Fikret Abdić Fikret Abdić ( born 29 September 1939 ) is a Bosniak politician and businessman who first rose to prominence in the 1980s for his role in turning the Velika Kladuša - based agriculture company Agrokomerc into one of the biggest conglomerates in SFR Yugoslavia . In the early 1990s , during the Bosnian War , Abdić declared his opposition to the official Bosnian government , and established Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia , a small and short - lived province in the northwestern corner of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which was composed of the town of Velika Kladuša and nearby villages . The mini state existed between 1993 and 1995 and was allied with the Army of Republika Srpska . In 2002 he was convicted on charges of war crime s against Bosniaks loyal to the Bosnian government by a court in Croatia and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment , which was later reduced on appeal to 15 years by the Supreme Court of Croatia . On 9 March 2012 , he was released after having served two thirds of his reduced sentence . Early life . Abdić was born in Donja Vidovska as the third of thirteen children of Hašim and Zlata Abdić . When World War II broke out in Yugoslavia . His father was a volunteer in Huska ' s militia which later joined the Yugoslav Partisans so Abdić grow up in a communist spirit . Early career . Before the war , Abdić was the director of Agrokomerc , a company from Velika Kladuša that he raised from an agricultural cooperative into a modern food combine , which employed over 13 , 000 workers , and which boosted the well - being of the entire area . Agrokomerc changed the Velika Kladuša from a poverty stricken region to regional powerhouse . Local residents of Velika Kladuša called him " Babo " ( Dad ) . " He ran the company with strong political backing from influential politician Hamdija Pozderac and his brother , Hakija . In the late 1987 , just before Hamdija Pozderac , Raif Dizdarević was about to take over annual Presidency of Yugoslavia , a scandal arose , and Abdić found himself imprisoned for the alleged financial malversations , and Hamdija Pozderac resigned . The scandal shook not only the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , but the whole of Yugoslavia . Another of his controversial moves was erecting a monument to a Bosnian " başbölükbaşı " from the Ottoman Army Mujo Hrnjica on a hill above Velika Kladuša . After his release from prison , he joined the Party of Democratic Action just 24 hours before the 1990 elections were scheduled and ran for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Under the erstwhile constitution , voters elected seven members to the presidency ; two Bosniaks , two Serbs , two Croats and one Yugoslav . He and his future rival Alija Izetbegović ran for the two Bosniak positions , and were both elected . Once the positions were filled , the members of the presidency elected a President of the Presidency who acted as its head . Abdić won more popular votes than Izetbegović but did not assume office for reasons which remain unclear . Bosnian War . According to " NIN " , when the Bosnian War broke out , Abdić briefly appeared in Sarajevo hoping to assume presidency after Izetbegović had been arrested by the Yugoslav People ' s Army . However , he was preempted as Izetbegović had already named Ejup Ganić for that position . A few months later , Abdić decided to return to Bihać and lead the people there . Popular locally , having ties to both Belgrade and Zagreb , Abdić was concerned with business interests in his fiefdom , and opposed Izetbegović ' s government He formed the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia , a move which the government characterized as treason . He made peace deals with Croat ( 14 September 1993 ) and Serb leaders ( 22 October 1993 ) who were satisfied to weaken Bosnian government in the light of Karađorđevo and Graz agreements which aimed to partition Bosnia and Herzegovina between them . Fikret Abdić established concentration camp s for Bosniak population loyal to the government such as Drmeljevo and Miljkovići . Detainees at the camps were subjected to killings , torture , sexual assaults , beatings and otherwise cruel and inhuman treatment . In addition to the Fikret Abdić forces , a paramilitary unit from Serbia known as the Scorpions participated in the war crimes on Bosniaks . When the government 5th Corps of Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , based in the south part of the Bihać pocket in western Bosnia tried to end the existence of APWB , Abdić raised an army which was supplied , trained , financed by ( and fought alongside ) the Army of Republika Srpska and Serbian counterintelligence against the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( ARBiH ) and Bosniaks loyal to Izetbegović . The Serbs took advantage of the situation and strengthened their and Abdić ' s positions . In August 1995 , an ARBiH offensive ended the Republic of Western Bosnia forcing him to flee to Croatia . Lord Owen , a British diplomat and co - author of the Vance - Owen and Owen - Stoltenberg peace plans described Abdić as " forthright , confident and different from the Sarajevan Muslims . He was in favour of negotiating and compromising with Croats and Serbs to achieve a settlement , and scathing about those Muslims who wanted to block any such settlement . " After the war . After the war he was granted political asylum and citizenship by the Croatian President Franjo Tuđman , and lived near Rijeka . The government of Bosnia - Herzegovina charged him with the deaths of 121 civilians , three POWs and the wounding of 400 civilians at Bihać . Croatia refused , however , to extradite him . After Tuđman ' s death in 1999 , and the change in government in Croatia the following year , Croatian authorities arrested and tried him . In 2002 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed in the area of the " Bihać pocket ” . In 2005 the Croatian Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 15 years . Abdić ran for the position of Bosniak member of the Bosnian presidency in 2002 on the Democratic People ' s Community party ticket in 2002 and won 4 . 1 % of the vote . Bosnian law does not bar him from running for office since his conviction is in Croatia . He was released from prison on 8 March 2012 , after serving 10 out of his 15 year sentence . References .