Post by theblackswans on Oct 28, 2008 21:26:26 GMT -5
This is an open forum to discuss the Heros of the Bosnian Defense in 1992 when things were most difficult. There were many to choose from during the war, that is why I focused on 1992. Feel free to discuss your own hero's as long as they are legit defenders of the BOSNIAN STATE...
Dragan Vikić (born October 8th, 1955) ex-athelete, member of the Bosnian Ministry of Interior (MUP) and a recipient of the “Šestoaprilske nagrade Sarajeva” the highest honor of the city of Sarajevo.
During his active career as a martial artist he never lost a match. He was 3 time champion of Yugoslavia. With the SFRY team, he won one gold and 3 silver medals in the European championship. He gave a significant contribution to the develpment of martial arts in Bosnia. Today he is the president of the karate association of B&H.
Upon finishing his time as a student of the Ministry of Interior, he finished Faculty of Physical Culture and started his professional career within the Ministry. At the very start of his work, as the youngest member of the police of RBIH, he received many recognitions for his excellent professional results.
At the beginning of the aggression on B&H, he found himself at the front of the special unit of the MUP. It’s worth noting that the unit was very diverse in it’s ethnic make up. Around 52% Bosniak, 21% Serbs, 22% Croats, and the rest was smaller amounts of Slovenians, Chezhs and others. Together with his special unit they famously cought many of the snipers which fired on the unarmed civilians in front of the Parliament building in Sarajevo. At the beginning of the conflict he was reportedly offered 1 million German marks by the enemy Serb forces, to leave Sarajevo and abandon it’s defense. Of course the thought of leaving was never even an option for Dragan and he ignored it. Sarajevo was his city and he would stay and defend it.
The Bosnian singer Tifa formerly of Bijelo Dugme, recorded a song for Dragan called “Ponesi Zastavu” (Carry the flag), during the war.
Some see Musan Topalovic, Juka Prazina and Ramiz Delalic & Ismet Bajramovic as hero's others as criminals. There contribution to the Defense of BiH and Sarajevo when there was little hope cannot be argued though.
Jovan Divjak (Born March 11, 1937 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was a general in the Bosnian army during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. He was the highest ranking ethnic Serb in the army and one of its most educated and experienced officers.
Early life and military career
He was born in Belgrade to Serb parents. His father was stationed in the Yugoslav army in Serbia. Originally his family comes from Bosnia and he currently resides in Sarajevo. He moved to Sarajevo in 1966.
From 1956 to 1959 he attended the Military Academy in Belgrade. In 1964 and 1965 the l’Ecole d’Etat Major in Paris. From 1969 to 1971 the Cadets Academy in Belgrade and from 1979 to 1981 the War and Defense Planning School in Belgrade.
After several posts in the JNA, Divjak was Territorial Defense Chief in command of the sector Mostar from 1984 to 1989 and same for the sector Sarajevo from 1989 to 1991. In 1991/2 Jovan Divjak was court-marshalled by the JNA for issuing 120 pieces of light armour and 20,000 bullets to the Kiseljak Territorial Defense, and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
On April 8, 1992, Divjak became Deputy Commander of BiH’s Territorial Defense forces and a month later oversaw the defence of Sarajevo from a major JNA attack. Between 1993-1997 General Divjak was Deputy Commander of the BiH Army’s Headquarters, charged with the cooperation with civilian institutions and organisations (administration, economy, health, education).
His life today
Today, Divjak is the executive director of the association OGBH, “OBRAZOVANJE GRADI BIH” (Education builds Bosnia and Herzegovina). He was one of the founder of OGBH in 1994. The association’s goals are to help children who’s family were victims from the war, by providing them money, for instance; but also to help the increase of education in Bosnia, even in the poorest parts of the country, by providing them financial and material support.
Since 2004, he has been a member of the Steering Board of the NGO Reference Group, Sarajevo.
Since 1998, he has been a member of the Association of Independent Intellectuals “Krug 99″, Sarajevo
Before 1998, he has been an active member of others associations, such as sports associations, or Faculty of physical education in Sarajevo, and has been a very active member of various NGO in Bosnia. He tries to help his country as much as he can, and hopes that the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina is clearer than its past.
He has also written two books:
In French “Sarajevo, mon amour”. Entretiens avec Florence La Bruyere; published by Buchet-Chastel in 2004 with a foreword by Bernard-Henri Lévy.
In Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, “Ratovi u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini 1991-1995″, an offprint on the aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina. “Dani” and Jesenski and Tura in 1999.
