The state known to millions of people around the world as Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia – does not exist anymore. Yugoslavia burned out in a terrible fire which no one could have extinguished. On its ground, at the ashes of common state, seven new countries emerged. Among them is Bosnia and Herzegovina which revived its statehood. I am coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina and I will tell you today about difficult faith of my people who survived an exterminating war.

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WE SWEAR BY GREAT GOD THAT WE WILL NOT BE SLAVES: In the meantime, Alija Izetbegović found out about a secret meeting of Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman in the border hunting ground Karađorđevo where a decision was made on division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Croatia. The last Yugoslavian Prime Minister Ante Marković told me about the secret arrangement, and I wrote about it in my book Memories of Alija Izetbegović^[1].

Serbian Democratic Party (Bosnian and Herzegovina) SDS and Croatian Democratic Union (Bosnian and Herzegovina) HDZ were the extended hands of their parent bodies in Serbia and Croatia.

Karadžić: “Don’t think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina to hell, and Muslim people, maybe, to its disappearance

The Serbian Democratic Party is led by Radovan Karadžić^[2], who was sentenced before the International Court in The Hague to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes. He was firmly at Milosevic’s course of creation of so called rump Yugoslavia. Apart from Serbia they wanted to incorporate to this state, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was very clear to Izetbegović that the faith of Bosnia and Herzegovina was determined more by Serbian-Muslim than Serbian-Croatian relations, due to number of population.

The Serbian president at that time, Slobodan Milošević, offered to the president of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the president of Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Alija Izetbegović to be the first president of such rump Yugoslavia, of course providing that the central Yugoslavian republic stays in its composition, which was decidedly refused by president Izetbegović. Annoyed by this attitude of Bosnian Muslims, Radovan Karadžić, leader of Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) explicitly threatened Muslims-Bosniaks during the convening of the Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and he indicated that there was a military plan of their destruction. Radovan Karadžić said:

“Don’t think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina to hell, and Muslim people, maybe, to its disappearance. Muslim people will not be able to defend itself, if at war.”
Alija Izetbegović replied to him by saying:

Referendum on independence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 29-March 1, 1992

“His manner of presentation, his messages maybe explain in the best possible manner why we maybe don’t want to stay in Yugoslavia. Such Yugoslavia, as Mr. Radovan Karadžić wants it, no one wants anymore, except, maybe for Serbian people.” – concluded Izetbegović, and at the first congress of Party of Democratic Action (SDA) he finished his speech with these words: “We swear by great God that we will not be slaves”, with which he gives a clear message to a dilemma whether to bow the head or stay upright.

In the referendum held on February 29 and March 1, 62 percent of Bosniaks and Croats decided they wanted independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Serbs boycotted referendum and in one of the municipalities where they were in rule they forcefully stopped it^[3].

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FOOTNOTE:
^1] Ante Marković was a Yugoslav politician. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia. In 1943 he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1986 he became president of the Presidency of Socialist Republic of Croatia
He became the Yugoslav Prime Minister in March 1989 after the resignation of Branko Mikulić. At the end of the year, Marković launched a new and ambitious program of unprecedented economic reforms, The result of his economic reforms was a halt to inflation, leading to a rise in Yugoslavia's standard of living. Nonetheless, the short-term effect of economic reforms undertaken by Marković led to a decline in Yugoslavia's industrial sector. Numerous bankruptcies occurred.
Marković was the most popular politician in Yugoslavia. When the League of Communists of Yugoslavia broke up in January 1990, Marković had only his popularity and the apparent success of his economic program on his side. In July 1990, he formed the Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia (Savez reformskih snaga), a political party supporting a more centralized Yugoslav Federation, and accession to the European Community.

Later, his programme was sabotaged by Slobodan Milošević.
The authority of the federal government was further diminished by secessionist moves in Slovenia and Croatia. In the last months of his tenure Marković tried to find a compromise between secessionists and those demanding that Yugoslavia remain a single entity.
Marković died in the early hours of 28 November 2011 after a short illness, aged 87.

^2] Radovan Karadžić, Bosnian Serb politician. He trained as a psychiatrist and also wrote poetry and children’s books. In 1990 he helped found the Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, when the Bosnian Serbs declared an independent state, he became its president. With the support of Yugoslav Pres. Slobodan Milošević and with Bosnian Serb military leader Gen. Ratko Mladic, Karadžić undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia to purge it of non-Serbian peoples. In 1995 he was indicted by a UN war crimes tribunal. He was pressured into signing the Dayton peace accords and forced to resign as state president and party head in 1996. However, he continued to influence the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia and Herzegovina from a mountain hideaway outside Sarajevo. Despite attempts to arrest him, he was able to evade capture through the 1990s and into the early 21st century.
On July 21, 2008, Serbian authorities finally arrested him near Belgrade, and he was transferred to The Hague, Netherlands. On March 24, 2016, Karadžić was found guilty of 10 of the 11 counts against him, including the crime of genocide against the residents of Srebrenica, and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The decision was appealed, and in 2019 a UN tribunal upheld his conviction and increased his sentence to life in prison.

^3] On 3 March, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegović declared the independence of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the parliament ratified the action. On 6 April, the United States and the European Economic Community recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent state and on 22 May it was admitted into the United Nations.