Fikret Abdić

Fikret Abdić (born September 29, 1939 in Donja Vidovska near Velika Kladuša , Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) is a Bosnian businessman , politician , former warlord and convicted war criminal . Abdić is known to his followers by his nickname Babo (German: father ). He has been the mayor of Velika Kladuša since November 2016.

Career

Until 1989

In the former Yugoslavia , Fikret Abdić was director of the state-owned agricultural company Agrokomerc . At the end of the 80s there was a big scandal about this group, as Abdić had for years concealed the constant losses of Agrokomerc by unsecured changes . He was convicted of fraud in 1987 and spent around two years in prison.

Bosnian politics

After his release from prison, he joined Alija Izetbegović's party , the SDA (Party of Democratic Action) . The party won the 1990 elections and Fikret Abdić could have assumed the office of president under the Bosnian electoral system, but for reasons that were not known, he waived in favor of Alija Izetbegović. His daughter Elvira stated that the reason was a death threat against the entire family if Fikret Abdić had not resigned from office.

Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia

In the spring of 1992 Fikret Abdić was accused by the Bosniaks of being involved in a coup against Alija Izetbegović. His role is unclear, but it meant that Abdić was invited by the Europeans to peace talks parallel to Alija Izetbegović. It is believed that this special role encouraged Fikret Abdić to proclaim the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia on September 27, 1993 . In fact, it was the municipality of Velika Kladuša and parts of the municipality of Cazin . In Germany, this region is better known as part of the Bosniak security zone and enclave of Bihać . As the leader of this autonomous region, he concluded a separate peace with the Bosnian Serbs and came to an understanding with Croatia to renounce the use of military force.

The Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia collapsed in August 1995 under a joint attack by the Bosnian and Croatian armies . While around 30,000 soldiers from his militia were taken prisoner of war , Fikret Abdić was able to escape unmolested to Croatia under the personal protection of Croatian President Franjo Tuđman .

War crimes trial

Only after Tuđman's death was Fikret Abdić arrested in 2001 and charged as a war criminal in Croatia. For his involvement in the deaths of 400 civilians and the establishment of camps, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Karlovac in July 2002 . In April 2004, the Croatian Supreme Court upheld the verdict. In 2005, his lawyers brought charges against the state of Croatia at the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that the trial was not fair and without proper evidence.

On March 9, 2012 Abdić was released from prison in Pula .

His former party, Demokratska narodna zajednica (Democratic People's Community), has been represented in the Bosnian parliament since 2002 .

After imprisonment

In December 2013 Abdić and his daughter left the DNZ after a lengthy internal party dispute and founded the Laburistička stranka Bosne i Hercegovine .

In the local elections in 2016 Abdić was elected mayor of his hometown Velika Kladuša.

literature

• Fikret Abdić , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 35/2001 from August 20, 2001, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Balkaninsight.com: Mayors in Bosnia protest as war criminal collects mayoral mandate. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
2. ↑ cit. after Elvira Abdić Jelenković: "Babina" kćerka se ponosi što kao muslimanka predstavlja Hrvate u FBiH. ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: vecernji-list.hr . July 30, 2007, accessed September 10, 2007. 
3. ↑ Izbori.ba: Candidate Lists for the Local Elections 2016. Accessed August 3, 2016.