Džemal Bijedić ( cyrl, Џемал Биједић, ; 12 April 1917 – 18 January 1977) was a Bosnian and Yugoslav politician who served as

Prime Minister of Yugoslavia The prime minister of Yugoslavia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Премијер Југославије, Premijer Jugoslavije) was the head of government of the Yugoslav state, from the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 until the ...

from July 1971 until his death in a plane crash in January 1977. He additionally served as Secretary of the Interior from July to December 1971. Bijedić was also President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1967 to 1971.

Early life and education

Bijedić was born on 12 April 1917 in

Mostar Mostar () is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is situated on the Neretva Riv ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

(then part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) to Adem and Zarifa from the prominent Bosnian Muslim merchant family of Bajramaga Bijedić, who had moved from

Gacko Gacko ( sr-cyrl, Гацко) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the region of East Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), East Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 5,784 inh ...

to Mostar in 1915. Džemal was barely one year old when his father Adem died of the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

in 1919; his mother Zafira and uncle Bećir took care of the family in the 1920s. Bijedić finished his elementary and secondary education in Mostar, and graduated from the

University of Belgrade Faculty of Law The Faculty of Law of the University in Belgrade (/''Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu''), also known as the Belgrade Law School, is one of the first-tier educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. The building is locate ...

, where he joined the

Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the founding and ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia. It was formed in 1919 as the main communist opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats a ...

in 1939. He became a member of

SKOJ The League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia (SSOJ) was the youth movement, member organisation of the People's Front of Yugoslavia, Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia (SSRNJ). Membership stood at more than 3.6 million individuals i ...

in October 1939 and a member of the Mostar branch of the League of Communists just two months later. Due to his political sympathies, he was three times detained when in Mostar.Sarajevo Times
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Early career

In a documentary produced by Face TV, Mišo Marić claims that Bijedić joined the anti-communist Croatian Home Guard in April 1941, following the directives of the

, as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

with the alias of Ante Jukić. Another documentary about Bijedić produced by Federalna televizija shows (at 15:34) a photo of Bijedić dressed in a military uniform with Croatian Home Guard collar insignia. The same photo was shown at the beginning of the first documentary (01:27), but the insignia was painted over with Partisans' red star in colour. It is also mentioned that Bijedić joined the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

in February 1943.

Political career

After the liberation of Yugoslavia, Bijedić held many political roles, including as deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of the

Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

. He played a key role in the affirmation of the

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

as a Yugoslav constitutive nation. Significant progress in the economy of

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical Regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia (reg ...

was made under Bijedić's leadership, with the establishment of heavy industry such as the Aluminijum Kombinat, and the modernization of the Sarajevo–Ploče railway. Bijedić served as President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1967 to July 1971 and as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the Federal Executive Council of SFR Yugoslavia from 30 July 1971 to his death on 18 January 1977.

Death

On 18 January 1977, Bijedić, his wife Razija, and six others were killed when their Learjet 25 crashed on the Inač mountain near

Kreševo Kreševo ( sr-cyrl, Крешево, ) is a town and municipality located in Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kreševo is a mountainous town, located in a narrow valley of the ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plane took off from Batajnica Air Base in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

and was en route to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

when it crashed, ostensibly due to poor weather conditions. Some have claimed that the crash was the result of foul play at the hands of his rivals, as he was considered a potential successor to an old and ailing Tito. Bahrudin Bijedić, a close relative of Džemal Bijedić and a former long-serving diplomat and Yugoslav consul in the United States—who also held the position of Minister of Internal Affairs in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina—has claimed that the Yugoslav Prime Minister was the victim of an

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

. His assertion was supported by Colonel Lazo Vukosavljević of the Yugoslav People’s Army ( JNA), formerly the commander of a helicopter unit stationed in Jasenica near Mostar. Vukosavljević, an aeronautical electrical engineer by training, testified that upon arriving at the crash site, he noticed technical malfunctions in the aircraft’s altimeter and airspeed indicator, both of which had been showing a higher altitude than the aircraft’s actual position. While examining the recovered instruments, Vukosavljević commented aloud that the readings on the altimeters and airspeed indicators were displaying unusual and inconsistent values. After this, he was immediately ordered to leave the crash site by KOS (Yugoslav military counterintelligence service) operatives. Bijedić and his wife were survived by their two sons, Dragan and Milenko, and one daughter, Azra.

Legacy

The university in

was renamed Džemal Bijedić University in his honour. His birthplace was also turned into a museum. An exhibition about Bijedić was held in Mostar in 2016.

References

Citations Bibliography *

External links