Momčilo Đujić Momčilo R . Đujić ( Serbian Cyrillic : Момчило P . Ђујић ; 27 February 1907 – 11 September 1999 ) was a Dalmatian Serb Chetnik commander ( ) who led a significant proportion of the Chetniks within the northern Dalmatia region of the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) during World War II . A Serbian Orthodox priest , he joined the Chetnik movement led by Kosta Pećanac after the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934 . After the invasion of Yugoslavia , he defended local Serbs against the Ustaše and collaborated with the Axis powers against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout the remainder of the war as the commander of the Chetnik Dinara Division ( " Dinarska divizija " , Динарска дивизија ) . He survived the war , surrendering to the British and eventually emigrating to the United States , avoiding several denied extradition attempts by the Yugoslav government , who accused him of being responsible for the deaths of 1 , 500 people . Settling in California , Đujić played an important role in Serbian émigré circles and founded the Movement of Serbian Chetniks Ravne Gore Society alongside other exiled Chetnik fighters . He later retired to San Marcos , where he wrote poems and jokes that were published in both the United States and Serbia . He was instrumental in perpetuating Chetnik ideas in the Yugoslav Wars and controversially appointed Vojislav Šešelj as a Chetnik " vojvoda " in 1989 . In 1998 , Đujić said that he regretted awarding the title to Šešelj . On 21 May 1998 , Biljana Plavšić , President of the Republika Srpska at the time , awarded him the Order of the Star of Karađorđe ( First Class ) . Đujić died at a hospice in San Diego in 1999 , aged 92 . Early life . Momčilo Đujić was born on 27 February 1907 in the village of Kovačić , near Knin in the Kingdom of Dalmatia of Austria - Hungary . He belonged to a family which was of Bosnian origin . Đujić started secondary school in Šibenik and went to the Serbian Orthodox seminary in Sremski Karlovci , graduating in 1931 at the age of 22 . He was assigned to the Orthodox parish near his birthplace , where his passionate sermons won him the nickname of " Father Fire " ( ) . Following the 1934 assassination of Yugoslav King Alexander and in anticipation of future ethnic conflict , Đujić met Serbian paramilitary leader and Chetnik movement president Kosta Pećanac . With aid from Pećanac ' s movement , he organized and began to arm eleven Chetnik bands in his region prior to the outbreak of World War II . He later said : " I knew that the country would not survive , because nobody can put Serbs and Croats in the same bag . " World War II . On 10 April 1941 the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) was proclaimed , which was divided into German and Italian zones of occupation and which between April and August had saw large incarcerations , massacres , forced emigration , and murder of Serbs . Weeks after the NDH ' s establishment , Đujić narrowly escaped capture by Croatian nationalist forces , and in the summer of 1941 , organised a Chetnik detachment that seized the town of Drvar from the Ustaše . By that time , he and local Chetnik leader Stevo Radjenović contacted the Italians , in an effort to stop the mistreatment of Serbs , enable the return of Serb refugees , and to repeal a decree that enabled the confiscation of Serb property in the NDH . These requests were accepted by the Italians in the hopes that doing so would win the Chetniks over to collaboration . On 13 August , at a meeting in the village of Pađene , Đujić and other Serbian nationalists formed an agreement for collaboration with Italian forces . On 31 August , at a Drvar assembly , Đujić was given the task of stopping the Italian advance ; immediately afterwards , however , he made an agreement with the Italians granting them free passage . Establishment of the Dinara Division . In early January 1942 , the Dinara Division was formed after Đujić was contacted by supreme Chetnik commander Draža Mihailović via a courier . Chetnik commander Ilija Trifunović - Birčanin played a central role in organizing the units of Chetnik leaders in western Bosnia , Lika , and northern Dalmatia into the Dinara Division and dispatched former Royal Yugoslav Army officers to help . Đujić was designated the commander of the division and its goal was for the " establishment of a Serb national state " in which " an exclusively Orthodox population is to live " . Đujić says the Dinara Division was " under Draža ' s command , but we received news and supplies for our struggle from [ Dimitrije ] Ljotić and [ Milan ] Nedić . [ . . . ] Nedić ' s couriers reached me in Dinara and mine reached him in Belgrade . He sent me military uniforms for the guardists of the Dinara Chetnik Division ; he sent me ten million dinars to obtain for the fighters whatever was needed and whatever could be obtained . " By mid - April Đujić and his troops began collaborating with the Italians in anti - Partisan raids . He operated in northern Dalmatia under commander Trifunović - Birčanin who acted as liaison officer between the Chetniks and Italians and whose collaboration agreements were condoned by Mihailović . By June 1942 , Đujić and other Chetnik leaders had established co - operation with the Ustaše , although these relationships were " based only on their common fear of the Partisans " and " characterised by distrust and uncertainty " . Đujić actively co - operated with Italian forces , with whom he had concluded a non - aggression pact . In late September 1942 , Đujić ' s Chetniks killed up to 200 Croats in the village of Gata near Split , causing outrage by the Italians . On 10 February 1943 , Đujić , Ilija Mihić , Petar Baćović and Radovan Ivanišević , the Chetnik commanders of east Bosnia , Herzegovina , Dalmatia , and Lika , signed a joint proclamation declaring to the " people of Bosnia , Lika , and Dalmatia " that " since we have cleansed Serbia , Montenegro , and Herzegovina , we have come to help to crush the pitiful remnants of the , criminal band of Josip Broz Tito , Moša Pijade , Levi Vajnert and other paid Jews " . The Partisan rank and file was called upon to " kill the political commissars and join our ranks right away , " like the " hundreds and hundreds who are surrendering every day , conscious that they have been betrayed and swindled by the Communist Jews . " Following the death of Trifunović - Birčanin in February 1943 , Đujić , along with Jevđević , Baćović , and Ivanišević vowed to the Italians to carry on Trifunović - Birčanin ' s policies of closely collaborating with them against the Yugoslav Partisans . Đujić ' s detachments in Dalmatia and western Bosnia were used by the Italians almost up to the point of their surrender . Following Italian capitulation in September 1943 , the Germans were less supportive of Đujić than the Italians had been , and restricted his activities to guarding railway tracks from Partisan sabotage . On 19 or 20 November 1943 , Mihailović ordered Đujić to collaborate with the Germans , adding that Mihailović himself was unable to openly do so " because of public opinion . " Retreat and surrender . On 25 November 1944 , the Yugoslav Partisans attacked the town of Knin , which was defended by 14 , 000 German troops , 4 , 500 of Đujić ' s Chetniks , and around 1 , 500 Ustaše . On 1 December , Đujić was wounded and sent an emissary to General Gustav Fehn of the German 264th Division in Knin with the following message : On 3 December 1944 , Đujić ' s force of between 6 – 7 , 000 withdrew to Bihać with help from the Wehrmacht 373rd Division . The Chetniks received ammunition and food from the Germans and began a joint German - Chetnik offensive against the Partisans . General Fehn organized the transportation of Đujić ' s wounded Chetniks through Zagreb to the Third Reich . Đujić requested a written guarantee from Ante Pavelić , leader of the NDH , to afford him and his forces refuge in German - occupied Slovenia . In addition , Dimitrije Ljotić and Milan Nedić petitioned to Nazi party official Hermann Neubacher in Vienna that Đujić ' s forces should be allowed passage , as did Slovene collaborationist General Leon Rupnik . On 21 December 1944 , Pavelić ordered the military forces of the NDH to give Đujić and his forces " orderly and unimpeded passage " . However , Đujić went through an alternate route towards the Istrian peninsula , as the routes offered by Pavelić were not secure from Partisan attacks , and killed the Croatian population along the way . When Đujić reached Slovenia , his forces joined Dobroslav Jevđević ' s Chetniks , Ljotić ' s Volunteers , and Nedić ' s Serbian Shock Corps forming a single unit that was under the command of Odilo Globocnik of the Higher SS and Police Leader in the Adriatic Littoral . In May 1945 , he surrendered his division to Allied