Milan Tepić

Milan Tepić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Тепић, 1957 - September 29, 1991), was a major of former Yugoslav People's Army, ethnic Serb. He is the last person that was awarded the Order of the National Hero of Yugoslavia.

Bjelovar events
July 1991. members of the Yugoslav Army, who were doing their military service in the barracks named "Božidar Adžija" in Bjelovar, were under siege by members of the Croatian paramilitary formations [ZNG]. In the barracks was the 265th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army and newly arrived recruits.

Colonel Josip Tomsic, who defected from the Yugoslav Army and became commander of the defense of Bjelovar, prepared an attack on the barracks, in which were the remaining soldiers and officers who have not fled to the other side, along with their family members. The barracks, without water and electricity for days, was attacked by 2,000 troops. Since the command of Yugoslav Army did not send help, brigade commander Colonel Rajko Kovacevic ordered surrender and disposal of weapons.

After entering the barracks, President of the Crisis Staff of Bjelovar at that time, Jure Simic, ordered the captured members of the Yugoslav Army to remove upper clothing, then segregated from line Commander Rajko Kovacevic with aides Miljko Vasic and captain of the first class Dragisa Jovanovic, took them 50 meters away and shot them. [2]

Tepic was forced to pull back his troops from the warehouse and organize the defense of the Croatian paramilitary formations that have surrounded the building. [1] On the 29th of September 1991, not wanting to leave the weapons to the enemy, Major Milan Tepic blew up the warehouse, killing himself in the process.

According to Croatian sources, 11 Croatian soldiers and 20 Serbian reservists (members of the YPA, including Tepić himself) were killed in the explosion. Serbian sources claim that more than 200 Croatian soldiers died in the explosion, but were declared MIA by the Croatian Army.

Aftermath
Major Milan Tepić was declared for National Hero of Yugoslavia. He is the last person that received this order.

Streets in Belgrade, Banja Luka, Vršac, Zrenjanin, Sremska Mitrovica are named after him. There is also a monument of Milan Tepić in his street in Belgrade. One street in Novi Sad was also named after him until being changed in 2004. Army of Republika Srpska introduced Order of Milan Tepić for bravery in Bosnian war.

Some Serbs link Tepić's act to Stevan Sinđelić, who did a similar act almost 200 years before during the First Serbian Uprising. On the other hand, Serbian columnist Teofil Pančić sees Tepić's fame as an "experiment of Slobodan Milošević's failed propaganda attempt to mythologize the new Serbian hero". A parallel is drawn to Vladimir Trifunović, the commander of the Varaždin barracks who refused to have his men killed in a needless fight and surrendered to Croatian Army, leaving large quantities of arms and many fully functional T-55 tanks. He was trialed and sentenced by Serb military courts to 11 years for treason, but pardoned two years later and compensated for imprisonment.

Despite Tepić's sacrifice, Croatian forces captured over 100 T-55 tanks, many Armoured personnel carriers and other weapons and ammunition from YPA's Bjelovar objects, which is the largest number of captured tanks during the war, except those captured in Varaždin.