Džafer Kulenović Dr . Džafer Kulenović , often referred to as Džafer - beg Kulenović ( 17 February 1891 - 3 October 1956 ) was a Croatian politician who served as the Vice President of the Government of the Independent State of Croatia and leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Early life . Dr . Kulenović was born in Rajinovci near Kulen Vakuf . He attended a gymnasium in Sarajevo and Tuzla , and he was expelled from school just two months before graduation due to a clash with Serbian nationalist students ; because of that he transferred to school in Mostar and graduated there in 1909 . In the same year , he entered the University of Vienna , but because of health issues he went to Faculty of Law , University of Zagreb from which he graduated . Even in Vienna , Kulenović was active amongst the Viennese Party of Rights ' youth organization called the " " Svijest " " ( The Awareness ) and was elected its president . Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In 1919 , after the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was established , Kulenović joined the Yugoslav Muslim Organization , a political party of Bosnian Muslims . For every election held in Yugoslavia , he was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of the Brčko municipality . When the Vidovdan Constitution was voted on , his party ordered its members in the National Assembly to support the new constitution ; however , Kulenović boycoted the voting as he was against the Constitution and thus didn ' t violate his party ' s orders . In 1921 , he protested to the Assembly the massacre of 200 Muslims carried out by Chetniks in the Sandžak region . When his party divided into the Centralist ( pro - Serb ) and the pro - Autonomy list , Kulenović supporetd the pro - Autonomy . In the 1923 election , the Autonomists defeated the pro - Serbian faction of the YMO . Kulenović was also among those who made the Sarajevan Punctations , in which the YMO condemned the Serbian nationalist policy over Bosnia and Herzegovina and demanded Bosnian autonomy . After Mehmed Spaho , the President of the YMO , died , Kulenović was elected as the organization ' s new president on June 29 , 1939 . Uzeir Hadžihasanović who was influential amongst the Muslims , helped him win this post . At this time , the YMO was in a coalition called the Yugoslav Radical Union ( YRU ) ; the coalition was led by Milan Stojadinović . The YMO ' s membership in the YRU threatened YMO ' s existence , and Kulenović tried to save the party . His actions led to the division in the YRU . During the Prime Ministership of Dragiša Cvetković and Dušan Simović , Kulenović was a minister without porfolio and Minister of Forestry and Mining . In 1939 Kulenović opposed the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina when the Banovina of Croatia was created , and he also opposed the idea of Serbian nationalist ministers and politicians that the parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which were not included in the Croatian Banovina , should be included in the so - called " Serbian lands " . During the German Invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 , Kulenović didn ' t leave the country as most ministers did ; he secretly left Belgrade and went to Užice , from where he went to Sarajevo and later to Brčko , where his family lived . Independent State of Croatia . He became the vice - president of the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) on November 7 , 1941 and held the position until the war ' s end . He had actually succeeded his older brother Osman Kulenović in this position . At the end of the war he fled to Austria . He was apprehended by British forces and sent to their detention centre at Spittal an der Drau on May 17 . He arrived one day after a group of NDH government officials had been sent back to Yugoslavia , which likely spared him from being extradited himself . Emigration . Kulenović later immigrated to Syria . He lived there until his death on October 3 , 1956 in Damascus . While in Syria , the Croats in Argentina published a collection of his journalistic writings . In 1950 , the Croat Muslim Community in Chicago published a speech he wrote for the Muslim Congress following World War II in Lahore , Pakistan . This twenty - two page pamphlet entitled " A Message of Croat Muslims to Their Religious Brethren in the World " detailed Serb aggression against Croats of Islamic faith and promoted the idea of Croat unity . Only a few months before his death , the Croatian Liberation Movement was formed , with Dr . Kulenović being one of the founders and signatories . Legacy . His son Nahid Kulenović continued working with this Movement , but was assassinated by the Yugoslavia secret police , UDBA , in Munich .