Mitja Ribičič | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ribičič in 1983 | |
| President of thePresidency of theLCY Central Committee | |
| In office 29 June 1982 – 30 June 1983 | |
| President | Petar Stambolić Mika Špiljak |
| Prime Minister | Milka Planinc |
| Preceded by | Dušan Dragosavac |
| Succeeded by | Dragoslav Marković |
| 22ndPrime Minister of Yugoslavia President of theFederal Executive Council | |
| In office 18 May 1969 – 30 July 1971 | |
| President | Josip Broz Tito |
| Preceded by | Mika Špiljak |
| Succeeded by | Džemal Bijedić |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1919-05-19)May 19, 1919 |
| Died | 28 November 2013(2013-11-28) (aged 94) Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| Nationality | Slovene |
| Political party | League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1941–1990) |
Mitja Ribičič (19 May 1919 – 28 November 2013) was aSlovenian andYugoslavcommunist politician. He was thePrime Minister of Yugoslavia—the only Slovenian to hold the office—from 1969 to 1971.[1]
He was born in aSlovene-speaking family inTrieste,Italy. His father was theSlovene authorJosip Ribičič (born in town Baška, Isle of Krk, Croatia). His mother,Roza Ribičič, née Arrigler[2] or Arigler,[3] was a teacher in Slovene schools in Trieste, and an editor and public figure. She was the niece of the poetAnton Medved.
In 1925 the family moved toRakek, Slovenia, then part of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), where Ribičič attended elementary school. In 1929 they settled inLjubljana. In 1938 Ribičič enrolled in theUniversity of Ljubljana, where he studied law. In his student years, he became a member of severalleft wing youth organizations, and associations of Slovene emigrants from theJulian March. In April 1941, whenYugoslavia was invaded by the Nazis, he volunteered for theRoyal Yugoslav Army. After the Yugoslav defeat in late April, he joined theLiberation Front of the Slovenian People. In October 1941 he became a member of theYugoslav Communist Party's (KPJ)Slovenian branch.
In May 1942 he joined thePartisan resistance. He fought in various units parts of Slovenia that had been annexed by Germany, first inLower Styria, then inUpper Carniola, and in southernCarinthia. In November 1944 he was sent to theSoviet Union for training.
After his return in early 1945, he served as a high-ranking official of theOZNA, the Yugoslav military intelligence, and then in theUDBA, the secret police. He was in charge of political repression of the anti-communist opposition in Slovenia. Between 1951 and 1952 he served as chief prosecutor for theSocialist Republic of Slovenia, and then until 1957 as the Secretary of the Interior of theSocialist Republic of Slovenia.
Between 1957 and 1963 he was a member of the Slovenian government, and then a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia. In 1966 he rose to the leadership of theYugoslav Communist Party, serving first as a member of the Executive Central Committee of the Party, and then aspresident of the YugoslavFederal Executive Council.
Between 1974 and 1982 he was president of theSocialist Union of the Working People of Slovenia, the official platform that included all professional and voluntary associations in Slovenia. Between 1982 and 1983, he became president of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and was one of its members until 1986, when he retired. He died on 28 November 2013 at the age of 94 in Ljubljana and is buried in the family grave inŽale cemetery in Ljubljana.[4] His son,Ciril is aleft wing politician (member of theSocial Democrats) and lawyer, as of 2013 a member of the SlovenianConstitutional Court.
Several victims of Communist political persecution accused him of brutal treatment during the time when he was an official with the secret police, includingAngela Vode[5] andLjubo Sirc.[6] In 1970, when Ribičič visitedGreat Britain as the head of the Yugoslav Government, Sirc, a British citizen, launched a public protest, disclosing the mistreatment suffered at the hands of Ribičič in 1946.[7]
In May 2005, theSlovenian Police filed an indictment against Ribičič for genocide. The evidence, involving the actions of theYugoslav Army against prisoners of war and civilians in the aftermath ofWorld War II, was investigated by the Slovenian Supreme State Prosecutor's Office first forgenocide and later forwar crime against civilians.[8] Pursuant to this, a proposal to open a case was brought forward to the District Court in Ljubljana in April 2006,[9] but the court rejected it due to the principle ofnon-retroactivity in criminal law and lack of evidence. This decision was then appealed by the Prosecutor's Office to the High Court, which also dismissed it as lacking direct evidence, without providing the precise reasoning, but found the basic principles of humanity to be above the prohibition of retroactivity in such a setting.[10] The historianJože Dežman, head of the Sloveniancommission investigating concealed mass graves, criticised the rejection as "extremely indecent".[11]
Anotherindictment, based on the presumed newly discovered evidence, was lodged against Ribičič at the Slovenian Prosecutor's Office due to suspected genocide andwar crime by the freelance journalist and investigator of post-war killingsRoman Leljak [sl] in October 2013, but the Prosecutor's Office dismissed it in December 2013 due to Ribičič's death.[12][13]
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Yugoslavia 1969–1971 | Succeeded by |
Members of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1979–1984) | |
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| Membersex officio as President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia |
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Members of thePresidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia | |||||
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| 5th term (1948–1952) |  | ||||
| 6th term (1952–1958) | |||||
| 7th term (1958–1964) | |||||
| 8th term (1964–1969) |
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| 9th term (1969–1974) | |||||
| 10th term (1974–1978) |
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| 11th term (1978–1982) |
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| 12th term (1982–1986) |
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| 13th term (1986–1990) |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
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