On this day in 1994 Brigadier Ante Primorac, commander of the elite “Ludvig Pavlović” Special Tasks Unit within the Croatian Defense Council (CDC) was killed in Bosnia-Herzgovina.
Born in 1966 in the Herzegovinian village of Kašče on the slopes of Biokovo Mountain, his military journey began as a member of the 1st “King Tomislav” Volunteer Regiment under the command of Mate Šarlija Daidža, from which the “Ludvig Pavlović” unit was later formed.
Primorac was seriously wounded in the battle for the village of Gubavica during Operation “JUNE DAWN” in 1992 and despite being classified as a 70 percent war invalid, he nonetheless returned to the battlefield. Primorac died in front of the Adria Ski Hotel in Čajuša as it was shelled by Serbs a few days after the liberation of Kupres at the end of Operation “CINCAR”. Ivica Primorac recalled the loss of his best friend from childhood:
In the moments when I was defending our country I asked myself, ‘Why such chaos and suffering? Why do people shed blood and suffering instead of tears of joy?’ Then I received the news that my friend Ante died fighting for the freedom of the Croatian people. Of all the scars I received, this one hurt the most. It never even healed and each time I revisit it I am filled with mixed emotions. It brings out the child in me who cannot stop crying. I was the boy who just wanted to get that soccer ball and was going to challenge my friend Ante in order to get it. You never know when you’re going to lose someone. Is that the last time I am going to see his smile, the last time that we will spend together? If we knew that then, you figure we’d laugh as much as we can. We would think hard about the last things we would say to each other. But we didn’t know. That’s why all of our get-togethers were spontaneous. We laughed and cried together unaware that we were creating the most beautiful life memories. I proudly tell these stories to my children today and I know that Ante listens to them as well.
Graduated with a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Zagreb. He has worked at the Croatian History Museum and as a researcher for the popular TV Calendar program for Croatian Radio and Television. He has authored several books and documentaries about Croatia’s Homeland War and is the creator/producer of the immensely popular “It Happened on this Day – Homeland War” Facebook page as well as the online portal Domovinskirat.hr. Borna also is the host and editor of the daily segment “Patriotic Minutes” on Croatian Catholic Radio. He created CroHis to promote the values of the Homeland War and ensure that the sacrifices of those who defended Croatia’s independence would not be forgotten.
