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Alija Izetbegović - The first democratically elected President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

  1. (Bosanski Šamac) – 2003. (Sarajevo)

Alija Izetbegović was born on 8 August 1925 in Bosanski Šamac in a reputable bey family. When he was three, his father Mustafa, a tradesman by profession, decided to move to Sarajevo with his nine-member family. Mustafa Izetbegović had two sons from a previous marriage and three daughters and two sons from his marriage to Hiba nee Dzabija, the Alija’s mother. Alija was their fifth child.

Izetbegović attended the First Grammar School for Boys in Sarajevo, and even at the time, he began to face the dilemmas of the “social justice and injustice” on one hand, and the faith in God on the other. He read a lot, and the literary and philosophical works he had read in the final years of grammar school played an important role in his education and maturation. In literature, these were Dostoyevsky’s novels and in philosophy, The Fall of the West by Oswald Spengler and The Creative Evolution of Henry Bergson as well as the collected work of Immanuel Kant. Yet, after a period of youthful dilemmas and wanderings, he returned to a “newly found faith” that he never lost again, thus his faith became much stronger from the faith he had within his family tradition.

Izetbegović graduated in 1943. At that time Sarajevo was under the occupation by Ustasha and the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina was under the pro-Nazi NDH (Croatian Independent State) occupation, so he had to hide for the whole 1944 to avoid mobilization by the Ustasha regime. During that time, he met Halida Repovac, his future wife, whose two brothers (Bakir and Muhamed Repovac) were killed as members of the resistance movement.

During the war, Alija Izetbegović was engaged in the humanitarian work, assisting exiled civilians within the“ Young Muslims“ movement, where he tried to find the articulation of his own political views. Islam, as well as anti-fascism and anti-communism, determined the general orientation of this movement.

After the war, the newly established communist government saw the danger in the movement and the first arrests began in 1946. Among those who were arrested was Alija Izetbegović, who was serving his military service in the Yugoslav army at the time, so he was tried before the military court: he was given a three-year prison sentence.

Shortly after leaving prison in 1949, Izetbegović, although more interested in law, enrolled in the agronomy studies and started a family. For the next ten years, he worked on the construction sites, mostly in Montenegro where he managed the construction of the “Perućica” Hydro Power Plant near Nikšić for seven years. He studied and supported his family at the same time. He left Agronomy course on the third year and enrolled in law studies where he graduated within two years, in 1956. In the meantime, he had three children – two daughters and a son.

As a lawyer, Izetbegović continued working in the construction sector (NISKOGRADNJA, PUT, IPSA, CONSULTING). He passed the bar exam in 1962, however, he did not practice law professionally. In a wide range of interests – from following space programs, political events in the world and the country, the development of science and technology, to learning foreign languages, but also hobbies such as chess – Islam and the state of the Muslim nations remained a focus of Izetbegović’s attention. He also wrote and published (under the pseudonym L.S.B. – composed of the initial letters of the names of his daughters and son), several articles on that particular subject (later compiled under the title “Problems of Islamic Revival”), and in 1969 he made a draft of the “Islamic Declaration”, which he completed and released in 1970. This short text (around 40 pages,) relating to the Muslim world “from Morocco to Indonesia” triggered quite a lot of interest only after the staged “Sarajevo Process” in 1983. Although the prosecution did not offer any valid evidence, Izetbegović was convicted of the so-called Islamic fundamentalism and association to overthrow the constitutional order as well as for the delict of opinion.

Izetbegović wrote the important parts of his second book (“Islam between East and West”) even before his first imprisonment in 1946. When he was arrested, his sister Arzija hid and preserved the manuscript. Later, Izetbegović worked intensively on this manuscript and published a longer fragment on religion and art in 1971 in the Belgrade-based magazine “Kultura”, a thematic issue devoted to religion, which was temporarily banned because of a text on Marxism by Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdzhayev.

