Milan Tepic: Komlenac Memorial, Croatian TV Slams Minic
Komlenac marks 35 years since Major Milan Tepic died. Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minic paid tribute from Moscow, and Croatian broadcaster HRT calls it electioneering.
A memorial was held today at the cemetery in Komlenac, near Kozarska Dubica, marking 35 years since the death of Major Milan Tepic of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). His name is carried by streets in Serbia, a monument in Belgrade’s Dedinje district and a barracks in Jakovo, near Surcin. The same day, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minic said from Moscow that he honors Tepic, and Croatian public broadcaster HRT presented the message as an attempt to court voters, five days before Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general elections on October 4.
What was marked in Komlenac?
The memorial took place in Tepic’s birthplace. The remembrance day for his death closes the program “September Days of Defense Against Croatian Aggression in 1995” in Kozarska Dubica, and the anniversary of his death is marked in Komlenac every year.
Tepic was born in January 1957 in Komlenac. According to the broadcaster B92, he attended the Military Technical Academy in Zagreb from 1975 and served from 1986 in a mechanized brigade of the Varazdin garrison, where he was promoted ahead of schedule to major in December 1990. In May 1991 he was transferred to Bjelovar, to the 265th Motorized Brigade.
What happened in Bedenik on September 29, 1991?
Tepic was the officer in charge of the shift at the “Barutana” depot in the village of Bedenik near Bjelovar, while the fight for the barracks was under way in the town itself. When Croatian units demanded the depot’s surrender, he blew up a magazine holding about 170 tons of explosives so the weapons would not fall into the hands of the Croatian National Guard. B92 reports that the explosion happened at 10:40 and that one of five buildings was hit.
Nineteen-year-old soldier Stojadin Mirkovic also died. Srpskainfo writes that Mirkovic refused Tepic’s order to surrender. He was buried in July 1995 in his home village of Donje Leskovce near Valjevo, where a bust was unveiled in his honor in 2013. In 1999 he was posthumously awarded the First Class Order for Merit in Defense and Security, Valjevo gave him its “September Charter,” and a street in that city bears his name.
Here the sources diverge. B92 describes Mirkovic and soldier Dragan Draganovic as having died before Tepic’s explosion, in attacks on the facility, because they refused an order to withdraw. Srpskainfo, HRT and Republika Srpska Radio Television (RTRS) tie Mirkovic to the explosion itself. Draganovic appears only in B92.
There is no agreement on the number and fate of the other dead either. The Croatian side confirmed that 11 people died in the explosion, whom HRT calls Croatian defenders and B92 calls members of Croatian paramilitary forces. Srpskainfo adds that Croats shot the guard commander, Senior Sergeant Ranko Stevanovic, in revenge.
How do the Serbian and Croatian sides remember him?
By decision of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tepic was posthumously awarded the Order of the People’s Hero. The Army of Republika Srpska established the “Milan Tepic” Order, and B92 recalls that the Dedinje monument was unveiled in September 2017.
Serbian sources list him as a JNA major. HRT writes that in 1991 he held the rank of captain and was promoted to major only posthumously, and it describes him as the officer responsible for the destruction in Bjelovar and the deaths of 11 Croatian defenders.
What did Minic say from Moscow?
Minic paid tribute to Tepic and Mirkovic in a post on X. He wrote:
Today, 35 years after their deaths, we can only bow with deep respect to Major Tepic and nineteen-year-old Stojadin Mirkovic. Eternal glory to them! It is up to us to preserve the peace and freedom that the bravest left us as a covenant
According to HRT, the message came from Moscow, where Minic and Republika Srpska ruling party (SNSD) leader Milorad Dodik arrived on Monday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which we reported on earlier. HRT stresses that Minic is the SNSD candidate for president of Republika Srpska and says he used the occasion to address potential voters. The Croatian broadcaster also notes that authorities in Serbia and Republika Srpska continue to celebrate Tepic after the war, that a bust of him was erected in Bosanska Dubica, as HRT calls Kozarska Dubica, and that September 29 is marked in that municipality as a day of remembrance for him.
Tepic himself, according to Srpskainfo, wrote in his last letter:
Once people give their word, it either stays or is trampled. I gave my word that I would defend this country if it came under hardship
Almost no one has been convicted for crimes against JNA members, Srpskainfo reports. The JNA was at the time the only legal army of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which Croatia was then formally a part. The elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Minic is running for president of Republika Srpska, are scheduled for October 4.
