Twelve Generals' Letter

The Twelve Generals' Letter (Croatian: Pismo dvanaestorice generala) was an open letter, signed by twelve generals of the Croatian Armed Forces, that criticized the government, politicians and media for perceived criminalization of the Croatian War of Independence and asserted that war veterans had suffered undignified treatment. On 29 September 2000, a day after the letter was published by the Croatian media, Croatian President Stjepan Mesić reacted by sending into forced retirement all seven of the signatories who were active-duty officers. The affair was a source of significant controversy in Croatia and is considered one of the key events in Mesić's ten-year presidential incumbency.

Croatia underwent major political changes in late 1999 – early 2000. The first President of Croatia and leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Franjo Tuđman, died in office in December 1999. In January 2000 Tuđman's HDZ, a nationalist party that had ruled Croatia since independence in 1991, lost power in the parliamentary elections and was replaced by a center-left coalition of six parties. Stjepan Mesić, one of Tuđman's fiercest critics, won the presidential elections in the same month.

The new liberal and pro-European government began to investigate war crimes committed by Croatian forces in the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995), aiming to improve cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague. These developments enraged the war veterans' groups and extreme nationalists.

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