He appeared in the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia in 1995.
In 2006 he has been nominated for the title of Universal Peace Ambassador by the The Worldwide Council of the Universal Ambassador Peace Circle in Geneva, and awarded.
He is a self-declared “ethnic Bosnian”.
Blaž Kraljević (September 17, 1947 - August 9, 1992) was a Bosnian Croat paramilitary leader during the first few months of the Bosnian War who commanded the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS). President Izetbegović appointed him to be a member of Bosnian Army’s Headquarters, seven days before his assassination.
Blaž Kraljević was one of eight children born to a Croat family in the village of Listica in the municipality of Ljubuški, Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the age of 19 Kraljević immigrated to Germany and shortly thereafter to Australia where he joined Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood, and organisation whose aim was to restore the Independent State of Croatia. Allegedly, he was supposed be the twentieth member of the Bugojno group, which went to Yugoslavia in 1972 in order to start an armed uprising, but he was allegedly prevented from leaving Australia by ASIO. Kraljevic remained in Australia until 1990. Upon his return to Herzegovina he became the leader of the Croatian Party of Rights and in December of 1991 he became the leader of the HOS.
War
When the war began Kraljevic began to position his group as the main Croat militia in Bosnia. Unlike the other Croat militia, the Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane-Croatian Defence Council (HVO), he opposed the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the creation of an ethnically cleansed Greater Croatia, instead he wanted to federate Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia. On May 9, 1992 he issued a proclamation to the Bosniak and Croat citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina which stated the following:
We implore all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially Croats and Bosniaks not to take into account any statements or agreements between Mate Boban and Radovan Karadžić.
Not one nor the other speak in the name of Croats and Bosniaks. They do not represent what the Croats and Bosniaks want.
There will be no division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can and we will preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina for all of us; we won’t leave our people on the grinder. Either we will all die or we will all be free. We are not ready for treason. Radovan Karadzic is the murderer of Croat and Bosniak people’s and Mate Boban cannot and doesn’t have the right to lead the Croats and Bosniaks of BH into ruin.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is defended and will be defended by the HOS and TO Bosnia and Herzegovina (Territorial Defence Forces of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Bosnia and Herzegovina is in ruins, the people are displaced but the victory is ours. We invite all HVO units to come under our command. Under the command of the HOS and with the cooperation of the TO Bosnia and Herzegovina we will free Bosnia and Herzegovina for the benefit of all people’s. We will throw the people with the dark pasts and suspicious present out of the defensive units of BH. We will send them home, but keep an eye on them, we are talking about our destiny. We have a chance, but just one.
The proclamation is concluded by “BOG I HRVATI” (God and Croats), and “ZA DOM SPREMNI” (Ready for the homeland!), a traditional Croatian salute.
Proclamation by Blaž Kraljević against the devision of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević.
After many early successes a large number of HVO soldiers defected and joined the HOS. In the summer of 1992 his militia successfully defended Stolac, and launched an offensive into eastern Herzegovina which seized parts of the municipality of Trebinje. Much of the Serb population of Trebinje and Bileća had begun to pack up run. This went against the Graz agreement that Serbia and Croatia made regarding the division of the country.
Death
On August 9, 1992 after a meeting at Široki Brijeg he left on his way back to his home in Ljubuški. When the motorcade passed the village of Kruševo south of Mostar a group of as many as 20 gunmen opened fire on his motorcade. Kraljević was killed along with Gordan Čuljak, Šahdo Delić, Ivan Granić, Rasim Krasniqi, Osman Maksić, Mario Medić, Vinko Primorac and Marko Stjepanović. During Naletilić-Martinović trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Prosecutors implied that Kraljević was murdered by Mate Boban’s HVO because HOS believed in a, “… multi-ethnic Bosnia of the Croats and Muslims working together.” Until that point the HOS was composed Croats and a large percentage of Bosniaks around Mostar. After Kraljević’s assassination the HOS dissolved.
Sefer Halilović (born January 6, 1952) is a former general and commading officer of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the most instrumental factors in the preperation of the defenses of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many feel that without his efforts, the city of Sarajevo and the country itself would’ve fallen and the war lost.
In 2001 he was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and eventually acquitted. Today he is a prominent politician in Bosnia.
Pre war life
Halilović was born in Taševo, a hamlet in the Prijepolje municipality in the Sandžak region of Serbia, then Yugoslavia. He attended the military academy in Belgrade in 1971 for three years and in 1975 he attended the military school in Zadar where he became an Officer in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). On August 31, 1990 he went to Belgrade and attended a two-year course at the school for commanders. When he left the People’s Army in September 1991 he was a professional military officer and held the rank of Major. He returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina, created the Patriotic League and planned the defense of the country.
