THE POSSIBILITY OF PREVENTING THE CONFLICT IN THE FORMER FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF B&H- THE CASE OF FIKRET ABDIC

Abstract

The paper discusses the events of breakup of the former Federal Republic of B&H. The author suggested the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the three conflicted sides: Serbian, Muslim and Croat. Fikret Abdic, a controversial figure and a businessman from the late 1980s, entered the first multi-party elections in front of the SDA winning over a million votes. Having won the election by a landslide, nevertheless, he missed the opportunity to become the president of the Presidency of the Federal Republic of B&H and passed the position to Alija Izetbegovic. The move appears to be a miscalculation since the bloody war quickly ensued. In the paper, we emphasise the efforts Fikret Abdic invested to ameliorate and neutralize the conflict both with the Serbian as well as the Croatian side. He endeavored to spare the people from the region of the Autonomous Province of West Bosnia through the agreement he signed with the Republika Srpska and the Croats from B&H, through the timely negotiations over the division of the territory. He was on good terms with the Serbs in Croatia. However, his endeavors failed. The B&H authorities first launched a military attack against him, and after the war ended, he was convicted of treason. Bearing in mind that since the very start of the conflict, he was a peace advocate, the question arises why the the authorities of the time, as well as the current Muslim authorities deemed him a traitor? Speciafically, what would the outcome of the war be, had Fikret joined forces with Alija Izetbegovic and set off to an unrelenting war against the Serbs and Croats?