Jovan Divjak

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Jovan Divjak (2006)

Jovan Divjak (nickname: Uncle Jovo ; born March 11, 1937 in Belgrade , Yugoslavia , † April 8, 2021 in Sarajevo ) was a Bosnian general. Because of his role as commander of the so-called territorial units in the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, many Bosnians regarded him as the "hero of the defense of Sarajevo". During the war he was the only ethnically Serbian general in the leadership of the Bosnian army .

Life

Divjak's parents originally came from the Bosnian region of Bosanska Krajina . His father was stationed in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in Serbia. From 1956 to 1959 Divjak went through the military academy in Belgrade. In 1964 and 1965 he attended the École d'État Major in Paris. Divjak moved to Sarajevo in 1966. Although he was an ethnic Serb born in Serbia, he saw himself as a Bosnian.

From 1969 to 1971 Divjak was at the Cadet Academy in Belgrade and from 1979 to 1981 at the War and Defense Planning School there. After several posts in the Yugoslav People's Army, he was Head of Territorial Defense from 1984 to 1989, commanding the Mostar sector and from 1989 to 1991 the Sarajevo sector.

Between 1991 and 1993 Divjak was tried by the JNA before a court martial for having given 120 light protective vests and 20,000 rounds of ammunition to the territorial defense of Kiseljak and sentenced to nine months in prison. He circumvented the verdict by leaving the Yugoslav People's Army and joining the territorial defense of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Divjak was charged by the Serbian government with war crimes in the course of an attack on May 3, 1992 on withdrawing Yugoslav forces in Sarajevo . According to Serbian information, 42 people are said to have died. According to other reports, he tried unsuccessfully to prevent the attack. This is supported by video recordings of the day in question and statements by Canadian UN General Lewis MacKenzie . The Hague War Crimes Tribunal waived charges after investigating the incident.

After the war, Divjak headed an aid organization for orphans of all ethnic groups. He was an honorary citizen of the French cities of Grenoble , Villerest and Saumur and the Italian cities of Padova and Montesilvano . In addition, he was the first Bosnian to be honored with the French Legion of Honor and in 2008 he received the Victor Gollancz Prize from the Society for Threatened Peoples .

Arrested in Vienna

Jovan Divjak was arrested on March 4, 2011 at Vienna Airport on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Serbia on the basis of a bilateral agreement. On March 7, a demonstration of around 800 people for his release took place in Vienna. There was no extradition to Serbia. On March 8, Divjak was released from custody on bail of EUR 500,000. The Serbian Special Prosecutor for War Crimes filed an extradition request on March 9. The extradition request was rejected by the Korneuburg public prosecutor on July 29, 2011 , whereupon Divjak left for Sarajevo.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Divjak should not be extradited to Serbia. In: ORF . March 7, 2011, accessed March 7, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Jasmin Tajić: Tužne vijesti: U Sarajevu preminuo Jovan Divjak, bivši general Armije BiH. In: Oslobođenje . Retrieved April 8, 2021 (Bosnian).
  3. ↑ a b c Erich Rathfelder : The general who defended Sarajevo. In: the daily newspaper . March 7, 2011, accessed March 7, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Video on YouTube
  5. ↑ Christopher Merrill: Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars . Ed .: Rowman & Littlefield. 2001, ISBN 978-0-7425-1686-1 , pp. 357 ( google.com ).
  6. ↑ Jovan Divjak: Ja sam Bosonac (German: Jovan Divjak: I am Bosnian). (No longer available online.) In: Sense Tribunal. Sense Agency, 2007, archived from the original on March 16, 2012 ; Retrieved on March 16, 2012 (Serbo-Croatian).
  7. ↑ Omer Karabeg: What Really Happened During The Dobrovoljacka Attack? In: rferl.org. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, March 8, 2010, accessed April 8, 2021 .
  8. ↑ a b Bosnian ex-general arrested at Vienna Airport. In: ORF. March 4, 2011, accessed March 7, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Video on YouTube
  10. ↑ ROR1104. (PDF) In: ICTY. June 17, 2003, accessed May 1, 2011 .
  11. ↑ Serbia's hunt for a Serbian general. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . March 4, 2011, Retrieved March 4, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Victor Gollancz Prize Winner 2008. Jovan Divjak, General a. D. of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. (No longer available online.) In: Society for Threatened Peoples . Archived from the original on March 27, 2014 ; Retrieved March 17, 2011 .
  13. ↑ Federal Law Gazette III No. 20/2005
  14. ↑ Vienna does not extradite Bosnian ex-general Divjak. In: derstandard.at. July 29, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2011 .
  15. ↑ Erich Rathfelder: The most popular person in Sarajevo. In: the daily newspaper. August 1, 2011, accessed August 1, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Divjak, Jovan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uncle Jovo (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bosnian general
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Belgrade , Yugoslavia
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina