Ismet Đuherić (born 14 March 1949) was the first commander of the Meša Selimović Company (named for Yugoslav writer

Meša Selimović Mehmed "Meša" Selimović (; ; 26 April 1910 – 11 July 1982) was a Yugoslav writer, whose works are widely considered some of the most important in Bosnian and Serbian literature.

) of the

Army of the Republika Srpska The Army of Republika Srpska (; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska, the self-proclaimed Serb secessionist republic, a territory within the newly independent Bosnia and Herz ...

(the Bosnian Serb Army). The unit consisted of 120 men, mostly Muslim Serbs from a few villages in the municipalities of

Bosanski Brod Brod ( sr-cyr, Брод, ),The official web site of the municipality
, Brod/Брод. forme ...

and

Derventa Derventa ( sr-cyrl, Дервента) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Posavina region, northwest of the city of Doboj. As of 2013, the town has a total of 11,631 inhabitants, while the municipality has ...

, but also Serbs and Croats. According to some reporters, the unit was and until today remains one of the controversies of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

. During the Bosnian war, Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the Serb-controlled territories in the process which would later be known as

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...

, excluding some villagers who were instead organized into Meša Selimović unit with the help of Slavko Lisica, a Serb general who accepted to help remaining Bosniaks on Ismet Đuherić's request. Today Ismet Đuherić lives with his wife Hanumica in the village of Sijekovac near

Bosanski Brod Brod ( sr-cyr, Брод, ),The official web site of the municipality
, Brod/Брод. forme ...

. He and his daughter are employees of the oil refinery in Brod. Discounting several months spent as refugees in the nearby villages of Dubočac and Kobas, the Đuherićs are the only Muslim family that has run out of the village of Sijekovac during the war. After the war Đuherić has been elected to serve as president of the Sijekovac local community again, as he did before the war. He declares himself a Yugoslav.

References

External links

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Company of honest aggressors
* 1949 births Living people Bosnia and Herzegovina Muslims Army of Republika Srpska soldiers {{BosniaHerzegovina-bio-stub