Blagoje Jovović

Blagoje Jovović
Благоје Јововић
Undated photo of Jovović
Born(1922-12-25)25 December 1922
Kosić, Danilovgrad, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Montenegro)
Died2 June 1999(1999-06-02) (aged 76)
Rosario, Province of Santa Fe, Argentina
Occupationsmilitary officer
hotel owner
Known foralleged role in the assassination of Ante Pavelić

Blagoje Jovović (Serbian Cyrillic: Благоје Јововић; 25 December 1922 – 2 June 1999) was a Montenegrin Serb hotel owner in Argentina, who was a participant of World War II in Yugoslavia initially as a member of the Partisan and later the Chetnik movement, and claimed to have shot former Croatian Ustaše leader and dictator Ante Pavelić in Argentina in 1957. Pavelić died in Madrid, Spain from his injuries two years later.

Biography

Jovović was born in Kosić near Danilovgrad in today's Montenegro.[1] During World War II, he initially fought for the Yugoslav Partisans and then the Chetniks,[2] as a member of the Bjelopavlić Chetnik Brigade.[3]

World War II

At the time when World War II started, he was serving in Strumica, near the Greek-Yugoslav border. When war broke out, Jovović reportedly returned to his birthplace, Kosić in Bjelopavlići.[4] In July 1941, he took part in an antifascist uprising against Italian forces and later participated in the Battle of Pljevlja as a member of the Partisans.[4] He later switched allegiances and fought for the Chetniks,[5] under the command of Bajo Stanišić who collaborated with Fascist Italy.[6]

In September 1944, he was part of the delegation led by Dušan Vlahović and Jakov Jovović, the latter being a royal Yugoslav naval officer. They were sent from Kotor across the Adriatic Sea to Taranto to negotiate with the British.[7] There they were informed about the Allied change of support in favour of Tito's Partisans as a result of the agreement with Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference and they stayed in Italy until the remainder of the war.[7] Jovović spent his time in Italy in several refugee camps. For a brief period, he worked in the British Secret Intelligence Service. On one such occasion, he met Randolph Churchill, of whom he reportedly did not hold a very high opinion.[8] In 1948, Jovović emigrated to Argentina with the help of Jakov Jovović.[4]

Assassination of Ante Pavelić

Main article: Assassination of Ante Pavelić

In Argentina, Jovović was known as the founder of the 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 “Njegoš” association.[9] While living in Argentina and running a successful hotel enterprise that he owned, he received tips about Pavelić's whereabouts in Argentina. In the assassination attempt, Jovović received assistance from several people including Jakov Jovović and Milo Krivokapić, an associate of Blagoje.[4]

The assassination was scheduled to take place on 9 April 1957, on the eve of the Independent State of Croatia's anniversary celebration, but they decided to delay the attack by a day.[8] On 10 April at 21:00, sixteen years after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić suspected someone was following him as he walked down a street, so he turned back and fired several shots towards Jovović, who started running after Pavelić and fired five shots, two of which hit Pavelić who then, according to Jovović, staggered, bent and begged for mercy.[8] There are, however, differing versions of how the attempted assassination unfolded.[4]

Jovović described the assassination attempt in the following excerpt from the book Two Bullets for Pavelić („Два метка за Павелића”) by Tihomir-Tiho Burzanović:[8]

I went after him, walking fast, nearly running. I got close, I was seven or eight meters from him. Pavelić sensed my presence, turned around and started shouting, 'Fuck your Serbian-Jewish communist mother!' I heard a shot, but couldn't see where it had come from. I didn't stop. I kept running straight towards him. Once I was two to three meters away from him, I started shooting. Once. Twice. I shot him in the back, as he was running away. Two bullets hit him and he fell. He dropped his briefcase and lay motionless. I was cautious. He might have been pretending to be dead. I started thinking that maybe it would be best to keep him alive and make him face a trial. I thought about beating him. Then I looked at his briefcase and thought of taking his documents. But, I thought, if there is any money in there and I get caught, I'd be labelled a thief and it may appear as if I had killed him just for the money. I decided to leave him and his briefcase as they were. Someone started shouting and shooting in my direction. I turned around and took three shots and started to run around the buildings on a semicircular street. Some people stepped out and asked me what had happened. Breathless, I responded, 'Look at those drunk fools, they're shooting at people for no reason!' I hid the gun in my pocket. I left one bullet for myself, just in case.

