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Rebel Muslim Fikret Abdic to Seek Bosnian Presidency
Abdic turned against Sarajevo and cooperated with
By Davor Huic
ZAGREB, July 24 (Reuters) - Rebel Muslim leader Fikret Abdic, branded by the Sarajevo government as a traitor and based in neighbouring Croatia, said on Wednesday that he would run in Bosnia's post-war elections in September.
Portraying himself as the only candidate capable of restoring the country's war-ravaged economy, the businessman-turned-politician said he hoped international monitors supervising elections would ensure his campaign message reached voters.
He turned against Sarajevo and cooperated with separatist Serbs from Bosnia and Croatia to overwhelm the Bosnian army Fifth Corps in the Muslim enclave of Bihac in the northwest. The government Fifth Corps later defeated the rebellion and Abdic sought refuge in Croatia, leaving behind loyal but destitute refugees.
Abdic's wheeling and dealing with Serb and Croat forces made him a political enemy of Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, who opposed attempts to partition the country. Abdic said his followers, working illegally in the area now under complete government control, had managed to collect 17,500 signatures for his candidacy -- well over the required 10,000.
His Democratic People's Union (DNZ), recently registered in the Croat-held town of Mostar in the southwest, will run at both parliamentary and local levels, Abdic said. Their applications have yet to be confirmed by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), charged with supervising the poll. An OSCE official, who asked not to be named, did not want to comment on any particular application, including Abdic's.
If his registration is confirmed Abdic would be in a unique position of running for public office in a country which he cannot enter without risk of arrest as the leader of an anti-government rebellion. Abdic accused the Sarajevo government of harassing his supporters. "We are the only serious opposition party in Bosnia, and that is why they (Bosnian government) are obstructing us so much."
Abdic said he was planning to run the election campaign from Croatia and Croat-held Bosnia. To that purpose he would set up his mouthpiece, Radio Velkaton, in exile. After the Croatian army broke the Serb siege of the Bihac pocket last August, Abdic was ousted from his stronghold of Velika Kladusa and fled to Croatia with 30,000 of his most devoted followers who call him "Babo," Daddy. He now lives in the Croatian port of Rijeka, where he has moved the offices of his food processing conglomerate Agrokomerc from Velika Kladusa. Many of his people have since returned to the Bihac pocket, and Abdic hopes their votes could help him return to power.
The short, pot-bellied tycoon has a long history of triumphs followed by disastrous defeats from which he somehow manages to recover to fight another day. In 1987 former Yugoslavia's communist authorities jailed him, charging him with issuing millions of U.S. dollars in unbacked promissory notes.
Four years later he won more votes in Bosnia's first democratic elections than Izetbegovic. A secret deal worked out inside Izetbegovic's party prevented Abdic from extending his rule from the tiny Bihac pocket to the whole of Bosnia. Earlier this year Croatian police arrested a group of five Bosnian citizens on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Abdic near Rijeka. Five were convicted.
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"Even without their help, it won't be difficult to win the elections in the Una-Sana canton (of western Bosnia)," he told a press conference in a posh Zagreb hotel. The Bosnian state media label Abdic a "war criminal and arch-traitor" for leading the Bihac region's rebellion against the Sarajevo government during the Bosnia conflict.
Berserkistan, July 25 · NATO Calls Elections Toughest Part of Bosnia Peacekeeping Mission
Berserkistan, July 25 · Deadline for Refugee Voter Registration Extended
Berserkistan, July 22 · Bosnia’s Election Looking Like 'Mission Impossible'
Berserkistan, July 22 · International Monitors Arrive in Bosnia to Supervise Elections
Berserkistan, July 22 · Croats to Boycott Newly-Elected Mostar City Council
Berserkistan, July 19 · Bosnian Refugees Can Register to Vote via Internet
Berserkistan, July 19 · SDS Party Will be Certified for Bosnian Election
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