page_title: Gojko Šušak
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Gojko Šušak / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Gojko Šušak square in Široki Brijeg
context_page_description: Gojko Šušak was a Croatian politician who held the post of Minister of Defence from 1991 to 1998 under President Franjo Tuđman. From 1990 to 1991 he was the Minister of Emigration and in 1991 the Deputy Minister of Defence.
  Born in Široki Brijeg, he attended the University of Rijeka in 1963. In 1969 Šušak emigrated to Canada where he worked in the restaurant and construction business and rose to prominence within the Croatian diaspora in North America in the following decades. In the late 1980s he became a close friend and associate to Franjo Tuđman, leader of the Croatian Democratic Union party seeking Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.
  In 1990, he returned to Croatia. After Tuđman became president following the 1990 parliamentary election, Šušak was named Minister of Emigration and helped gather economic aid from Croatian emigrants. From early 1991 he was the Deputy Minister of Defence. In September 1991 he was appointed Minister of Defence, an office he held throughout the Croatian War of Independence. As minister, Šušak reorganized and modernized the Croatian Army, leading it to a status of a regional power.
context_section_description: Šušak was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 1996 and was treated in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the same year, just like Tuđman, who was also diagnosed with cancer in 1993. He was operated in Croatia and received treatment for cancer in the following years. With medical supervision his disease was under control, until late April 1998 when he had a rapid deterioration. Šušak died in Zagreb's Clinical Hospital Dubrava on the evening of 3 May 1998, at the age of 53. A day of mourning was declared and he was buried on 7 May at the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb. William Perry attended Šušak's funeral as an official representative of the United States and said that "to Croatians he was crucial to the establishment of freedom here. To Americans he was crucial to the establishment of peace and stability in the region".
  After Šušak's death, Ivić Pašalić took over as head of the Herzegovina lobby. By 2000, about 300 million euros were transferred by the Croatian government into Herzegovina each year, mostly from the budget of the Ministries of Defence, Reconstruction, and Social Affairs.
  An arterial road in Zagreb, the Gojko Šušak Avenue was named posthumously after him. In Široki Brijeg and Sinj a square was named after Šušak. On 31 May 2008, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death, a monument in tribute to Šušak was unveiled in his birthplace Široki Brijeg.
  In May 2013, the ICTY, in a first-instance verdict against Jadranko Prlić, found that Tuđman, Šušak and Bobetko took part in the joint criminal enterprise against the non-Croat population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, on 19 July 2016 the Appeals Chamber in the case announced that the "Trial Chamber made no explicit findings concerning [Tudjman's, Šušak's and Bobetko's] participation in the JCE and did not find [them] guilty of any crimes."
caption: Gojko Šušak Square in Široki Brijeg
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