War years
On May 25, 1992 he was appointed by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) as Commander of the Territorial Defence (TO) Staff of the RBiH, replacing Hasan Efendić, becoming the most senior Military Commander of the armed forces of the RBiH.
From his appointment in May to early July, while the TO evolved into an Army, Halilović also acted as a member of the War Presidency. After July 1992, he functioned as the Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On August 18, 1992, the Presidency formed five corps of the ABiH with Halilović as Chief of the Supreme Command Staff / Chief of the Main Staff. On June 8, 1993, a new position was created, Commander of the Supreme Command Staff. Rasim Delić filled this post until Halilović replaced him and served until November 1993. Between July 18, 1993 to November 1993, he held the post of Deputy Commander of the Supreme Command Staff of the ABiH as well as Chief of the Supreme Command Staff.
Spring 1993. The office of the Patriotic League, a society of Bosnian Muslims, was wrecked when the big bomb blew up the Mahalo neighborhood. Before there was trouble in Vitez I interviewed two men in this office, both leaders in the movement. I remember them as being very calm and refined, and committed to Bosnian unity.
After a meeting in Zenica on August 20–August 21, 1993, Rasim Delić appointed him Head of an Inspection Team. At that same meeting he urged his fellow officers to prioritize the disciplining of BH soldiers. He was quoted as saying; “When are we going to start shooting people for not following orders”?
Stjepan Siber (deputy of the ARBIH commander)(army chief of staff 1992-1995) Deputy Chief of Staff of the ABiH. Deputy commander of the ABiH and a top Croatian officer within the army he played in integral part in organizing the ABiH including design of official symbols used by the ABiH during the year.
Hasan Efendić (First commander of the Bosnian Forces TO) Hasan Efendic was the first commander of the TO and Patriotic league at the outset of the war in Bosnia. His time in leadership was marked by the disorganization and lack of preparation for war that was to come. Some have accused him of working with the Serbian secret service during the war possibly because his wife was Serbian and still lived in Belgrade. His position was abolished in 1992 and Halilovic replaced him with the creation of the position of Chief of Staff.
The last group were all hero's of the Bosnian war who sacrificed it all in defense of the Bosnian State.
Dragan Vikić (born October 8th, 1955) ex-athelete, member of the Bosnian Ministry of Interior (MUP) and a recipient of the “Šestoaprilske nagrade Sarajeva” the highest honor of the city of Sarajevo.
During his active career as a martial artist he never lost a match. He was 3 time champion of Yugoslavia. With the SFRY team, he won one gold and 3 silver medals in the European championship. He gave a significant contribution to the develpment of martial arts in Bosnia. Today he is the president of the karate association of B&H.
Upon finishing his time as a student of the Ministry of Interior, he finished Faculty of Physical Culture and started his professional career within the Ministry. At the very start of his work, as the youngest member of the police of RBIH, he received many recognitions for his excellent professional results.
At the beginning of the aggression on B&H, he found himself at the front of the special unit of the MUP. It’s worth noting that the unit was very diverse in it’s ethnic make up. Around 52% Bosniak, 21% Serbs, 22% Croats, and the rest was smaller amounts of Slovenians, Chezhs and others. Together with his special unit they famously cought many of the snipers which fired on the unarmed civilians in front of the Parliament building in Sarajevo. At the beginning of the conflict he was reportedly offered 1 million German marks by the enemy Serb forces, to leave Sarajevo and abandon it’s defense. Of course the thought of leaving was never even an option for Dragan and he ignored it. Sarajevo was his city and he would stay and defend it.
The Bosnian singer Tifa formerly of Bijelo Dugme, recorded a song for Dragan called “Ponesi Zastavu” (Carry the flag), during the war.
Some see Musan Topalovic, Juka Prazina and Ramiz Delalic & Ismet Bajramovic as hero's others as criminals. There contribution to the Defense of BiH and Sarajevo when there was little hope cannot be argued though.
Jovan Divjak (Born March 11, 1937 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was a general in the Bosnian army during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. He was the highest ranking ethnic Serb in the army and one of its most educated and experienced officers.
Early life and military career
He was born in Belgrade to Serb parents. His father was stationed in the Yugoslav army in Serbia. Originally his family comes from Bosnia and he currently resides in Sarajevo. He moved to Sarajevo in 1966.