Ten years later, he sent a completed manuscript of the book “Islam between East and West” to his friend in Canada. A few months later, in March 1983, Izetbegović was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison at a staged trial in August that same year. Along with him, 12 other Muslim intellectuals were convicted of the “association in order to overthrow the state order“ and the „verbal delict“. Many of those convicted did not know each other.

The book “Islam between East and West” was published in English in America in 1984 and in Bosnian in Belgrade in 1988, while Izetbegović was still in prison. In the book that has been translated into nine languages, the author deals with Islam and its place in the modern world, while opening up a series of topics and questions regarding mankind in general. Although the prosecution used the text of the “Islamic Declaration” in the staged trial against Izetbegović, he believed that, in fact, the book “Islam between East and West” was the reason for his arrest. As there was a great interest for his written work during and after the Sarajevo trial, the „Islamic Declaration“ was translated to several languages.

During his second term in prison, Izetbegović began writing notes. They were reflections on life and destiny, religion and politics, the read works and their authors. Thus, there were thirteen small A5 notebooks, which Izetbegović edited and published in 1999 under the title “My Escape to Freedom”.

Whilst in prison, Izetbegović continued his fight to reduce his sentence. He wrote to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as to the Federal Court of the SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), pointing to the illegality of the court process. On appeal, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina symbolically reduced the sentence from 14 to 12 years in prison; The Federal Court of SFRY reversed the verdict and reduced it to a ‘verbal delict’, for which he was sentenced to nine years. Shortly thereafter, the Criminal Law provision on ‘verbal delict’ was repealed. Izetbegović stayed in prison five years and eight months and was finally released on 25 November 1988.

In May 1990, two years after his release from prison, Izetbegović founded the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) with a group of like-minded people. The Party’s objectives envisaged the affirmation of the universal values of freedom, democracy, equality and human rights, including market economy and positive functions of the welfare state. At the founding assembly, Izetbegović was elected the President of the Party. The Program Declaration, a founding document, bore the mark of his authorship, emphasizing the commitment to democracy – government by the people, regulated by the rule of just laws. The Declaration specifically emphasized the defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina statehood and the identity of Bosniaks indigenous European Muslim people.

In the first democratic election on 18 November 1990, the SDA won a convincing victory: out of 240 seats in the Assembly of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SDA won 86 seats, and in the seven-member Presidency, three were SDA candidates. Izetbegović was elected President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of severe economic and political crisis in Yugoslavia. Over the next year, as a representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he participated in the meetings of the ‘Six’ (presidents of 6 SFRY republics) in an effort to find a framework for the survival of Yugoslavia. Together with Kiro Gligorov, the Macedonian President, he offered the platform for a reformed Yugoslavia, which didn’t receive the necessary support from the others.

On 26 June 1991, after the Slovenia and Croatia independence declaration, a brief war broke out in Slovenia, marking the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the aggression of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) against republics that had declared independence. Izetbegović’s view was that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not remain in Yugoslavia without Slovenia and Croatia, because it would no longer be Yugoslavia but the Greater Serbia. He publicly opposed the mobilization of Bosnian-Herzegovinian youth for the war against Croatia, which was decided by the Presidency at the time. In addition to his party, he had a support of the majority of the civilian-provenance intellectuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, he managed to prevent an unconstitutional seizure of weapons from the Territorial Defence, which was performed by JNA in order to weaken the defence capability of the republics.

Wirgdrawing from Slovenia and some parts of Croatia, the JNA, which was becoming increasingly less of the Yugoslav Army and increasingly more of the Serbian army, began accumulating forces and weapons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Izetbegović intensively participated in the negotiations and diplomatic activities, in an effort to end the war and preserve peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to protect the legality and legitimacy of the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the circumstances where JNA (Yugoslav People’s Army) recklessly defined itself as a Serbian army and fundamentally threatened the original institutions of the national defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the SDA under Izetbegović’s leadership decided to establish a National Defence Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would later form the Patriotic League, the first military formation set up for the defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 14 January 1992, the Assembly of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a Resolution on Sovereignty, which was challenged by the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) as the majority political party of the Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A day later, the European Union recognized the independence of Slovenia and Croatia and conditioned the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina by holding a referendum (decision by the Badinter Commission of the EU).