Pavelić required hospitalisation following the attempt. As he recovered, the government of Argentina reached an agreement with Yugoslavia to extradite Pavelić.[10] As a result, he fled to Chile before landing in Francisco Franco's Spain.[10] He died on 28 December 1959 in Madrid from complications resulting from his wounds.[10][11]

Assassin claims

In 1999, Jovović went to Yugoslavia for the first time since he left and visited Ostrog, where he met with the Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije Radović. It was there that he first publicly claimed that he was the person responsible for the attempted assassination of Ante Pavelić.[3] By Jovović's own account, he acted on his own, independent of the Yugoslav or any other secret services, stating that he wanted to kill Pavelić in order to "avenge Serbian victims" from the "greatest butcher of Serbs".[2]

Given the scarcity of reliable information surrounding Pavelić's assassination attempt, it is difficult to ascertain whether Jovović was in fact the assassin and whether or not he was acting on behalf of the Yugoslav State Security Service (UDBA).[12] It is however known that UDBA was interested in either abducting or killing him. Most Croat émigrés believed that the Yugoslav state was behind the assassination attempt.[12] A 1992 book Pet hitaca u Pavelića (transl. Five shots at Pavelić) by writer and publicist Đurica Labović describes a UDBA agent named "Žarko" as Pavelić's assassin, who was acting on instructions from the Yugoslav diplomatic and consular mission in Argentina.[13]

Mate Nikola Tokić of the Central European University writes that Jovović was the most likely assailant.[2] Conversely, the Montenegrin historian and politician Novak Adžić has disputed the theory of Jovović as the assassin, citing the lack of primary documents and mentions of Jovović anywhere prior to his alleged confession in 1999, as well as the fact that the post-World War II Chetnik emigration never mentioned it either.[14]

Death

Jovović died on 2 June 1999 in Rosario, Argentina.[15]

Memorials

In 2020, a street in Belgrade was renamed after Blagoje Jovović. A memorial plaque was also installed.[16] A mural of him can be found in Block 61, New Belgrade.

The upcoming Serbian film The hand of justice (sr. Ruka pravde) tells the story of Jovović's assassination plot.[17][18][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ de Oca, Ignacio Montes (2013). Ustashas: El ejército nazi de Perón y el Vaticano. Penguin Random House. p. 159. ISBN 978-9-50074-520-8.
  2. ^ a b c Tokić, Mate Nikola (2020). Croatian Radical Separatism and Diaspora Terrorism During the Cold War. Purdue University Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN 978-1-55753-892-5. The gunman fired five times, striking the poglavnik twice, once near the spine and once in the clavicle. The assailant was most likely Blagoje Jovović, a Montenegrin émigré to Argentina who, during World War II, had fought first with the Partisans and then the Četniks. By Jovović's own account-which he first made public in 1999-the would-be assassin acted independently of the Yugoslav or any other security services.
  3. ^ a b "Belgrade honours Montenegrin Chetnic for trying to kill head of Croatian Ustashi". N1 Belgrade. 30 July 2020. Archived from the original on 7 March 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e Kostić, Stefan (31 January 2020). "Blagoje Jovović, čovek koji je upucao Antu Pavelića" [Blagoje Jovović, the man who shot Ante Pavelić]. Radio Television of Serbia. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  5. ^ Zlatar, Pero (9 March 2009). "The Secret of the Assassination of Ante Pavelic". dalje.com. Retrieved 24 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  6. ^ Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2. Archived from the original on 17 March 2025. Retrieved 17 January 2026.
  7. ^ a b Zlojutro, Darko (10 April 2019). "ANTE JE NALETEO NA ČETNIKA BLAGOJA, ČUO SE PUCANJ I PAVELIĆ JE PAO! Ustaški zlikovac smrtno je ranjen na dan NDH!". espreso.rs.
  8. ^ a b c d Burzanović, Tiho-Tihomir (1998). Dva metka za Pavelica. Kulturni centar Sveti Sava.
  9. ^ Lopušina, Marko (8 August 2020). "Ko su argentinski Srbi". Radio Television of Serbia. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  10. ^ a b c Zander, Patrick G. (2020). Fascism through History: Culture, Ideology, and Daily Life [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 362. ISBN 978-1-44086-194-9.
  11. ^ Fischer, Bernd Jürgen (2007). Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of South Eastern Europe. Purdue University Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-1-55753-455-2.
  12. ^ a b Nielsen, Christian Axboe (2020). Yugoslavia and Political Assassinations: The History and Legacy of Tito’s Campaign Against the Emigrés. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 208. ISBN 9781788316866.
  13. ^ Adžić, Novak (28 February 2023). "Četnička bajka o Blagoju Jovoviću". aktuelno.me. Archived from the original on 31 January 2026. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
  14. ^ Adžić, Novak (12 February 2023). "Četničke bajke da je Blagoje Jovović bio atentator na Anta Pavelića u Argentini 1957". portalanalitika.me. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
  15. ^ "Blagoje Jovović dobija ulicu u Beogradu, a Đuza Stojiljković spomen-ploču". Danas.rs. 24 December 2019. Archived from the original on 7 March 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Memorial plaque unveiled, street named in Belgrade after Ante Pavelic's assassin Blagoje Jovovic". telegraf.rs. 5 August 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  17. ^ Tanjug (6 June 2025). "Završeno snimanje filma "Ruka pravde" u režiji Nemanje Čeranića". Euronews.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  18. ^ Jankovic, Zoran (28 November 2024). "Krenulo snimanje celovečernjeg igranog filma „Ruka pravde" u režiji Nemanje Ćeranića i Nebojše Pajkića". Mreža kinoprikazivača Srbije (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 19 November 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  19. ^ Đ, V. (5 June 2025). "Završeno snimanje filma "Ruka pravde": Decenijama čuvana tajna o atentatu na Pavelića ugledaće svetlost dana". Telegraf.rs (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 24 July 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
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