From 1956 to 1959 he attended the Military Academy in Belgrade. In 1964 and 1965 the l’Ecole d’Etat Major in Paris. From 1969 to 1971 the Cadets Academy in Belgrade and from 1979 to 1981 the War and Defense Planning School in Belgrade.
After several posts in the JNA, Divjak was Territorial Defense Chief in command of the sector Mostar from 1984 to 1989 and same for the sector Sarajevo from 1989 to 1991. In 1991/2 Jovan Divjak was court-marshalled by the JNA for issuing 120 pieces of light armour and 20,000 bullets to the Kiseljak Territorial Defense, and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
On April 8, 1992, Divjak became Deputy Commander of BiH’s Territorial Defense forces and a month later oversaw the defence of Sarajevo from a major JNA attack. Between 1993-1997 General Divjak was Deputy Commander of the BiH Army’s Headquarters, charged with the cooperation with civilian institutions and organisations (administration, economy, health, education).
His life today
Today, Divjak is the executive director of the association OGBH, “OBRAZOVANJE GRADI BIH” (Education builds Bosnia and Herzegovina). He was one of the founder of OGBH in 1994. The association’s goals are to help children who’s family were victims from the war, by providing them money, for instance; but also to help the increase of education in Bosnia, even in the poorest parts of the country, by providing them financial and material support.
Since 2004, he has been a member of the Steering Board of the NGO Reference Group, Sarajevo.
Since 1998, he has been a member of the Association of Independent Intellectuals “Krug 99″, Sarajevo
Before 1998, he has been an active member of others associations, such as sports associations, or Faculty of physical education in Sarajevo, and has been a very active member of various NGO in Bosnia. He tries to help his country as much as he can, and hopes that the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina is clearer than its past.
He has also written two books:
In French “Sarajevo, mon amour”. Entretiens avec Florence La Bruyere; published by Buchet-Chastel in 2004 with a foreword by Bernard-Henri Lévy.
In Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, “Ratovi u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini 1991-1995″, an offprint on the aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina. “Dani” and Jesenski and Tura in 1999.
He appeared in the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia in 1995.
In 2006 he has been nominated for the title of Universal Peace Ambassador by the The Worldwide Council of the Universal Ambassador Peace Circle in Geneva, and awarded.
He is a self-declared “ethnic Bosnian”.
Blaž Kraljević (September 17, 1947 - August 9, 1992) was a Bosnian Croat paramilitary leader during the first few months of the Bosnian War who commanded the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS). President Izetbegović appointed him to be a member of Bosnian Army’s Headquarters, seven days before his assassination.
Blaž Kraljević was one of eight children born to a Croat family in the village of Listica in the municipality of Ljubuški, Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the age of 19 Kraljević immigrated to Germany and shortly thereafter to Australia where he joined Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood, and organisation whose aim was to restore the Independent State of Croatia. Allegedly, he was supposed be the twentieth member of the Bugojno group, which went to Yugoslavia in 1972 in order to start an armed uprising, but he was allegedly prevented from leaving Australia by ASIO. Kraljevic remained in Australia until 1990. Upon his return to Herzegovina he became the leader of the Croatian Party of Rights and in December of 1991 he became the leader of the HOS.
War
When the war began Kraljevic began to position his group as the main Croat militia in Bosnia. Unlike the other Croat militia, the Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane-Croatian Defence Council (HVO), he opposed the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the creation of an ethnically cleansed Greater Croatia, instead he wanted to federate Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia. On May 9, 1992 he issued a proclamation to the Bosniak and Croat citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina which stated the following:
We implore all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially Croats and Bosniaks not to take into account any statements or agreements between Mate Boban and Radovan Karadžić.
Not one nor the other speak in the name of Croats and Bosniaks. They do not represent what the Croats and Bosniaks want.
There will be no division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can and we will preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina for all of us; we won’t leave our people on the grinder. Either we will all die or we will all be free. We are not ready for treason. Radovan Karadzic is the murderer of Croat and Bosniak people’s and Mate Boban cannot and doesn’t have the right to lead the Croats and Bosniaks of BH into ruin.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is defended and will be defended by the HOS and TO Bosnia and Herzegovina (Territorial Defence Forces of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Bosnia and Herzegovina is in ruins, the people are displaced but the victory is ours. We invite all HVO units to come under our command. Under the command of the HOS and with the cooperation of the TO Bosnia and Herzegovina we will free Bosnia and Herzegovina for the benefit of all people’s. We will throw the people with the dark pasts and suspicious present out of the defensive units of BH. We will send them home, but keep an eye on them, we are talking about our destiny. We have a chance, but just one.
