Hamdija Pozderac, one of the strongest and most influential politicians from BiH during the era of communism, died on April 7, 1988, under mysterious circumstances.
He is particularly responsible for the recognition of Muslims as one of the three constituent peoples in the then BiH.
His removal from the political scene of the former Yugoslavia is connected with his persistence that the basic principles of the Constitution from 1974 are not changed, i.e. which granted the status of Muslims as the people in the SFRY. He was the president of the Constitutional Commission of the Assembly of Yugoslavia. Maybe BiH would not even exist as a sovereign and independent country now if it wasn’t for his efforts.
” Muslims and Serbs and Croats, as well as members of other peoples and nationalities that live in BiH, have their national identity and full affirmation of national values in it. Therefore, although BiH is not defined as a national state in the classical sense, it is a national state for Serbs, Croats, Muslims and members of other peoples and nationalities that live on its territory,” stated Pozderac back then.
Hamdija Pozderac bothered many people, because he was the opponent of nationalism. His opponents knew that, if he becomes the head of the Presidency of the SFRY, they will have no chance to achieve their goals. Pozderac was the one who stopped Slobodan Milosevic and his colleagues from changing the constitution that recognized Muslims as a people.
After the staged process with the “affair” in Agrokomerc against him, he was forced to give his resignation on the position of the vice-president of the Presidency of the SFRY, right before taking the leading position in the former state. He decided to withdraw from political life at the session of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of BiH CCSCBiH on October 12,1987, due to “principles”.
He was the winner of the Partisan Memorial Award in 1941. He received the Order of Courage, Order of Merit for the People, Order of Brotherhood and Unity, Order of the Republic, Order of the Yugoslav Flag with a Lent and Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour. He also received the ZAVNOBiH Award, and he became a member of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of BiH in 1956.
Pozderac got sick and ended up in the hospital on October 12, 1987. He died in the Kosevo Hospital in Sarajevo on April 7, 1988. Circumstances of his death remained unclear until this day.
