Srđan Dizdarević (29 September 1952 – 16 February 2016) was a Bosnian journalist, diplomat, and activist. Born into a prominent

Bosniak The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

political family of diplomats, Dizdarević graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the

University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the larges ...

in 1976 and entered politics. As a diplomat, he was the first secretary of the Embassy of Yugoslavia in Paris, and in 1991 he returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also worked as the assistant editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''

Oslobođenje ''Oslobođenje'' (; 'Liberation') is a daily newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina based in the capital city Sarajevo. Founded on 30 August 1943, in the midst of World War II, on a patch of territory liberated by Partisans, in what was otherwise a ...

'' and was a member of the

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries (the OSCE region) as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords. Formerly organized into the International ...

of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1995, becoming the committee's president in 2005, serving until 2014. He died of severe pneumonia in 2016.

Early life

Srđan Dizdarević was born on 29 September 1952 in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, while the country was a Yugoslav republic. He stems from a prominent Bosnian anti-fascist family of

heritage, whose members are former politicians and diplomats. His father Nijaz Dizdarević was a former ambassador to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

; his uncle Faik Dizdarević was a longtime ambassador to

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, Algiers and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

; and his other uncle

Raif Dizdarević Raif Dizdarević (born 9 December 1926) is a Bosnian politician who served as Yugoslavia's first Bosniak president of the Presidency from 1988 until 1989. He participated in the armed resistance as a Yugoslav Partisan during World War II. Didzar ...

was a foreign minister of Yugoslavia and the president of the Presidency of both socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia. Srđan Dizdarević graduated in 1976 from the Faculty of Philosophy at the

.angelfire.com
/ref> and studied political science in Paris.Togoran.com
/ref> During his university years he was responsible for the international relations of the Young Socialists' Association.

Career

Journalistic career

For a decade he was a professional journalist. In 1978 he worked as director and editor in chief of the "children and youth press" branch of the daily '' Oslobodjenje''; since 1981 he was assistant chief editor of the Oslobođenje.

Diplomatic career

After the death of Tito, since his family name was becoming a liability, he looked for a period abroad. A perfect

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

, from 1987 to 1991 Dizdarević worked in the Yugoslav foreign service as First Secretary of the Embassy of Yugoslavia in Paris, until when – he said – "it became impossible to work for an embassy of

Greater Serbia The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia ( sr, Велика Србија, Velika Srbija) describes the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology of the creation of a Serb state which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to S ...

In Sarajevo during the siege

He got back to Sarajevo on 2 April 1992, four days before the start of the war. He spent the three-year

siege of Sarajevo The Siege of Sarajevo ( sh, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav ...

in the town, refusing all offers to leave it: "there were moments in which I thought that Sarajevo only had one chance over hundreds to survive. But that single chance sufficed," he later declared to ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

''.BOSNIE-HERZÉGOVINE : IN MEMORIAM SRĐAN DIZDAREVIĆ
Courrier des Balkans, 16 February 2016

Human rights activist

After the

Bosnian war The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

, in 1995, he got engaged in

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Al Jazeera Balkans
/ref> He was elected the first president of the

of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005, a position he held until 2014; he was also a member of the Association of Independent Intellectuals Circle 99; The following year he was elected member of the Executive Committee of the

International Helsinki Federation The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) was a self-governing group of non-governmental organizations that acted to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia. A specific primary goal was to monitor ...

and elected member of the Presidency of the Civic Alternative Parliament. In 1997 he was appointed as a member of the Alternative Ministerial Council – Minister for Foreign Affairs. He declared to the Serbian daily ''Naša Borba'' in 1997:

The Dayton accords admit no alternative. This is why we need to gather all non-nationalist forces, since they are the only ones that can assure the build-up of a normal
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
.

In 1998 Dizdarević was appointed as a member of the Provisional Election Commission, and as a member of the Independent Media Commission. The same year, a decision of the

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bosn ...

appointed him to the working group on the Permanent Election Law. In 2005 he wrote:

The nationalist parties are blocking all evolution of the country, in fear of losing power. The religious authorities support them, and those that oppose nationalism, the emerging civil society, still don't have enough weight to make themselves be heard. (...) There is no democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not even at Constitutional level, since the inhabitants of the country are not considered as citizens, but as members of predetermined ethnic community.

Following his engagement for a civic and non-nationalist

, in 2008 he took part together with director

Danis Tanović Danis Tanović (born 20 February 1969) is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for having directed and written the script for the 2001 Bosnian movie '' No Man's Land'' which won him many awards, including an Academy Award ...

in the launch of the

Naša Stranka Our Party (Bosnian language, Bosnian, Croatian language, Croatian, and Serbian language, Serbian: ''Naša stranka''/Наша странка, abbreviated NS) is a social-liberal and multi-ethnic political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded i ...

party, which nevertheless remained marginal in the following elections.

Personal life

Srđan Dizdarević married Dubravka Doda on 12 August 1972.Libération
/ref> She preceded him in death by seven months, dying on 18 July 2015. Together they had two children; a daughter Sandra, and a son Davorin.

Death

Dizdarević died at age 63 of a severe

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in Sarajevo on 16 February 2016. He was buried 20 February 2016 in Sarajevo's Bare Cemetery.

References

External links

* [FR
Libération
* [FR
Interview with Arte TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dizdarevic, Srdan 1952 births 2016 deaths Diplomats from Sarajevo Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Deaths from pneumonia in Bosnia and Herzegovina Burials at Bare Cemetery, Sarajevo Journalists from Sarajevo