Haris Silajdžić

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Haris Silajdžić

5th Bosniak member of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Presidency
Incumbent
Assumed office November 6, 2006
Preceded by	Sulejman Tihić

Born	October 1, 1945 Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia)
Political party	Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dr. Haris Silajdžić (born on September 1, 1945) is a Bosnian politician and academic.

In the election which was held on October 1, 2006, he was elected to be the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the next four years in a rotating presidency. He ran for the position in 2002 but was defeated by Sulejman Tihić, who was in turn ousted by Silajdžić in the 2006 election.

From 1990-1993 he served as the foreign minister of Bosnia and as prime minister from 1993-1996. He was a member of the Bosnian delegation which negotiated the Dayton Accords, and one of its most vocal opponents after the war. When asked to explain this contradiction he says he signed the deal in order to end the bloodshed and that he would do it again, but the Dayton plan must be changed. Silajdžić continues to be a major figure in Bosnian politics. Originally he was a member and vice-president of the Party of Democratic Action, but broke with it and founded his own Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Positions held by Haris Silajdžić at one time:

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Prime Minister
Co-President of the Council of Ministers
Bosniak member of the presidency 2006-2010

Silajdžić is fluent in Arabic and English languages and has guest lectured at several American universities. He wrote his disertation on American-Albanian relations.

[edit] Quotes

The Allies did not bomb the railway tracks leading to Auschwitz, because they feared it would arouse the wrath of the Nazis; six million people died. In our case, an arms embargo led to "only" a quarter of a million deaths - an embargo that penalized only the victims, for the aggressors already had more arms than they could handle
The origins of this horrific human tragedy lay not in Bosnia itself, but in the policies conducted by demagogues in her neighbouring countries, especially the Milosevic regime in Belgrade - policies that led to the violent dissolution of former Yugoslavia and the near-destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its most plural republic.

--Addressing the Stockholm International forum on the Holacaust, January 27, 2000.--

[edit] External links

Presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Vojislav Kecmanović Đedo \| Đuro Pucar Stari \| Vlado Šegrt \| Rato Dugonjić \| Džemal Bijedić \| Hamdija Pozderac \| Raif Dizdarević \| Branko Mikulić \| Milanko Renovica \| Munir Mesihović \| Mato Andrić \| Nikola Filipović \| Obrad Piljak \| Alija Izetbegović \| Živko Radišić \| Ante Jelavić \| Jozo Križanović \| Beriz Belkić \| Mirko Šarović \| Borislav Paravac \| Dragan Čović \| Sulejman Tihić \| Ivo Miro Jović \| Nebojša Radmanović \| Željko Komšić \| Haris Silajdžić