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| - The 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing was an incident that occurred on 7 January 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence in which a European Community Monitor Mission (ECMM) helicopter carrying five European Community (EC) observers was downed by a Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, in the air space above the village of Podrute, near Novi Marof, Croatia. Four Italian officers and a French officer were killed. Another ECMM helicopter flying in formation with the attacked helicopter crash-landed and its crew of four survived. Following the incident, condemned by the United Nations Security Council and the EC, Yugoslav authorities suspended the head of the air force, and the defence minister, General Veljko Kadijević resigned his post. The events follow
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abstract
| - The 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing was an incident that occurred on 7 January 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence in which a European Community Monitor Mission (ECMM) helicopter carrying five European Community (EC) observers was downed by a Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, in the air space above the village of Podrute, near Novi Marof, Croatia. Four Italian officers and a French officer were killed. Another ECMM helicopter flying in formation with the attacked helicopter crash-landed and its crew of four survived. Following the incident, condemned by the United Nations Security Council and the EC, Yugoslav authorities suspended the head of the air force, and the defence minister, General Veljko Kadijević resigned his post. The events followed the end of the first stage of the war in Croatia and closely preceded the country's international recognition. The MiG-21 pilot, Lieutenant Emir Šišić, was tried in absentia together with his superiors by Croatian authorities and convicted to an extended prison sentence, but remained at large. Šišić was arrested in Hungary in 2001 and extradited to Italy, where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2006, he was turned over to Serbia for the remainder of the sentence, but released in 2008. Two other Yugoslav officers were tried in absentia in Italy and convicted in 2013, while Serbia was ordered to pay damage to families of the killed. The observers were posthumously decorated by Italy and France respectively.
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