Slobodan Uzelac
Slobodan Uzelac (; born 9 August 1947) is a Croatian Serb politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia for Regional Development, Reconstruction and Return in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and his successor in that position Jadranka Kosor. He is the first member of the Serb minority in Croatia to hold a cabinet position since the first Croatian multi-party elections were held in 1990. Biography. He offered his resignation in March 2008, after the Government of Croatia recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence However, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader did not accept his resignation , and the Independent Democratic Serb Party subsequently decided against withdrawing its member from the government. Slobodan Uzelac received his Ph.D. in medicine from the University of Belgrade (Belgrade Medical School) in 1981. He was a guest lecturer at the Penn State University in 2001. Uzelac is the president of Serbian Cultural Society Prosvjeta. In addition to Serbo-Croatian, Uzelac also speaks English and Russian. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the democratic left magazine "Novi Plamen".