Remembering Sarajevo's Hero and Golden Lily Safet Zajko: A Brave Heart Led Him in the Fight for His Homeland

(Patria) - On this day in 1993, Safet Zajko, commander of the 2nd Vitez Motorized Brigade, died while reconnoitering enemy positions on Mijatovića kosa, in one of the most advanced trenches on Žuč hill. Zajko was born on March 1, 1959.

He received the wartime recognition Golden Lily in 1992, and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Hero of the Liberation War in 1994, as a Brigadier General of the ARBiH.

Who was Safet Zajko?

Zajko's parents, mother Duda and father Salko, had twelve children. Safet had seven brothers and four sisters.

Safet Zajko was a model citizen, husband, and father of two daughters – Alma and Džana. Mother Duda mourned four of her sons during the war. “Sulejman (20) was killed by Chetniks on August 1, 1992, in front of their father's eyes. They killed him with a rifle on the orders of teacher Vasilije Krstić. On the same day, his brother Halil (24) was killed near Rudo. Two or three days later, Munir Zajko (22) was killed at Stijenice, who fought against the Chetniks with a group of fighters until they ran out of ammunition. Zajko's son-in-law Hašim also died there. The Zajko family has 20 martyrs in its immediate family.”

After moving to Sarajevo, he worked as a metalworker in the Sarajevo company ‘Zrak’. He was a model worker and an unwavering fighter for workers' rights. He confirmed these principles of justice in the war, fighting as a commander for the rights of his comrades.

As a young man, Safet Zajko graduated from the renowned school for reserve officers in Bileća as one of the most successful in his class. He held the rank of reserve captain. Unlike many of his fellow citizens and friends who did not believe that the war fire from Slovenia and Croatia would engulf Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zajko told his friends: “Something big is brewing, there will be war.”

At the dawn of the war in our country, he joined the operational part of the work of the Patriotic League of BiH as one of its most active members. As early as January 2nd, he stood at the head of several hundred patriots from Sokolje, Boljakov and Buća Potok, who lined up in front of the mosque in Boljakov Potok. This would later become the backbone of the 2nd Vitez Motorized Brigade. He was the ideal choice of a man who, in the most difficult days of our history, had to organize resistance against the fierce attack launched by the JNA and Karadžić's forces in early April 1992.

The army he commanded was very poorly armed, had no uniforms, and at the beginning of the humanitarian crisis in the besieged city, even basic necessities disappeared. They went to combat positions, leaving their families in homes without food, water, electricity… Nevertheless, with his charisma, Safet Zajko provided security, encouragement, motivation, and moral support to his fighters and officers. The fighters around him were ready to sacrifice themselves to superhuman limits.

At the beginning of the aggression, as in other parts of the city, residents of Sokolje, Pofalići, Velešići, Buća, and Boljakov Potok formed local units. From these emerged the 15th Infantry Brigade of the Territorial Defense Novi Grad on July 1, 1992, and the First Independent Battalion of the District Defense Staff of Sarajevo on May 19, 1992. Finally, on October 1, 1992, with further consolidation of units and improvement of the organizational structure, the Second Motorized Brigade was formed.

At a time when it was unclear to many in Sarajevo that an open attack on the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was underway, groups of defenders responded to the first attacks by Serb paramilitary forces. While tens of thousands of Sarajevo citizens, along with miners from Kakanj and Breza, demonstrated for peace in front of the BiH Assembly on April 5, 1992, fighters gathered around Safet Zajko disarmed the SDS paramilitary formations on Šiljevića brdo, who had fired on Boljakov Potok the previous night.

“We were supposed to continue, but the JNA came to establish a buffer zone. We were told this by the Higher Command, to let them pass through Buća Potok towards Žuč. It turned out they didn't come to create a buffer zone, so on June 8th, we engaged them in combat and had to liberate those parts of Žuč.”

In early June 1992, defenders under the command of Safet Zajko blocked JNA forces in the ‘Jusuf Džonlić’ barracks. The blockade lasted 23 days, after which the JNA forces agreed to withdraw from the city, destroying everything left behind. Although the JNA forces had already been declared an occupying force on the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Safet Zajko and his comrades were very professional with the soldiers and officers of the JNA during the barracks blockade.

Already in the first combat operations, the fighters led by Safet Zajko achieved significant military successes. They particularly distinguished themselves in the famous Pofalići battle on May 16, 1992. In this battle, Zajko was joined by his three brothers – Asim, Sabit, and Abid.
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Safet Zajko did not want to distinguish himself from his fighters in any way. He worked a lot and talked little. He prepared operations with his closest associates, 'hiding them even from himself,' as he used to say. That's why his fighters carried out lightning-fast actions and achieved lightning-fast victories. These were, in fact, sabotage actions. Zajko also demanded that his fighters put pressure on the Chetniks. He approached the enemy as closely as possible, forcing them to retreat.

Safet Zajko's soldiers were the first to deal with criminal elements in the Military Police of the Army of RBiH in 1992, whose members were looting their homes while they were guarding the city's defense lines. In November, they withdrew one company each from Žuč and arrested some commanders from the Military Police. Zajko's comrades-in-arms still fondly remember the respect he showed towards the soldiers. He could be found on the front lines at any time of day or night. He wanted to meet every soldier on the line and hear their problems. On one occasion, while patrolling his brigade's positions during the night, he crept up on a group of fighters who were discussing their problems.

Thanks to the foundations laid by Safet Zajko, members of the Second Vitez Motorized Brigade continued on the path their commander had set for them. As one of the best brigades of the Army of RBiH, they participated in battles on Treskavica, Bjelašnica, Igman, and in 1995, they ended their military journey in the battles for the liberation of Bosanska Krajina.

The Second Vitez Brigade achieved exceptional results on its wartime path. Proof of this is the 38 recipients of the Golden Lily award and the Order of the Hero of the Liberation War, with which their first commander – Safet Zajko – was also decorated.

He was buried as a martyr in the courtyard of the Ali Pasha Mosque in Sarajevo.

(Memorial Center Sarajevo)