BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA/BELGIUM: Funeral of Milan Jelic is held in his home town of Modrica

Record ID: 722195

  • Title: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA/BELGIUM: Funeral of Milan Jelic is held in his home town of Modrica
  • Date: 4th October 2007
  • Summary: (CEEF) BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (FILE - OCTOBER 2, 2006) (REUTERS) JELIC, SERB MEMBER OF BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY NEBOJSA RADMANOVIC, AND DODIK RAISING THEIR GLASSES JELIC SPEAKING JELIC, RADMANOVIC AND DODIK AT THE TABLE SNSD PARTY CELEBRATING ELECTION VICTORY
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACX53DDWEHIJLK43KC9UN3WAOW
  • Story Text: The president of Bosnia's Serb Republic, Milan Jelic, was buried on Wednesday (October 3) in his hometown of Modrica.
    Thousands of people paid their last respects to Jelic who died on Sunday (September 30) of a heart attack aged 51.
    Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica were in attendance, along with international and Bosnian officials.
    Jelic was elected last October to the mostly ceremonial post of the region's president, following the general election. He had been a member of the Serb Democratic Party founded by Radovan Karadzic but in 1998 he left the party and joined the Independent Social Democrats.
    The Serb Republic's prime minister, Milorad Dodik, spoke emotionally about his former colleague.
    "Milan...Herzegovina, Romanija, Posavina, Semberija and my Krajina knows and is saying, that you were the man," he said.
    "That you were the man who carried all the burden on your shoulders and you didn't want to share it with anyone. This is the place, where we are promising to you, that we are going to build a better and happier Republika Srbska, just like the one you already lived in. And I'm saying this to you, your grave will always be guarded by the Republika Srbska police," Dodik added.
    Bosnia is made up of the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, the two autonomous regions created under the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war.
    Jelic was also the president of Bosnia's Football Association. He had served as a regional minister of economy and industry in the previous government.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register