9 March 2009). "The Secret of the Assassination of Ante Pavelic". dalje.com. dalje.com. Retrieved 24 June 2014. 
2. 1 2 3 4 5 Tihomir-Tiho Burzanović, Knjiga o Blagoju Jovoviću - Dva metka za Pavelića.