Death would come when Allah willed it, Izetbegovic had earlier said

SARAJEVO, October 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Alija Izetbegovic, former hero of Muslim resistance during the siege of Sarajevo who led his country to independence from communist Yugoslavia, died Sunday, October 19, at the age of 78.

He was a devout Muslim who fought for the emancipation of his people within a multi-ethnic state, but never realized his dream of a reunified Bosnia, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"President Izetbegovic passed away," Sulejman Tihic, the Muslim member of Bosnia's presidency, told reporters gathered outside the Sarajevo hospital where Izetbegovic had been admitted last month with four broken ribs.

Doctors said the cause of death was a "prolonged heart illness caused by a previous heart attack which further deteriorated due to a serial fracture of ribs.

"Izetbegovic's heart stopped at 14.20 pm (1220 GMT)," said Amila Arslanagic, a doctor.

She added that Izetbegovic was conscious until the moment of death and had brushed his teeth just 30 minutes before passing away.

Bosnian television and radio stations interrupted their programming to announce the death of Izetbegovic.

Izetbegovic long advocated a state in which ethnic Muslims, Croats and Serbs would fully enjoy their national and religious rights, denied in former communist Yugoslavia.

But seven years after the 1992-1995 war, his country remains divided along ethnic lines and is struggling to recover.

Key Figure

Izetbegovic's bravery was exemplified by the way he withstood the almost medieval siege of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serbs, Owen said.

He was a key figure during the war in Bosnia when some 200,000 people died and more than two million were forced out of their homes.

He won worldwide sympathy by running the government from sandbagged buildings during the three-and-a-half-year-long siege of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serbs, under constant threat from their artillery and sniper attacks.

The short, blue-eyed Muslim walked to his office through the bombardment, believing, according to those who knew him, that death would come when Allah willed it.

Together with the then Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Izetbegovic participated in marathon peace negotiations in the U.S. city of Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995 led by the U.S.-diplomat Richard Holbrooke. These resulted in a peace accord for Bosnia.

The deal split the country into two highly-autonomous entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- and brought in NATO-led peacekeepers to maintain security.

"This is not a just peace, but it is more just than continuation of the war," Izetbegovic told his people after signing the accord:

"In the situation as it is, and in the world as it is, a better peace could not be achieved."

Izetbegovic said in an interview he considered his greatest achievement to be the fact that Bosnia never fell under Milosevic's regime.

Tough But Honest

"I think he was a very courageous man. When the history of Bosnia-Hercegovina is written, he will have a major role in it," said former Balkans peace broker David Owen.

Owen, a former British foreign minister who was the European Community's peace envoy to the former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1995, said that Izetbegovic, who died in a Sarajevo hospital aged 78, was tough but honest.

"He personally played a major role in the creation of Bosnia-Hercegovina," said Owen.

"I think he was a very brave leader. At one stage, the portion that his government controlled of Bosnia-Hercegovina was down to just over 10 percent," Owen recounted.

Izetbegovic's bravery was exemplified by the way he withstood the "almost medieval siege" of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serbs, Owen said.

Owen said that he found Izetbegovic relatively straightforward to deal with as he was one of the few Balkan leaders of the time who was not a former communist.

"He wasn't easy. He was quite determined, but he was honest, within the constraints of the time," Owen said.

"You did know, when you were dealing with him, that there was something different. He didn't espouse communist attitudes ... that made it much easier to deal with him.

"He was tough, and for what he wanted and what was prepared to get, he was quite unscrupulous in some ways in getting what he needed, but he did it with an objective that was not a personal one. It was for the good of his country."

In the postwar period Izetbegovic filled the Muslim seat in the tripartite presidency that also included a Croat and a Serb member.

But in October 2000, his encroaching age and failing health forced him to step down from the presidency, after he was weakened by two heart attacks.

In 2002, he also stepped down as head of his Muslim nationalist Party of Democratic Action (SDA), remaining its honorary president.

He was fitted with a pacemaker by Slovenian cardiologists in 2002. Thereafter Izetbegovic rarely appeared in the media.

Criticism

His wartime charisma began to fade amid criticism that the country's economic situation was failing to improve leaving the country dependent on foreign aid.

Bosnian Serbs also claimed Izetbegovic was responsible for "war crimes" committed by Muslim forces. They provided documents to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague in a bid to have him formally indicted, but the tribunal has yet to respond.

The international community, deeply involved in the Bosnian peace process, also accused Izetbegovic's party, the SDA, of trying to dominate the multi-ethnic state.

Meanwhile Izetbegovic said the international community had tried to reduce the influence of Muslims, who make up more than 40 percent of the country's population.

Izetbegovic was twice jailed for a total of 12 years for his opposition to the communist regime in the former Yugoslavia.

He was released in 1988 and less then a year later he co-founded the SDA, which won the 1990 elections along with Serb and Croat nationalist parties.

After the elections, Izetbegovic was appointed Bosnia's president.

In 1992, the country declared independence, following in the footsteps of Slovenia and Croatia, sparking the war with pro-Belgrade Bosnian Serbs.

Izetbegovic, who like other Bosnian Muslims practiced a moderate form of Islam, said on many occasions he had never wished to create an Islamic state in Bosnia, stressing his ultimate support for a multi-ethnic country.

Born on August 8, 1925 in the northeastern town of Bosanski Samac, Izetbegovic moved to Sarajevo with his family at the age of three.

He was legal counsel to two Sarajevo firms before entering politics full-time in his mid-sixties.

The fact that he was a newcomer to politics was seen by many as the reason for what was perceived as his indecisiveness and lack of diplomatic skills.

Izetbegovic, reportedly separated from his wife, lived modestly. He had two daughters and a son.

Huge Loss

Sarajevo residents reacted with sadness to the news of Izetbegovic's death.

"It is a huge loss for Bosnia-Herzegovina, he was the greatest man this country had," Osman Ibric, a pensioner, told AFP.

"I just heard it. I am so sad," added a tearful Hadzira Cavcic.

Reaction was much different, however, among Bosnia's Serb population."No Serb can feel sorry because he is dead. I am glad that he is gone," Mirko Savic told AFP in Pale, a Bosnian Serb wartime stronghold.

"I am sorry that he escaped an indictment by The Hague tribunal," Ilic Dragoljub added.

Since the end of Bosnia's war, experts from the Bosnian Muslim commission for missing people exhumed remains of 16,500 bodies from 273 mass graves.

In October 2002, Bosnian and international forensic experts said they had completed the exhumation of what they described as the largest mass grave found in Bosnia since the country's 1992-95 war.