Rasim Ljajić

Rasim Ljajić
Deputy Prime Minister of Government of Serbia
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 July 2012
Prime Minister	Ivica Dačić Aleksandar Vučić
Preceded by	Verica Kalanović
Minister of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 July 2012
Preceded by	Dušan Petrović (Trade) Milutin Mrkonjić (Telecommunications)
Minister of Labour and Social Policy
In office 15 May 2007 – 27 July 2012
Preceded by	Slobodan Lalović
Succeeded by	Jovan Krkobabić
Personal details
Born	January 28, 1964 Novi Pazar, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia
Political party	Social Democratic Party of Serbia
Residence	Belgrade, Serbia
Alma mater	University of Sarajevo

Rasim Ljajić (Serbian Cyrillic: Расим Љајић; Serbian pronunciation: [rǎːsim ʎǎːjitɕ]; born 28 January 1964) is a Serbian politician, the current Minister of Foreign and Domestic Trade and Telecommunications since 27 July 2012.^[1] He holds a degree in medicine from the University of Sarajevo. He is the President of the Social Democratic Party of Serbia, elected from 21 January 2007. Ljajić was also the president of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.

Political career

In 1990, he was elected Secretary General of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak as one of its founders, a branch of the SDA in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, aimed at gathering Bosniaks in Serbia. In 1993 he left the party and with dissidents formed the Sandžak Democratic Party, criticizing Sulejman Ugljanin for being an extremist and endorsing separatism from Yugoslavia in an effort to join an enlarged Bosnia dominated by Bosnian Muslims.

One of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia leaders, he became Minister of Human and Minority Rights in 2000 after the fall of Slobodan Milošević, and his mandate as a minister was extended in the rump DS-led 2001 government.^[2] He is also the long-term Head of the Coordination Team with the Hague Tribunal.

In the 2003 parliamentary election he unsuccessfully led a massive alliance "Together for Tolerance" that failed to pass the census. The tolerance campaign was originally his concept, he co-led it with Nenad Čanak of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and Jožef Kasa of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.

Personal life

Ljajić is an ethnic Bosniak.^[3] His relative and close friend Dževad Ljajić died in the military helicopter crash in Serbia on the night of 14 March 2015, which had a total of 7 victims.^[4]

References

1. "SDPS leader will join new government". B92. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
2. Rasim Ljajić at the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights website at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
3. http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=17&nav_id=74971. Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/1477773-ministar-ljajic-poginuo-mi-je-rodjak-brinucu-o-njegovoj-porodici-dok-sam-ziv. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Ministry of Human and Minority Rights
• Socialdemocratic Party of Serbia
• Official presentation