Džemal Bijedić

Džemal Bijedić
23rd President of the Federal Executive Council
In office
30 July 1971 – 18 January 1977
President Josip Broz Tito
Preceded by Mitja Ribičič
Succeeded by Veselin Đuranović
Personal details
Born (1917-04-12)12 April 1917
Mostar, Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died 18 January 1977(1977-01-18) (aged 59)
near Kreševo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia
Nationality Bosniak[1][2]
Political party League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ)

Džemal Bijedić (Bosnian pronunciation: [bijěːdit͡ɕ]; 12 April 1917 – 18 January 1977) was a Yugoslav Communist politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1971 until his death in a plane crash.

Early life

Džemal Bijedić was born in Mostar, Austria-Hungary (in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) to parents Adem and Zarifa, into a Muslim merchant family. He finished his elementary and secondary education in Mostar, and graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, where he joined the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1939.

WWII: a communist, a domobran, and a partisan

In a documentary produced by Face TV, Mišo Marić claims that Bijedic joined the Domobrans (Hrvatsko domobranstvo (NDH)) in April 1941, following the directives of League of Communists of Yugoslavia, as a lieutenant using an alias Ante Jukic. [3] Another documentary about Džemal Bijedic produced by Federalna televizija shows (at 15:34) a photo of Bijedic dressed in a military uniform with Domobrans' collar insignia. The same photo was shown at the beginning of the first documentary (01:27), but the Domobrans' insignia was painted over with Partisans' red star in colour. It is also mentioned that Bijedic joined the Yugoslav Partisans in February 1943.[4]

Politics

Džemal Bijedić visiting with U.S. President Gerald Ford, 1975

After the liberation, Bijedić had many political roles. From 1967, he was the president of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Assembly. From July 1971 until his death in 1977, he was Prime Minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Bijedić played a vital role in affirming Muslims as a Yugoslav constitutive nation.[5]

Career

  • President of the People's Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1967–1971)
  • President of the Federal Executive Council of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (1971–1977) i.e. Prime Minister.

Death

On 18 January 1977, Džemal Bijedić, his wife Razija and six others were killed when their Learjet 25 crashed on the Inač mountain near Kreševo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plane took off from Batajnica Air Base in Belgrade and was en route to Sarajevo when it crashed, ostensibly due to poor weather conditions. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the crash was not an accident but rather the result of foul play at the hands of his Serbian rivals.[6]

Legacy

Significant progress in the economy of Herzegovina was made under Bijedić's leadership. The university in Mostar was renamed the Džemal Bijedić University in his honour. Bijedić and his wife were survived by their two sons and one daughter.

References

Citations
  1. ↑ Džemal Bijedić killed, Tito never knew what really happened. Archived 2014-02-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Isaković 1994, p. 288.
  3. ↑ von MureNL. "Miso Maric - Namigivanje zvijezdama - Dzemal Dzema Bijedic", bs:Face TV, DailyMotion, Published 14 March 2013.
  4. ↑ PRIZNAJEM JUGOSLAVEN SAM. "Džemal Bijedic - Dokumentarac / Dokumentarni Film", Federalna televizija, YouTube, Published 17 January 2016.
  5. ↑ Velikonja, Mitja (1992). Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Texas A&M University Press. p. 223. ISBN 1-58544-226-7.
  6. ↑ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (8 January 2007). "Famous Air Crash Victims - Part 4: Politicians".
Bibliography
  • Isaković, Alija (1994). Antologija zla (in Bosnian). Ljiljan.
Political offices
Preceded by
Mitja Ribičič		 Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
30 July 1971–18 January 1977		 Succeeded by
Veselin Đuranović
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.