The referendum was held on 29 February and 1 March 1992. Around 64 percent of citizens turned up, out of which 99 percent voted for an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that basis, the international recognition and admission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations ensued on 22 May 1992.

Following a release of the results, the first attacks by Serb paramilitary groups on the non-Serb population began, and after the European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina’s independence on 6 April 1992, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) launched a brutal aggression across the country. Izetbegović was 67 at the time, facing new major challenges and the most turbulent time of his life.

During the four-year war, Izetbegović’s life was in danger at all times. The Presidency building, where he regularly came to work, was shelled throughout the siege of Sarajevo. Izetbegović frequently ventured into free territories throughout the country and visited units of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Led by Alija Izetbegović, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was formed of the Patriotic League and Territorial Defence, was a defence and a liberation army with the respectable power and military success under the most difficult war circumstances.

As a President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he carried the burden and responsibility of the Commander in Chief. He insisted on a respect for the international conventions and international humanitarian law and especially on the protection of civilians and cultural and religious sites and opposed, even in the difficult war situation, any censorship and restriction of the freedom of speech. He continued to participate in the peace talks; despite all the military and political pressures and the arms embargo, he remained consistent regarding the principle of liberty and the commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole country in which“ no one will be persecuted because of their religion, nation and political conviction“.

Thanks to his principled views and the brave resistance of the Bosnian defenders, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained friends and support in the East as well as in the West.

 

The war ended with the adoption of the “Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” in Dayton (Ohio, USA) in November 1995. Richard Holbrooke, the creator of the agreement and the US diplomat, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not have survived had it not been for Alija Izetbegović. Izetbegović signed the Agreement well aware of the international situation and the balance of power as well as the chance to achieving peace and at the same time, protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a possibility of changing and improving the agreement.

After signing the Agreement, Izetbegović stated: “This is not a just peace, but it is more just than a continuation of the war. In the situation as it is, in the world as it is, a better peace could not be achieved.”

In the circumstances of an unjust peace and devastated country, Izetbegović continued to work intensively to alleviate the effects of war and devastation, to restore broken relationships and social life, to recover the political system and to establish an effective functioning of the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was aware that the major changes could be expected in a relatively long period therefore he was patient and took small steps forward. Later political developments proved his approach was right.

In February 1996, he suffered a heart attack. He recovered and continued to work for another 4 years. In the summer of 2000, he began to consider stepping down and on 15 October that year he withdrew from the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and from his position as the President. Summarizing his life, he wrote: “If I were offered to live again, I would refuse. But if I had to be born again, I would choose the life I have lived.”

He continued his political activities in SDA as well as the work on his autobiography, “The Memories.” He assisted in resolving open issues of the internal relations and the international position of Bosnia and Herzegovina by acting with the power of political authority and the broadest international reputation he enjoyed. He was a respected participant in the epoch, a holder of high honours from the East and the West, for his contributions to democracy and a more just world. Almost all statesmen who came to Bosnia and Herzegovina sought to include a meeting with Izetbegović in their protocol.

In the last days of his life, he was visited in hospital by many friends, including prominent statesmen such as Bill Clinton, the former US President and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish Prime Minister at the time.

Alija Izetbegović died in Sarajevo on 19 October 2003.

Bosniaks of all ages, Bosnians and Herzegovinians of all religions, ethnic and party backgrounds, as well as the admirers from all over the world, honoured him at the funeral and the final farewell in the largest crowd ever assembled in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His personal wish was to be buried at the Shaheed Cemetery Kovaci in Sarajevo.