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Nebojša Pavković (born 10 April 1946) is a former Serbian general who served as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia from 1998 - 2000.
On 25 April 2005, the Serbian government handed Pavković over to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his troops during the Kosovo War. Pavković was charged with having allowed his troops to massacre Kosovo civilians, and with having participated in the expulsion of Kosovo Albanians, an act of ethnic cleansing. He was convicted alongside Nikola Šainović, Vladimir Lazarević, Sreten Lukić and Dragoljub Ojdanić and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Biography edit
Pavković was born in the village of Senjski Rudnik (Despotovac municipality) on 10 April 1946. He finished teacher training college in Aleksinac in 1966, and was conscripted into the Yugoslav People's Army (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija, JNA) on 20 July 1970. Pavković graduated from the Military Academy in Belgrade in 1970, finished junior officers' school in 1982 and senior officers' school in 1988. He served as a battalion commander within the 10th Infantry Brigade and later headed the 16th Proletarian Infantry Regiment. From 1988 to 1989, he was the commander of the 16th Motorized Brigade. Between 1988 and 1993, he held several posts in the Federal Secretariat for National Defence.
When the conflict in Kosovo began, Pavković was the commander of the Third Army. He was promoted in rank Major General in 1996, Lieutenant General in 1998, Colonel General in 1999. For success as commander leadership he received numerous medals and awards, Slobodan Milošević awarded him the Medal of Freedom for commanding the Third Army during NATO's Operation Allied Force. After 5 October 2000, Pavković remained at his position as Chief of the General Staff until 24 June 2002, when he was removed from his position by the President of FR Yugoslavia Vojislav Koštunica.
On 25 April 2005, Pavković was surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague where he was charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during the Kosovo War. On 26 February 2009, the ICTY convicted Pavković of the charges and sentenced him to 22 years in prison. His sentence was upheld in January 2014.