Stambolic, Ivan

He graduated from high school. He worked at the factory before entering the University of Belgrade in 1960, where he graduated from the Faculty of Law. He worked as the general director of the Technogaz plant, where among his closest employees was Slobodan Milosevic , who replaced him as head of the gas company. In the 1970s, Stambolc provided Milosevic with a job at Beogradska Banka , the largest bank in Serbia.

In politics since the late 1970s. He was elected secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Serbia , then took the post of chairman of the Executive Council of Serbia, later he headed the city party committee of Belgrade , in 1984 became chairman of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia , and in early 1986 - Chairman of the Presidium of the SFRY .

He was a mentor and close personal friend of Slobodan Milosevic and supported him in the elections for the post of chairman of the Communist Party of Serbia and managed to ensure his victory. Stambolic’s career actually ended in 1987, when Milosevic staged a coup and seized power in the Serbian Communist Party.

As president ^{[to clarify ]} and the party leader, Stambolic was a moderate, reformist anti-nationalist, appointing liberals who opposed Milosevic to key posts. Milosevic used Kosovo to raise nationalist sentiment against the Albanians, securing the support of an aging military generation in Belgrade.

Soon after coming to power, Milosevic became an opponent of I. Stambolic. In April 1987, Milosevic visited Kosovo Pole , where he met with local party leaders and Serbs . The issues discussed at the meeting provoked a stormy reaction, after which clashes between residents and Kosovo militias took place on the streets. Serbian media raised a kind of nationalistic hysteria, which caused the anger of Kosovo Albanians. I. Stambolich tried to avoid a direct conflict with Milosevic.

I. Stambolich tried to protect the rights of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and Metohija from discrimination, insisting back in 1982 that he would advocate for these rights, even if his opponents called him a great Serbian nationalist .

Stambolic and the Government of the Slovak Republic of Serbia joined the federal Yugoslav government, sharply condemning the controversial Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts of 1986 for inciting nationalism.

Under pressure from Milosevic’s supporters, I. Stambolich resigned in September 1987.

After he worked as President of JUBMES Bank in Belgrade. A few years later he retired.

On August 25, 2000, during the reign of Slobodan Milosevic, I. Stambolic mysteriously disappeared. On March 28, 2003, the police determined that he had been killed on Fruska Gora by a group of 8 officers from the Special Operations Unit . On July 18, 2005, all of them were found guilty of the murder of Stambolich and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 15 to 40 years. The court found that the order for the killing of Stambolich came from Slobodan Milosevic.

I. Stambolic - the author of the books “Director of Self-government” (1978), “The Reprisal of Srbi 1979i” (1979, 1988), “The Way of the Restless” (1995), “The Root of Evil”.

• Ivan Stambolic
• http://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=336713 (Serb.)
• Selektivna amnezija (Serb.)