Borislav Paravac

Borislav Paravac was born on 18 February 1943 in Kostajnica, a village near Doboj in northern Bosnia. At the time of his birth, during the Second World War, the area was part of the Independent State of Croatia. Kostajnica remained his home for his whole life. Obituaries in the Bosnian press noted that he spent his entire life in his native village, where he also raised his family.

Paravac graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Zagreb in 1966 and worked for a number of years as an economist. He later held a certificate as a licensed accountant and a certificate as a licensed auditor of financial statements, and was a member of the Association of Accountants and Auditors of Republika Srpska. According to his Serbian-language biography he had a passive knowledge of French.

After the first multi-party elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990, Paravac, an official of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), served for about ten years as president of the Executive Board of the Municipality of Doboj. During the war of the 1990s he was president of the Crisis Staff of the Serb Municipality of Doboj until the end of the conflict.

He was elected to several convocations of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and from 4 December 1998 to 31 January 2003 was a delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the 2002 general election he was elected to the national House of Representatives, where he became first deputy chairman from the Serb people.

When Mirko Šarović resigned from the Presidency in April 2003 over the Orao arms-to-Iraq affair, Serb members of the House of Representatives elected Paravac as his replacement on 9 April, and the House of Peoples confirmed the appointment. He took office on 10 April 2003 as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving with Sulejman Tihić and Dragan Čović. He was Chairman of the Presidency from 10 April to 27 June 2003 and from 28 October 2004 to 28 June 2005. His term ended on 6 November 2006 and he was succeeded by Nebojša Radmanović.

In 2009 he became a senator of Republika Srpska in the second convocation of the Senate. After retirement he founded a company and worked in it until the end of his life.

Paravac was married to Dragica, an agricultural technician, and they had two children. The family lived in Kostajnica near Doboj. The names of his children have not been widely published.

Paravac belonged to the Serb Democratic Party throughout his political career, and at his election to the Presidency in 2003 the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz profiled him as an SDS hardliner. On being chosen, he said that his priorities in the Presidency would be economic reforms, and Oslobodjenje reported his remark that he hoped he would not have to use the veto. He was of Serbian Orthodox faith.

Paravac is remembered in Republika Srpska as one of the most prominent SDS officials of the post-war period and as the Serb Presidency member who took over after the 2003 Orao affair. The City Administration of Doboj described him as a man who carried the heavy duty of leading the Crisis Staff in the hardest times of the 1990s. Serb Presidency member Željka Cvijanović said he left a deep mark on the political and public life of Republika Srpska. His legacy remains contested among Bosniaks and Croats from the Doboj area, who associate the wartime Crisis Staff with persecution, even though the courts finally acquitted him.

No state awards or decorations for Paravac were found in the sources consulted. At his death he was given a commemoration at Pavlović University in Doboj and a funeral that local media described as carried out with the highest honours.

Bosnian broadcasters covered Paravac extensively during his Presidency years, including a profile on the Federation TV programme 60 minuta in November 2004. Regional television stations including RTV Doboj and K3 covered his commemoration and burial in February 2026, and RTRS, Fena, Nezavisne novine and Detektor reported his death.

In 2016 Paravac went on trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Andrija Bjelošević, former chief of the Doboj Public Security Centre, and Milan Savić, his alleged deputy. The indictment alleged that from no later than 3 May 1992 until the end of 1993, as president of the Crisis Staff of the Serb Municipality of Doboj, Paravac took part in a joint criminal enterprise that persecuted Bosniak and Croat civilians in Doboj and Teslić through killings, forced transfer, unlawful detention, torture, forced labour, looting and the destruction of religious and cultural sites. The first accused, Milan Ninković, had his case separated because of illness.

In August 2024 the trial chamber acquitted Paravac, Bjelošević and Savić, finding it had not been proven that they took part in the alleged joint criminal enterprise. In early December 2025 the Appellate Chamber rejected the prosecution's appeal and upheld the verdict in full, making the acquittal final after almost ten years of proceedings. Reactions on social media after his death showed that many in Bosnia still regarded his wartime role with hostility.

Paravac died in Doboj on the morning of 18 February 2026, his 83rd birthday, after a long and serious illness. The specific illness was not made public. His death was announced by the City Administration of Doboj and confirmed by the SDS in Doboj. A commemoration took place on 20 February 2026 at 11:00 in the great hall of Pavlović University in Doboj, and he was buried the same day at 13:00 in the local cemetery in Kostajnica. Željka Cvijanović sent a telegram of condolence to his family.