Sulejman Tihić

Sulejman Tihić (26 November 1951 – 25 September 2014) was a Bosnian politician who served as the 4th Bosniak Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 28 October 2002 until 6 November 2006. He was a member and later President of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

Sulejman Tihić
Tihić at an EPP Summit in October 2009
Member of the House of Peoples
In office
14 April 2007 – 25 September 2014
9th Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office
28 February 2006 – 6 November 2006
Preceded byIvo Miro Jović
Succeeded byNebojša Radmanović
In office
28 February 2004 – 28 October 2004
Preceded byDragan Čović
Succeeded byBorislav Paravac
4th Bosniak Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office
28 October 2002 – 6 November 2006
Prime MinisterAdnan Terzić
Preceded byBeriz Belkić
Succeeded byHaris Silajdžić
President of the Party of Democratic Action
In office
13 October 2001 – 25 September 2014
Preceded byAlija Izetbegović
Succeeded byBakir Izetbegović
Personal details
Born(1951-11-26)26 November 1951
Bosanski Šamac, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia
Died25 September 2014(2014-09-25) (aged 62)
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Political partyParty of Democratic Action (1990–2014)
Spouse(s)Jasminka Tihić
Children3
Alma materUniversity of Sarajevo
OccupationPolitician

From 14 April 2007 until his death on 25 September 2014, Tihić also served as a member of the parliamentary House of Peoples.

Early life

Tihić was born in the town of Bosanski Šamac in northern Bosnia. He obtained a degree from the Sarajevo Law School in 1975.[1] Tihić returned to Bosanski Šamac where he worked as a judge, prosecutor and a lawyer.[2]

Bosnian War

When the Bosnian War started in April 1992, Tihić was captured by Serb soldiers and was tortured in three concentration camps in Bosnia (in Bosanski Šamac, Brčko, and the Batković camp in Bijeljina) before being taken by helicopter to the Batajnica neighborhood of Belgrade in Serbia.[3][4][5] He was also later tortured in a prison in Sremska Mitrovica.

Political career

In 1990, Tihić was one of the founding members of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). On 13 October 2001, Tihić was chosen to succeed Alija Izetbegović as president of the SDA party. At the 2002 general election, he was elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the 2006 general election, Tihić decided to run for a second term in the Presidency, but failed to do so when election day came, winning only 27.5% of the votes, 35.3% less than elected Haris Silajdžić.

Tihić with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on 11 May 2006 in Washington, D.C.

After the presidency, he would later go on to be a member of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 14 April 2007 until his death on 25 September 2014. During that period, Tihić was also Chairman of the House of Peoples a few times. American human rights lawyer Francis Boyle stated in his correspondence to the public that Tihić and Sakib Softić[6] had ordered the restitution request from his original lawsuit in the Bosnian genocide case to be voided, thereby returning a favor to his coalition partners Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in Republika Srpska.

Prud Agreement

Together with the leaders of the three most important 'nationalist' political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who acted as representatives of the constituent peoples, Milorad Dodik of the SNSD and Dragan Čović of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), Tihić created the Prud Agreement or Prud Process, an agreement that pertained to state property, census, constitutional changes, reconstructing the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and solving the legal status of Brčko District. The agreement was created in the village of Prud on 8 November 2008.[7][8][9] The reforms promised by the agreement would "build the ability of the State to meet the requirements of the EU integration process".[10]

At a subsequent meeting in Banja Luka on 26 January 2009, the party leaders set out a plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a decentralized country with three levels of government. The middle level of government was aanticipated to be made up by four territorial units with legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.[11]

Controversy surrounded the creation of a third entity, Republika Srpska’s territorial integrity, and the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[12][13]

A further meeting was held in Mostar on 23 February 2009, hosted by HDZ BiH president Dragan Čović.[11]

On 20 July 2009, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko suggested that the process between the three 'nationalist' parties had effectively ended. Instead it had changed into a process involving many more political parties. Inzko believed that minor level constitutional reform can be delivered through the meetings.[14]

Illness and death

Tihić had a tumor on his colon removed in January 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.[15] On 30 September 2013 it was announced that Tihić had been diagnosed with cancer.[16] He was treated surgically in Germany on 4 October 2013; doctors expressed satisfaction with his recovery.[17] On 22 August 2014, he was hospitalized at the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo and died there on 25 September 2014, aged 62.[18][19][20] Tihić was buried in the cemetery of the White Mosque in his hometown of Bosanski Šamac two days later.[21][22][23]

References
  1. "Bosnians Pay Tribute as Sulejman Tihic Dies". Balkan Insight. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  2. "Preminuo Sulejman Tihić". Blic. 25 September 2014. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  3. "Nakon duge i teške bolesti – Preminuo Sulejman Tihić". Haber. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  4. "Preminuo Sulejman Tihić, predsjednik SDA". Al Jazeera Balkans. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  5. "Preminuo Sulejman Tihić, jedan od najutjecajnijih političara BiH". Večernji list. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. "BH DEMANDS TO ICJ". Sense Tribunal. 24 April 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2010. Sakib Softić, chief legal representative of BiH at the ICJ
  7. http://www.sda.ba/files/file/ZAJEDNICKA%5B%5D IZJAVA.pdf
  8. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2009/01/27/feature-01
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Katana, G. 2009. 'Prudski trojac u Banjoj Luci podijelo BiH na četiri regije' (Prud troika divide BiH into four regions in Banja Luka), Oslobođenje 27 January 2009.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. SETimes 20 July 2009
  15. "Nakon obavljenih pretraga Tihić napustio kliniku". Klix. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  16. "TEŠKO BOLESTAN: Predsednik SDA Tihić ima rak na mozgu". Kurir. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  17. "Predsjednik SDA preselio na ahiret: Umro Sulejman Tihić". Dnevni avaz. 25 September 2014. Archived from the original on 29 December 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  18. "Umro Sulejman Tihić, jedan od najutjecajnijih političara u BiH". 24 sata. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  19. "Tihić ima plućnu emboliju: Ljekari ne žele davati nikakve prognoze". Radio Sarajevo. 23 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  20. "Sulejmanu Tihiću uključen program rehabilitacije". Radio Sarajevo. 25 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  21. "Pokopan Sulejman Tihić". Jutarnji. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  22. "Sahranjen Sulejman Tihić". Al Jazeera Balkans. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  23. "Sahranjen Sulejman Tihić". Slobodna Evropa. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
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