Irfan Ljubijankic died on May 28th, 1995 in the crash of the helicopter that was supposed to transfer him and his associates to Zagreb. The helicopter was shot down over Cetingrad by rebel Serbs in the Republic of Croatia.
He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) by the decision on the election of the Government of the Republic of BiH (RBiH) at the session held in 1993. At the time of his death, he was also the president of the Main Board of the SDA.
The helicopter he was using to travel from the improvised military airport Coralici near Cazin towards Zagreb was shot down by the members of the so-called Serbian Army of Krajina (SVK).
In addition to dr. Ljubijankic, in the aircraft were Izet Mehmedagic, Deputy Minister of Justice of the RBiH, Mensur Sabulic, advisor at the Embassy of the RBiH in Zagreb, Major Fadil Pekic, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RBiH and a personal companion of Minister Ljubijankic, and a Ukrainian pilot (N. Dudayev) and two crew members (Mirsad Dupanovic and Mihail Maksumenko Grigorijevic).
The helicopter was shot down by members of the so-called Army of Serbian Krajina.
There are various speculations about the downing of the helicopter in 1995 and the murder of the war minister of foreign affairs of BiH. The air bridge between Zagreb and Coralici near Cazin lasted from June 1994 to August 1995, during which around 100 flights were made. Two aircraft were shot down – a transport plane in August 1994 (with seven Ukrainian crew members) and a helicopter on May 28th, 1995, when Minister Ljubijankic was killed.
An interesting document, signed by Colonel Slobodan Tarbuk, commander of the 39th Banija Corps, the so-called The Serbian Army of the Krajina (SVK), Croatian veterans’ associations have revealed. In the document dated May 31st, 1995, it is written, among other things, that the shooting down of the helicopter “should be used as proof that the SVK has the means to oppose enemy aviation and to prove determination in the use of those means.”
The final part of the information of the commander of the 39th Banija Corps SVK is interesting.
“At this point, we should rule out any thought that the helicopter was shot down because of the people in it. It would have been shot down regardless of who or what was in it, especially because of the knowledge that this route has been used by the Muslim army for a long time. This is how we will act and in the future,” the document says.
Decorated for a crime
On June 28th, 1995, a military parade of the SVK special forces at the Slunj military training ground was broadcast on TV Knin. The parade, held on the Orthodox holiday of Vidovdan, was an attempt to restore morale after the loss of Western Slavonia and a response to the Croatian Army parade held in Zagreb on May 30th.
At the parade, General Mile Mrksic, then commander of the Serbian Army of Krajina and a convicted war criminal, read the names of 14 soldiers and officers awarded for shooting down an enemy aircraft.
There are fourteen names on the list of officers of the former SVK who were awarded for the downing of the helicopter in which all seven passengers died.
He suspects the second scenario
Irfan Ljubijankic‘s wife, Minka, said on one occasion that she believed that the helicopter was grounded – and that the delegation led by her husband was killed afterwards. However, even 29 years after the murder of Irfan Ljubijankic, no one has ever been held accountable for this crime, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
