Atif Dudakovic encyclopedia topics

Atif Dudaković

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Wikipedia

Atif Dudaković (born in Bosanska Dubica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia) is a former general in the Bosnian army, commanding the army's Fifth Corps before becoming the general commander of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina army. During the war he was in command of the Bihać enclave that was totally surrounded by Serbian, Fikrets, and Serb Krajina forces from 1991-1995.

Biography

Dudaković served in the Yugoslav People's Army, teaching in at an artillery school in Zadar and a military academy in Belgrade. After outbreak of the war in Bosnia, he joined the newly established Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eventually he became the commander of the 5th corps in Bihać.

The situation in Bihać was difficult because Bihać was surrounded on all sides by the VRS (Bosnian Serbs) RSK (Krajina Serbs) and Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) forces loyal to Fikret Abdić. The 5th Corps successfully defended the enclave and in 1995 broke out from the encirclement and liberated the towns of Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa, Ključ, Sanski Most and were on the verge of entering Prijedor and Banja Luka before the United States forced an end to the war. After the war he continued to serve in the army and held several high ranking positions. Today he is retired but it is speculated that he might be held responsible for war crimes committed against Serbs and followers of Fikret Abdic.

Controversy

In Sept 2006 the media reported that during Operation Sana ‘95, in front of cameras, Dudaković gave an order to burn Serb villages in southern Bosnian Frontier. The media claimed the video meant to set on fire as in burn homes of fleeing, Krajina Serb, refugees where as Dudaković's supporters claim that Dudaković, an artillery officer, was simply giving orders to his men to fire solely. After the video was released Dudaković gave a statement saying:

However the video also contains instructions, with Atif shouting kill at unarmed POWs and allegedly civilians.

Bosnian state prosecutors launched an investigation. In 2006 then Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic was quoted as saying:

No evidence of war crimes was found and the issue was closed. No ICTY indictment was issued as under the ICTY policy of, "completion strategy": all trials should be concluded by 2010, as such prosecutors in The Hague cannot launch new criminal inquiries.