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A BUSY MAN, ABDIC
The story of Fikret Abdic, a politician and a businessman who during the 1992-1995 war orchestrated a mutiny against the SDA authorities in Sarajevo and who has long been considered a formidable foe of the SDA, is nearly as colorful as the attempts on his life.
For the past 20 years, Abdic has held firmly to his reputation as one of Bosnia’s most controversial figures. In the late 1980s, his name was splattered all over a scandal concerning the giant food company, Agrokomerc, of which he was then the director. Abdic was convicted on embezzlement charges and served a prison sentence.
Together with Izetbegovic, Abdic was also one of the founders of SDA--the powerful party he would later leave. Though he won more votes in the 1991 elections for Bosnia’s joint presidency than Izetbegovic did, he agreed that Izetbegovic should take the post, because within the party itself, Izetbegovic held more influence. Even before the war, Abdic often clashed with Izetbegovic, accusing him of extremism. But by the end of 1992, Abdic was cooperating militarily and economically with Bosnian Serbs--actions the SDA was against.
Abdic earned his true title as enemy of the SDA when in September 1993, during his rebellion, he established a separate entity in the western region of the country. After his forces were crushed by Izetbegovic, Abdic fled to Croatia, where he set up shop as a businessman. He took the name of Agrokomerc with him to Croatia and started a private food company, and in 1996 founded his own political party, the DNZ.
Abdic is currently on trial in Croatia on war crimes charges. In 1995, Bosniak authorities began indictment procedures against him for war crimes committed during his 1993-1995 mutiny. Croatian authorities refused to extradite Abdic because he had obtained Croatian citizenship and forged close links with the regime of late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. In 1999, Abdic’s name turned up on Interpol’s wanted list, however, and Croatian authorities were forced to deal with the issue by trying him on their territory. Abdic is charged with the murder of 121 civilians and the wounding of 400, as well as the opening of concentration camps in which some 5,000 people were held. The trial began in July 2001 and continues today.
And the controversial figure has indeed created a long list of enemies. The DNZ’s Dolic told TOL that Abdic knew about the plans for his liquidation. “Through Croatian intelligence sources, Abdic learned about the planned assassination, but it wasn’t the first such attempt on his life,” said Dolic. “So far, we are aware of at least eight assassination attempts on Abdic.”
THE BOTCHED ASSASSINATION
In his testimony, recorded in the indictment obtained by TOL, an anonymous Croatian intelligence official said he had been charged with investigating political activities in western Bosnia during the time of operation Dover. The official said that he had information that the AID deputy director, Enver Mujezinovic--who has also been indicted in connection with the Pogorelica terrorism training camp--had arrived in Bihac for a meeting with Veladzic and Ikic. “I received orders from above to find out the purpose of that visit, and it was then that I learned that Fikret Abdic’s life was in danger.”
On 4 April 1996, Croatian police arrested five Bihac police officers on their territory: Dervis Demirovic, Hajrudin Halilagic, Zijad Zulic, Jasmin Osmankic, and Jusuf Delic. Police confiscated a number of illegal weapons, explosives, homemade bombs, and pistols from the five, as well as one official Bihac police vehicle containing an illegal weapon.
The first charges were brought against Demirovic, who was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. During his trial, he confessed that Ikic told him he was looking for hired guns to liquidate Abdic. “He was walking through Bihac as if he was just looking to buy potatoes and asking everybody if they wanted to kill Abdic,” Demirovic testified. “He promised me $50,000 for the job.”
Demirovic and Halilagic were hired to choose the location where Abdic would be murdered and to transfer the necessary weapons and the hired assassins across the border to Croatia. Halilagic testified that the operation was delayed a couple of times because two or three different groups of recruited police assassins at first refused to finish the job, saying it was impossible.
Demirovic and Halilagic chose a small highway connecting the Croatian cities of Rijeka and Pula, a route often traveled by Abdic. “The plan was that when Abdic’s car drove by the arranged spot, the team would first fire a couple of shots and then Zulic--as the sharpest shooter--would toss a couple of hand grenades,” said Demirovic, as recorded in the indictment. Demirovic said he entered Croatia several times, each time bringing part of the weapons supply, which he then hid in a black bag in some roadside shrubs.
The accused Osmankic said that from the beginning he doubted the success of the operation. During the war, Osmankic had been a member of the Bosnian Army’s special forces unit and, as a man with experience, he thought that the operation was bound to fail. “First I told Ikic that I didn’t have a passport, but he said not to worry about that and that he would arrange everything. After I said it was impossible to kill Abdic from the chosen roadside location, Ikic said he was willing to offer me $75,000 and that after the operation I could choose any business space I wanted in Bihac and he would make it mine,” Osmankic said.
"The Nine Lives of a Bosnian Businessman"
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Anes Alic and Jen Tracy are freelance reporters based in Sarajevo.
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