Fikret Abdić

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Fikret Abdić
Born September 29, 1939 (1939-09-29) (age 68)
Donja Vidovska, Velika Kladuša, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Fikret Abdić (born September 29, 1939) is a politician and businessman from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the 1980s, he became known mainly for his role in building up the farming conglomerate Agrokomerc. During the Bosnian War, Abdić declared his opposition to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina led by Alija Izetbegović, and founded the small, short-lived and unrecognized Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia in the northwest of Bosnia, composed of the town of Velika Kladuša, and a few nearby villages. The mini state existed between 1993 and 1995 and it was allied with Army of Republika Srpska.[1][2] In 2002 he was convicted on charges of war crimes by a court in Croatia.

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[edit] Biography

Before the war, Abdić was the director of Agrokomerc, a company from Velika Kladuša that he raised from an agricultural cooperative into a modern food combine, which employed over 13,000 workers, and which boosted the well-being of the entire area[1]. Agrokomerc changed the Velika Kladuša from a poverty stricken region to regional powerhouse. Local residents of Velika Kladusa called him Babo (Daddy) and treated Abdic "like a god" and "were ready to do whatever he said."[3] He ruled the company in an "imperial" style, with strong political backing from influential politician Hamdija Pozderac and his brother Hakija[4]

In the late 1987, just before Hamdija Pozderac was about to take over 1-year Presidency of Yugoslavia, a scandal broke up, where Abdić was imprisoned because of alleged financial malversations, and Hamdija Pozderac resigned. The scandal shook not only the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the whole of Yugoslavia as well.[4] Another of his controversial moves was erecting a monument to a Bosnian başbölükbaşı from the Ottoman Army Mujo Hrnjica on a hill above Velika Kladuša.[5]

After his release from prison, he joined the Party of Democratic Action just 24 hours before the 1990 elections were scheduled [6] and ran for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the erstwhile constitution, voters elected seven members to the presidency; two Bosniaks, two Serbs, two Croats and one Yugoslav. Abdić and his future rival Alija Izetbegović ran for the two Bosniak positions, and were both elected. Once the positions were filled, the members of the presidency elected a President of the Presidency who acted as its head. Although Abdić won more popular votes than Izetbegović, Abdić did not assume office for reasons which remain unclear.[5]

[edit] Bosnian War

According to NIN, when the Bosnian War broke out, Abdić briefly appeared in Sarajevo hoping to assume presidency after Izetbegović had been arrested by the Yugoslav People's Army. However, he was preempted as Izetbegović had already named Ejup Ganić for that position.[5]

A few months later, Abdić decided to return to Bihać and lead the people there.

Together with 20,000 of his supporters, opposed Izetbegović's government and formed the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, a move which the government characterized as treason[1]. He made peace deals with Serb (October 22, 1993) and Croat leaders (14 September 1993) who were satisfied to weaken Bosnian government[1] in the light of Karađorđevo and Graz agreements which aimed to redistribute Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia. Serbia wanted all lands where Serbs had a majority, eastern and western Bosnia. The Croats and their leader Franjo Tuđman also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian.[7][8].

When the government 5th Corps of Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, based in the south part of the Bihać pocket in Western Bosnia[9] tried to end the existence of APWB, Abdić raised an army which was supplied, trained, financed by (and fought alongside) the Army of Republika Srpska and Serbian counter-intelligence against Bosniak civilians loyal to the government. The Serbs took advantage of the situation and strengthened their and Abdić's positions. In August of 1995, an ARBiH offensive ended the Republic of Western Bosnia forcing him to flee to Croatia. By this time, Abdić had obtained Croatian citizenship and his contributions to the national army against the RSK was appreciated.

Lord Owen, the pro-Serb British diplomat and co-author of the Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans, described Abdić as "forthright, confident and different from the Sarajevan Muslims. He was in favor of negotiating and compromising with Croats and Serbs to achieve a settlement, and scathing about those Muslims who wanted to block any such settlement."[10]

[edit] After the war

After the war he was granted political asylum and citizenship.[11] by the Croatian President Franjo Tuđman and lived near the coastal city of Rijeka. The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina charged him with the deaths of 121 civilians, three POWs and the wounding of 400 civilians in the Bihać region. Croatia refused to extradite Abdić, though did themselves put him on trial.[11] In 2002 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed in the area of the "Bihać pocket”.[12] In 2005 the Croatian Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 15 years.[13]

Abdić ran for the position of Bosniak member of the Bosnian presidency in 2002 on the Democratic People's Community party ticket in 2002 and won 4.1% of the vote.[14] Bosnian law does not bar him from running for office since his conviction is in Croatia.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Emir Habul (2001-08-07). A Man who Divided the People of Krajina. AIM press, Sarajevo.
  2. ^ Decision on admissibility: Case no. CH/00/4371, Ismet Gracanin vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  3. ^ Sarah Kenyon Lischer (2007). Militarized Refugee Populations: Humanitarian Challenges in the Former Yugoslavia (HTML). MIT. Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
  4. ^ a b Kenneth W. Banta (1987-09-28). Yugoslavia All the Party Chief's Men. TIME magazine.
  5. ^ a b c Miloševićevi ljudi (Serbian). NIN (2000-01-13).
  6. ^ Biography, moljac.hr website (compiled from multiple sources) (Croatian).
  7. ^ ICTY: Naletilić and Martinović verdict - A. Historical background.
  8. ^ Dr. Gerard Toal and Dr. Carl Dahlman (2007). THE CLASH OF GOVERNMENTALITIES:DISPLACEMENT AND RETURN IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (PDF). United States National Science Foundation award number BCS 0137106. Retrieved on 2007-09-30. “But unlike Bosnian Serb claims to demographic dominance and self-determination, Croat nationalists sought to gain territory on a largely historic claim to western Herzegovina, a territory that would enlarge Croatia’s southern region by incorporating most of southern Bosnia. These plans were discussed in 1991 by Milosevic and Tudjman at Karadordevo and an apparent partition of Bosnia agreed (Silber 1995,131-132). For his part, Milosevic wanted most of eastern and western Bosnia, and Tudjman was willing to give up the Croat areas of northern Bosnia for his interests. Between these territories, they would leave a buffer Muslim state.”
  9. ^ Luke Zahner (2002-02-28). Bosnia: Abdic Turns Spotlight on Bihac. IWPR.
  10. ^ Balkan Odyssey
  11. ^ a b Gabriel Partos (2001-07-20). Warlord on trial in Croatia. BBC.
  12. ^ Concerns Pertaining to the Judiciary. Human Rights Watch (2004-10).
  13. ^ Background Report: Domestic War Crime Trials 2005 (page 23). OSCE mission in Croatia (2006-09-13).
  14. ^ PREDSJEDNIŠTVO BOSNE I HERCEGOVINE. Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.