Josip Jović

Who was Josip Jović?

Josip Jović was Croatian police officer who was killed by Serb forces during Plitvice Lakes incident. He is widely known as the first Croatian victim of the Croatian War of Independence.

Jović was born on 29 November 1969 in a small village Aržano, near Imotski, to Filip and Marija Jović. He was raised with four siblings, brother Tomislav and sisters Franka, Mirna and Anita. After completing his compulsory military service in a JNA Mechanised Infantry unit in Montenegro between 1987 and 1989, on 5 August 1990, Jović joined the Croatian Ministry of the Interior in Zagreb Unit for Special Purposes Rakitje. On 29 March 1991, the Plitvice Lakes management was expelled by rebel Krajina Serb police under the control of Milan Martić, supported by paramilitary volunteers from Serbia proper under the command of Vojislav Šešelj. On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1991, Croatian police from the Croatian Ministry of the Interior entered the national park to expel the rebel Serb forces. Serb paramilitaries ambushed a bus carrying Croatian police into the national park on the road north of Korenica, sparking a day-long gun battle between the two sides. Jovic was struck by burst fire at the post office building, penetrating his bulletproof vest. His colleague Mladen Pavković later described Jović's last moments before he was transferred to the ambulance. When the helicopter of the Yugoslav People's Army landed to transfer him to hospital, he was already dead. Jović was buried with military honors at the cemetery in his birthplace Aržano.