Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/March/international_March351.xml&section=international&col=

Bosnian ex-warlord Abdic released after 10 yrs (Reuters)

9 March 2012 PULA, Croatia - Greeted by thousands of cheering supporters, former Bosnian warlord Fikret Abdic, one of the most controversial figures of the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia, walked free on Friday after serving 10 years in prison for war crimes.

Abdic went from communist to corrupt capitalist to leader of a Bosnian Muslim splinter group during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war in a career epitomising the fickle loyalties and thirst for profit that often lurked behind the fighting.

He was jailed for the murder and detention of fellow Muslims during the war, but still commands support in his native northwest Bosnia as the former owner of a once-mighty food and agriculture comglomerate that employed thousands.

Some 2,000-3,000 supporters travelled by bus and car to the north Croatian coastal town of Pula to greet his release, chanting his nickname ‘Babo’, or Papa.

“Our battle now is a battle against poverty,” the 72-year-old told them.

His daughter now runs a political party in the region.

Abdic served 10 years of a 15-year sentence for war crimes stemming from when he ran his own fiefdom centred on the town of Velika Kladusa in northwest Bosnia as the country was torn apart in fighting between Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

Though a Muslim himself, Abdic split from Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic early in the war, declared his native enclave autonomous and installed himself as president.

He dealt in arms and favours with all sides, and commanded the loyalty of some 50,000 people thanks in part to his Agrokomerc company, which employed 13,000 of them and produced the popular Yugoslav version of Jaffa Cakes.

Abdic was accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the company during the brief period of market reform before Yugoslavia’s collapse, but made a comeback in the Bosnian elections of 1990 before the republic declared independence from Yugoslavia.

“He looked more like a character from a South American novel than a Balkan businessman, politician, ruler and criminal,” Bosnian writer Muharem Bazdulj wrote in the Serbian weekly Vreme.

“From no other war-leadership career as from Abdic’s is it so clear that at the very heart of darkness of the wars of the nineties hid economic motives, theft and hunger for profit.”

Addressing his supporters, Abdic vowed to return to Velika Kladusa to rebuild Agrokomerc. The company has been brought to its knees by mismangement, and it is unclear whether Abdic has any legal claim to ownership.

“I read the news and saw that Abdic plans at first to hire 5,000 people,” said supporter Nurija Karajic, who wore a white-t-shirt bearing a photo of Abdic.

Abdic gave no indication whether he planned to re-launch his political career, and was expected to live for the timebeing in the picturesque Croatian fishing town of Volosko where his family own property.

He is widely quoted as once saying, “I don’t advocate any option, I have no ideas and I can agree to anything.”

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... 5815.story

Bosnian ex-warlord stirs hope and controversy

Zoran Radosavljevic Reuters

8:27 a.m. CDT, April 2, 2012

VELIKA KLADUSA, Bosnia, April x (Reuters) - Five gutted houses and a moth-balled factory are all that remains in this northern Bosnian town to recall Fikret Abdic's dramatic fall from grace. That, and the lingering adoration of the people of Velika Kladusa.

One of the most controversial figures of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, Abdic went from communist to capitalist to warlord and finally convict, jailed for war crimes against fellow Muslims.

He was released last month. That he could now be contemplating a comeback speaks to the enduring appeal of strongmen in the Balkans and the painful lack of progress since the war.

"What we had here was amazing. Fikret did so much for this region and now there is nothing," said 47-year-old Semsa Kendic, one of the region's many unemployed residents.

"He's the only one who can get things going again."

Friday marks 20 years since the war began, killing 100,000 people and displacing 2 million.

Some of those convicted of war crimes have served out their sentences and are returning to life in a country still deeply divided between Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.

Now 72, Abdic left jail in the Croatian port city of Pula on March 9 after serving two-thirds of a 15-year sentence. He was greeted by several thousand supporters who had driven the 400 km (250 miles) from Kladusa.

As they danced in the prison carpark and chanted his nickname 'Babo' (Papa), Abdic pledged to return and revive the once-mighty Yugoslav-era food concern he once ran, Agrokomerc.

The claim has stirred hope and controversy in his native region, for Abdic's career epitomized the fickle loyalties and thirst for profit that lurked behind much of the war.

"My father has no personal interest in doing this, but he is the only person these poor people trust," said his daughter, Elvira. "And only someone who has created a major company can run such a company."

SPLINTER GROUP

In socialist Yugoslavia, Abdic almost single-handedly turned a small local farm into a giant exporter to 43 countries, employing 13,600 people.

Then in 1987, the company was embroiled in a financial scandal over $400 million in worthless promissory notes. The saga rocked the political elite and Abdic was ousted.

He was put on trial, but freed. He returned to Velika Kladusa, took back Agrokomerc and restored production to pre-scandal levels by the time Yugoslavia began to collapse in 1991.

Abdic aligned himself with Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. But the war took a bizarre twist in 1993 when Abdic broke ranks and set up a breakaway province based around Velika Kladusa.

From there, Abdic earned a reputation as an unsavory war-profiteer, imprisoning opponents and dealing in arms and favors with all sides. The Bosnian Muslim army routed his forces in 1995 and Abdic fled to Croatia, where he was eventually tried.

With Abdic free, his family, steered in his absence by his politician daughter, has set its sights on reclaiming Agrokomerc.

Many in this region are convinced that Abdic can, as one resident remarked, "create something out of nothing" - just as they say he did before, when this backwater became a bustling industrial centre with a global reach.