Why the Izetbegović-Halilović Deal on Political Murders Failed

More than two years have passed since the end of July 2015, when a deal was reached between Bakir Izetbegović, leader of the SDA, and Sefer Halilović, leader of the BPS, regarding unresolved murders and acts of terrorism. The focus was on two cases: the murder of Sefer's wife, Mediha Halilović, and the damage to the grave of Alija Izetbegović, the first chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an explosion of an unknown device, which was classified as an act of terrorism.      

"We demand an effective approach to resolving this issue, to finally remove the stigmas and burdens, and to clarify who is behind it. I am prepared to use all existing mechanisms and possibly create new ones to finally clear these matters up," Izetbegović said, and Halilović supported him at the time.

In the Federation, three murders have been circulating in the media for more than twenty years as politically motivated assassinations. Besides Mediha Halilović, the murders of police officials Nedžad Ugljen and Jozo Leutar were treated as political assassinations. Hundreds of articles have been written, but the investigation has never been completed. Twenty years have passed since Sefer Halilović filed a criminal complaint for the murder of his wife. The prosecution has done nothing to resolve these cases. For more than twenty years, the same questions about these murders have been repeated, although a complete statute of limitations has already passed under the law.

After this agreement, it seemed that all misunderstandings were erased. Numerous attacks that Halilović brutally described in his books against the late Izetbegović, calling him a traitor and a fundamentalist, were forgotten. It was also forgotten that Alija Izetbegović called Sefer Halilović "a man who has a problem with a lack of personal courage".

After all this, solutions and new momentum from the Prosecution were expected from the Bakir Izetbegović-Sefer Halilović agreement. But, two years later, as two decades before, there is no indication that anything will be resolved. The prosecutions remain wisely silent, and Bakir and Sefer have also wisely fallen silent.   

Politics had to react to uncover the perpetrators at all costs, because every unsolved murder is formally classified as a political murder.

The Patria Agency has had access to an interesting testimony that is also part of the Prosecution's file related to the investigation itself.

"The grenade that killed Mr. Halilović's wife and brother-in-law is one of a hundred thousand grenades that fell on the city of Sarajevo, during which more than ten thousand citizens died, and if there is even a one in a thousand chance that this case involves a murder, planned and committed by someone, that person can only be Sefer Halilović".

As justification for this claim, the witness cited the fact that "Sefer Halilović was on bad terms with his late wife at the time and was living with another woman, which could be a sufficient reason for the murder." The witness stated that Halilović was an officer of the JNA and an artillery expert, so on that basis "he had the knowledge to commit such an act".

In recorded conversations between Sefer Halilović and his wife, the late Mediha, which could be heard in the media many years later, it is also stated that Sefer Halilović had not visited the apartment where his family was for two months.                 

Bakir Izetbegović said at the time that political assassinations occurred during the war. Did he characterize the murders of Nedžad Ugljen and Jozo Leutar as political? He then claimed that the SDA does not fear an investigation. For more than twenty years, more has been written and said in the Sarajevo media about these three murders than about the murder of nearly 11,000 besieged citizens of Sarajevo.

Izetbegović and Halilović then agreed to form a joint government at the level of Sarajevo Canton. It was evident that this agreement required some form of reconciliation at the expense of two dead people. The calls for an investigation were a mask for power. This has been shown in the past two years, during which the investigation has not moved an inch.

But Sefer Halilović and his BNN do not stop accusing and finding their culprits, nor have they said a word about the abysmal work of the Prosecution and demanding accountability from that side. This is because lies are politically useful, while the truth would stop the possibility of political manipulation.   

Building a political career on anyone's death is unacceptable and extremely inappropriate.