forces and they were then taken to southern Italy , from there to displaced persons camp s in Germany and then dispersed . After staying in Paris from 1947 to 1949 , Đujić emigrated to the United States , to where many of his former followers may have followed him . Life in exile and failed extradition attempts . In 1947 , Đujić was tried and sentenced " in absentia " for war crimes by Yugoslavia . He was declared a war criminal who as commander of the Dinara Division was responsible for organizing and carrying out a series of mass murders , massacres , tortures , rapes , robberies , and imprisonments , and collaborating with the German and Italian occupiers . He was accused of being responsible for the deaths of 1 , 500 people during the war . From 1947 to 1949 Đujić was in France . Following his arrival in the United States , Đujić and his fighters played a role in the foundation of the Movement of Serbian Chetniks Ravne Gore Society . Later , he enraged some in the Serbian diaspora when he endorsed a Communist - authorized Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church . However , he remained strongly opposed to the Communist regime in Yugoslavia . Đujić retired to San Marcos , where he wrote poems and jokes that were published in both the United States and Serbia . On 28 June 1989 , the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo , Đujić granted the title of vojvoda to Vojislav Šešelj , then an anti - Communist dissident who was subsequently described for his activities in the Yugoslav Wars as " a man whose killer commando units operating in Croatia and Bosnia carried on the very worst of the Chetnik tradition . " Later Šešelj became leader of the Serbian Radical Party ( SRS ) , a government coalition partner of Serbian President Slobodan Milosević . In 1998 , Đujić publicly stated that he regretted awarding that title to Šešelj . He was quoted as saying , " I was naïve when I nominated Šešelj [ as ] Vojvoda ; I ask my people to forgive me . The greatest gravedigger of Serbdom is Slobodan Milošević " and that he is " disappointed in Šešelj for openly collaborating with Milošević ' s Socialist Party , with Communists who have only changed their name . [ . . . ] Šešelj has sullied the reputation of Chetniks and Serbian nationalism . " According to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ( ICTY ) testimony of Croatian Serb leader Milan Babić , Đujić financially supported the Republic of Serbian Krajina in the 1990s . On 21 May 1998 , Biljana Plavšić , President of the Republika Srpska at the time , awarded Đujić the Order of the Star of Karađorđe ( First Class ) . Đujić ' s wife , Zorka , died in 1995 . On 28 May 1999 , Croatian Justice Minister Zvonimir Šeparović attempted to have Đujić extradited based on lengthy evidence drawn from proceedings carried out by the Šibenik - Knin County Court , but to no avail . Death . Đujić died on 11 September 1999 at a hospice in San Diego , California at the age of 92 . He was survived by his sons Siniša and Radivoje , his daughter Radojka Kinach , two granddaughters , four great - grandchildren , his brother , Boško Đujić , and his sister , Ilinka Đuric , all of whom were residents of California . A " New York Times " obituary following his death , written by journalist David Binder , wrote that Đujić was " a fierce foe of the Nazis , Fascists and Communists , " that participated in " epic World War II battles " and carried out many " acts of wartime bravery . " The article and its author were criticized by the Croatian government which said it was " dissatisfied and disappointed " with what it stated was " false " information included in Đujić ' s biography . Editorial writer for the " Washington Post " , Benjamin Wittes , observed that the obituary only mentioned " in passing " the war crimes and collaboration accusations against Đujić , as well as his influence in the Yugoslav Wars . Historian Marko Attila Hoare stated that Binder ' s piece displayed his " admiration of Serb Nazi - collaborator Momčilo Đujić . " A commemoration in honor of Đujić is celebrated semiannually at St . Mark ' s Church in Belgrade , Serbia and organized by the " Vojvoda Momčilo Đujić " Dinara Chetnik Movement . The Serbian diaspora in the United States set up a monument dedicated to Đujić at the Serbian cemetery in Libertyville , Illinois . The management and players of the football club Red Star Belgrade visited it on 23 May 2010 .