lit a candle 8 Sept 2026Diplomat, Partisan, stayed through the siege. Not many leaders do that. Sarajevo lost someone.
Their story
Raif Dizdarević was born on 9 December 1926 in Fojnica, then in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, into a Bosnian Muslim family of court clerk Ševkija (also spelled Šefkija) Dizdarević and Selima. He had six brothers and three sisters; all seven Dizdarević brothers joined the Yugoslav Partisans in…
Raif Dizdarević was born on 9 December 1926 in Fojnica, then in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, into a Bosnian Muslim family of court clerk Ševkija (also spelled Šefkija) Dizdarević and Selima. He had six brothers and three sisters; all seven Dizdarević brothers joined the Yugoslav Partisans in the Second World War. Three were killed: oldest brother Zija (Zijo), a writer, murdered in the Ustasha camp at Jasenovac; Nusret, who died in 1942; and Hasan, killed in combat. Their parents died of typhus in 1943. Raif joined the National Liberation Army on 1 August 1943. Contemporary obituaries describe him as a seventeen-year-old assistant intelligence officer of the Visočko-Fojnički detachment (some earlier profiles say he was sixteen that summer; he turned seventeen in December 1943). He later said he did not practise Islam from primary school onward, and in democratic-era interviews identified nationally as Bosniak while refusing new party membership after the League of Communists disappeared: "My party is gone, and I do not intend to change my convictions."
After the war he served in the State Security Administration (OZN/UDB) for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1945 to 1951, then entered federal diplomacy. He was posted to the Yugoslav embassy in Bulgaria (1951-1954) at the height of the Tito-Stalin split, then as first secretary in Moscow (1956-1959) during the thaw, and as counsellor in Prague (1963-1967). He became assistant federal foreign secretary under Miloš Minić (about 1972-1974), led Bosnian trade-union structures, and from April 1978 to April 1982 served as President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was President of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia (1982-1983), then Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 15 May 1984 to 30 December 1987. On 31 December 1987 he entered the collective Presidency of Yugoslavia for SR Bosnia and Herzegovina; after Hamdija Pozderac's departure he became President of the Presidency from 15 May 1988 to 15 May 1989, succeeding Lazar Mojsov in the rotating chair and preceding Janez Drnovšek. He was the first Bosnian Muslim to hold that federal head-of-state role.
His year at the top coincided with foreign debt above US$21 billion, inflation reported around 217 percent, and rising unrest, including in Kosovo. In October 1988 The New York Times reported his warnings that political "passion, vengefulness and aggressiveness" were harming Yugoslavia's international standing, and his televised caution that events could lead to "extraordinary conditions." In March 1989 he cancelled a foreign trip to Brazil, Uruguay and Senegal amid Kosovo unrest. He later wrote that communists had opened space for nationalism by delaying constitutional change, economic reform, and a more democratic atmosphere, and he described Slobodan Milošević as the greatest evil that appeared and drove the breakup toward war.
When the wars of the 1990s began he lost federal influence but remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the 1992-1995 war he stayed in the country, refused foreign offers to evacuate and work abroad, and within his means assisted efforts aimed at BiH's defence; he shared the fate of besieged Sarajevo. He published memoirs including Od smrti Tita do smrti Jugoslavije (From Tito's Death to Yugoslavia's Death), Vrijeme koje se pamti (Time to Remember / Times to Be Remembered), Put u raspad (The Path to Collapse), and Sudbonosni podvig Jugoslavije on the 1948 break with Stalin. In 2014 he deposited his personal archive with the Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Late interviews for Klix, Anadolu Agency, and N1 Pressing stressed "combatant antifascism," NATO and EU as BiH's path, and resistance to historical revisionism.
He married Senija in 1952 (mahalla.ba interview; biografija.org; not named in Avaz/Wikipedia death notices). Their son Predrag lives in the United States; their daughter Jasminka lives in Belgrade. Nephew Srđan Dizdarević, journalist, diplomat and activist, died in 2016 and was buried at Bare cemetery in Sarajevo. Raif Dizdarević died in Sarajevo on 2 September 2026 at age 99. His funeral will be held on 8 September 2026 at 17:00 at Gradsko groblje Lav (Lav cemetery) in Sarajevo.
Biography adapted from English Wikipedia Raif Dizdarević (updated after death); Klix.ba obituaries and profile Ko je bio Raif Dizdarević (2026-09-02); Sarajevo Times; Avaz.ba English funeral notice (2026-09-04); Report.az; .
In their own words
“Behavior that threatens Yugoslavia's international standing cannot be tolerated.”
Warning to the Communist Party Central Committee, New York Times / Henry Kamm, 19 October 1988
“Regardless of the causes, these events are creating a political situation in the country that, if it continues, could lead to extraordinary conditions.”
Televised address on demonstrations, New York Times, 10 October 1988
“Bio je cunami neistine, negativnih priča, falsifikovanja istine i činjenica o Jugoslaviji, ali imam utisak kako vrijeme prolazi, u javnosti sazrijeva istina o tom vremenu.”
N1 Pressing, May 2015, on historiography of Yugoslavia
“Zla kob ovog područja. Ja o njemu ne mogu reći jednu dobru riječ, a znao sam ga jako dobro.”
On Slobodan Milošević, N1 Pressing May 2015
“Moje stranke je nestalo, a svoja uvjerenja ne mislim mijenjati.”
Why he joined no post-communist party (Klix.ba 2026 profile)
“Jedan od posljednjih simbola one Jugoslavije koju generacije pamte s nostalgijom i poštovanjem.”
Milo Đukanović tribute on X, 2026-09-03
Photos
2Raif Dizdarević
by People Forever
Raif Dizdarević, official portrait
by People Forever
