Josip Reihl-Kir

Josip Reihl-Kir (25 July 1955 – 1 July 1991) was the Police Chief of Osijek in SFR Yugoslavia known for his peacemaking initiatives in the opening stages of the Croatian War of Independence. He was assassinated in 1991; the man convicted of his murder, and the murder of two assembly members, was sentenced to a total of 70 years in prison in 2008, after being extradited to Croatia from Australia.

Josip Tvrtko Reihl-Kir was born in Sirač, Croatia, Yugoslavia, the son of a Slavonian German (Danube Swabian) father and a Croatian mother, both Yugoslav Partisans during World War II in Yugoslavia. He worked as a teacher at the gymnasium in Osijek, and in 1981 became a police officer. From 31 July 1990 until his death, he was chief of the Osijek police station.

The border between Croatia and Serbia was the site of significant ethnic tension after war broke out in 1991. As the police chief in Osijek, Reihl-Kir managed to keep the peace in that area. When barricades were built by Nationalists, Reihl-Kir usually went unarmed to negotiate with them. He would approach barricades with his shirt pulled up above his waist to show that he had no weapons on him. Reihl-Kir offered to keep Croatian paramilitary forces outside of areas inhabited by ethnic Serbs, and in return, he asked Serb leaders to remove the barricades surrounding those locations. The Serbs always agreed as they trusted Reihl-Kir. To ensure that the agreement was kept, Croatian paramilitary forces were infiltrated by Reihl-Kir's agents.

In April 1991, a group of three senior members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (known under its Croatian acronym HDZ), including Gojko Šušak, told Reihl-Kir to guide them to the outskirts of the Croatian Serb village of Borovo Selo. Although Reihl-Kir initially objected, he finally agreed to do so. To Reihl-Kir's shock, once at the village, the three men proceeded to fire three Armbrust rockets at the village. Although there were no injuries or deaths, the incident was shown on Serbian television as evidence of "unprovoked Croatian aggression against Serbs". After the incident, Reihl-Kir continued negotiations with Serb separatists to the annoyance of the ruling HDZ.

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