Raif Dizdarević

Raif Dizdarević
11th President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia
In office 15 May 1988 – 15 May 1989
Prime Minister	Branko Mikulić Ante Marković
Preceded by	Lazar Mojsov
Succeeded by	Janez Drnovšek
President of the Assembly of SFR Yugoslavia
In office 1982–1984
Preceded by	Draža Marković
Succeeded by	Dušan Alimpić
2nd President of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office April 1978 – April 1982
Prime Minister	Milanko Renovica
Preceded by	Ratomir Dugonjić
Succeeded by	Branko Mikulić
Personal details
Born	9 December 1926 Fojnica, Drina Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Political party	League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) (1943–91)

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

Early life

Dizdarević was born into a Bosnian Muslim family in 1926.^[1] His nephew was Srđan Dizdarević, who died in 2016.

Political career

After the war, as a member of the Communist Party and ally of Josip Broz Tito, he was elevated into high political functions. From 1945 he was a member of the Department of State Security.

• Diplomat, serving on embassies in Bulgaria (1951–1954), the Soviet Union (1956–1959), and Czechoslovakia (1963–1967)
• 1972: Assistant Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Miloš Minić as Minister
• 1978–82: Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 1982–83: Chairman of Federal Assembly
• 1984–88: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia
• 1988–89: Chairman of the Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia, following the resignation of Hamdija Pozderac . During his time as head of state, Yugoslavia had a foreign debt of over $21 billion USD and an annual inflation rate of 217 percent.^[2] In March 1989 Dizdarević had to cancel a foreign trip to Brazil, Uruguay and Senegal amid unrest in the Albanian-majority province of Kosovo.^[3]

Later life

Dizdarević, who tried to keep the Yugoslav federation together, lost his political influence with the start of the Yugoslav wars. Later he lived in Sarajevo and published his memoirs. His son Predrag lives in the United States, while his daughter Jasminka lives in Belgrade, Serbia.^[4]

He published a memoir book Od smrti Tita do smrti Jugoslavije ("From the death of Tito to the death of Yugoslavia", ISBN 978-9958-10275-2 ) and a book of memories on events and personalities Vrijeme koje se pamti' ("Times to be remembered", ISBN 9958-703-81-5).

External links

• Short biography
• Hronika naslućene smrti, review of Dizdarević's book of memoirs (Serbian)
• Slobodnaevropa.org: Svjedoci raspada - Raif Dizdarević: Velika prevara (27. II 2008). (Serbo-Croatian)
• Radiosarajevo.ba: Raif Dizdarević: Bio sam i ostao jugonostalgičar (26. X 2011).(Bosnian)
• Mojusk.ba: 'Put u raspad' - Knjiga Raifa Dizdarevića daje novo svjetlo o raspadu Jugoslavije (24. II 2012). (Bosnian)

References

1. New Times. Newspaper "Trud,". 1984. ISSN 0206-1473. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
2. "Yugoslavia's President Says Crisis Harms the Country's Reputation". select.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
3. Yugoslav crisis hits president's foreign tour. The Glasgow Herald - 11 March 1989.
4. "Znameniti Fojničani: Raif Dizdarević". fojnica.ba. Retrieved 2015-01-07.