The proclamation is concluded by “BOG I HRVATI” (God and Croats), and “ZA DOM SPREMNI” (Ready for the homeland!), a traditional Croatian salute.
Proclamation by Blaž Kraljević against the devision of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević.
After many early successes a large number of HVO soldiers defected and joined the HOS. In the summer of 1992 his militia successfully defended Stolac, and launched an offensive into eastern Herzegovina which seized parts of the municipality of Trebinje. Much of the Serb population of Trebinje and Bileća had begun to pack up run. This went against the Graz agreement that Serbia and Croatia made regarding the division of the country.
Death
On August 9, 1992 after a meeting at Široki Brijeg he left on his way back to his home in Ljubuški. When the motorcade passed the village of Kruševo south of Mostar a group of as many as 20 gunmen opened fire on his motorcade. Kraljević was killed along with Gordan Čuljak, Šahdo Delić, Ivan Granić, Rasim Krasniqi, Osman Maksić, Mario Medić, Vinko Primorac and Marko Stjepanović. During Naletilić-Martinović trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Prosecutors implied that Kraljević was murdered by Mate Boban’s HVO because HOS believed in a, “… multi-ethnic Bosnia of the Croats and Muslims working together.” Until that point the HOS was composed Croats and a large percentage of Bosniaks around Mostar. After Kraljević’s assassination the HOS dissolved.
Sefer Halilović (born January 6, 1952) is a former general and commading officer of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the most instrumental factors in the preperation of the defenses of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many feel that without his efforts, the city of Sarajevo and the country itself would’ve fallen and the war lost.
In 2001 he was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and eventually acquitted. Today he is a prominent politician in Bosnia.
Pre war life
Halilović was born in Taševo, a hamlet in the Prijepolje municipality in the Sandžak region of Serbia, then Yugoslavia. He attended the military academy in Belgrade in 1971 for three years and in 1975 he attended the military school in Zadar where he became an Officer in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). On August 31, 1990 he went to Belgrade and attended a two-year course at the school for commanders. When he left the People’s Army in September 1991 he was a professional military officer and held the rank of Major. He returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina, created the Patriotic League and planned the defense of the country.
War years
On May 25, 1992 he was appointed by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) as Commander of the Territorial Defence (TO) Staff of the RBiH, replacing Hasan Efendić, becoming the most senior Military Commander of the armed forces of the RBiH.
From his appointment in May to early July, while the TO evolved into an Army, Halilović also acted as a member of the War Presidency. After July 1992, he functioned as the Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On August 18, 1992, the Presidency formed five corps of the ABiH with Halilović as Chief of the Supreme Command Staff / Chief of the Main Staff. On June 8, 1993, a new position was created, Commander of the Supreme Command Staff. Rasim Delić filled this post until Halilović replaced him and served until November 1993. Between July 18, 1993 to November 1993, he held the post of Deputy Commander of the Supreme Command Staff of the ABiH as well as Chief of the Supreme Command Staff.
Spring 1993. The office of the Patriotic League, a society of Bosnian Muslims, was wrecked when the big bomb blew up the Mahalo neighborhood. Before there was trouble in Vitez I interviewed two men in this office, both leaders in the movement. I remember them as being very calm and refined, and committed to Bosnian unity.
After a meeting in Zenica on August 20–August 21, 1993, Rasim Delić appointed him Head of an Inspection Team. At that same meeting he urged his fellow officers to prioritize the disciplining of BH soldiers. He was quoted as saying; “When are we going to start shooting people for not following orders”?
Stjepan Siber (deputy of the ARBIH commander)(army chief of staff 1992-1995) Deputy Chief of Staff of the ABiH. Deputy commander of the ABiH and a top Croatian officer within the army he played in integral part in organizing the ABiH including design of official symbols used by the ABiH during the year.
Hasan Efendić (First commander of the Bosnian Forces TO) Hasan Efendic was the first commander of the TO and Patriotic league at the outset of the war in Bosnia. His time in leadership was marked by the disorganization and lack of preparation for war that was to come. Some have accused him of working with the Serbian secret service during the war possibly because his wife was Serbian and still lived in Belgrade. His position was abolished in 1992 and Halilovic replaced him with the creation of the position of Chief of Staff.
The last group were all hero's of the Bosnian war who sacrificed it all in defense of the Bosnian State.