Goran Jelisić (; born 7 June 1968) is a Bosnian Serb policeman and camp guard who was found guilty of having committed crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Luka camp in Brčko during the Bosnian War.
Jelisić called himself the "Serb Adolf Hitler" and admitted that his "motivation and goal was to kill Muslims". In 1999, Jelisić pled guilty to sixteen counts of violating the customs of war and fifteen counts of crimes against humanity and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was acquitted of the charge of genocide as the court found that it had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt.
Biography
Jelisić was born on 7 June 1968 in Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia. At the time, Bijeljina was 40% Bosniak. Born to a working family, he was raised primarily by his grandmother, and he had a variety of Serb and Bosniak friends.
Bosnian War
He was released in February 1992 with the opportunity to volunteer for Republika Srpska's war effort. Jelisić later confessed his crimes during his trial as a war criminal at the Hague Tribunal. Jelisić's accomplice and girlfriend at the time, Monika Karan-Ilić (née Simeunović), was also found guilty of participating in torture, inhumane treatment and infliction of suffering on Bosniak and Croat civilians at Luka camp and Brčko police station in May and June 1992. A final verdict reduced her sentence to two-and-a-half years of prison in 2013. She died on 21 August 2021 in a car accident.
Jelisić styled himself, and has been referred to in the media as the "Serb Adolf Hitler" and admitted that his "motivation and goal was to kill Muslims". Jelisić's apartment was surrounded by U.S. forces, and he was taken without incident. This capture was the first performed by U.S. forces against a Bosnian war criminal (though U.S. forces had served as backup for Dutch and British forces in the previous year). The sentence was at that time the most severe given by the Hague, superseding the 20-year ruling against Duško Tadić. The court also suggested Jelisić receive psychiatric treatment. On 29 May 2003, Jelisić was transferred to Italy to serve the remainder of his sentence with credit for time served since his 1998 arrest. He was also significant for being one of only three people to admit to their crimes before the Hague tribunal (as of 2004).
Family
He is the second child of accountant Aleksandar Jelisić and Ivanka Jelisić. In September 1995, he married Ana Jelisić, and in October, she gave birth to a boy, whom Goran named Aleksandar after his father. Ivanka Jelisić passed away on 4 June 2004.
Memorial
thumb|305px|Commemoration in the Zanatski Center in [[Brčko, organized by UDIK on May 7, 2026]] Since 2023, the non-governmental agency UDIK has demanded that Brčko District authorities place a memorial plaque in the Zanatski Center in Brčko commemorating Jelisić's execution of two Bosniaks at the site, Hajrudin Muzurović and Husein Kršo, on 7 May 1992. According to the organization, photographs of the victims would testify to the war crimes and ethnic cleansing of Brčko.
On 7 May 2024, UDIK with the members of the Muzurović and Kršo families laid flowers at the place of the murder. It was the first commemoration held in street of Zanatski Center in Brčko which Goran Jelisić used as an execution ground. The following years, UDIK have been publishing an obituary in daily Oslobođenje dedicated to victims with the message that the crime scene was not marked.