Milan Martić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Мартић; born 18 December 1954) is a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the president of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed state largely populated by Serbs of Croatia that wished to break away from Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence.

After the war, Martić was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2005 was convicted of war crimes on 12 June 2007 and sentenced to 35 years in prison where he was transferred to in 2009. He is serving his sentence in Estonia.

Martić was born on 18 November 1954 in the village of Žagrović, in the Knin municipality. He graduated from the Post-Secondary Police School in Zagreb and between 1976 and 1981 worked as a policeman at the Public Security Station (SJB) in Šibenik.^[1]

From 1982 onwards, Martić was a Junior Police Inspector in Knin and was eventually promoted to Chief of the SJB.^[1] He was the local police chief in Knin at the time of Croatia's declaration of independence. In 1990, he took on the position of local Serb leader, organizing the Milicija Krajina militia, also known as Martić's Police.

From 4 January 1991 to August 1995, Martić held various leadership positions, including President, Minister of Defence, Minister of Internal Affairs, in SAO Krajina and the Republic of Serbian Krajina (both unrecognised).^[2]

Also in 1991, Serbian opposition leader Vuk Drašković claimed Martić and Goran Hadžić had organized an assassination attempt on him. Martić replied that this was "an ordinary stupidity" and that "if he were to organize an assassination attempt, he would go through with it." Martić was critical of Drašković as Drašković called against mobilization and called for desertion.^[3]

Martić was supported by Slobodan Milošević during the presidential election in Serbian Krajina.^[4] Martić ran for the Serb Party of Socialists which received significant financial support from Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia.^[5] On 21 January, Martić stated that he would “speed up the process of unification” and “pass on the baton to our all Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević.^[1]

In a second round of voting in 1994 he was elected president^{[6][7][8][9][10]} and remained in power until the fall of Serbian Krajina during Croatia's Operation Storm in 1995. After the fall of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, Martić and a large portion of the Serbian Krajina army and civilians, escaped to Banja Luka. Initially, he was rumored to have been either killed or wounded. He did not issue any statement for a number of days.^[11]

Martić went on to announce a plan of guerrilla warfare that would "last until the final freedom of the Republic of Serbian Krajina". Martić said in a statement:^[12]

"After the tragedy that has happened to the Serbian people of Krajina, the situation is slowly consolidating. In Banja Luka, we've formed a crisis staff which is led by President of the Krajina Parliament Rajko Ležaić. The goal of the staff is taking care of the refugees. I have taken upon myself the task of consolidating the dismantled army and preparing it for battle. I expect that many of these soldiers – the ones who aren't cowards – will return and attempt to liberate their centuries-old homeland and give Tuđman the hit that he deserves."

— Milan Martić