Hidroelektra workers massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the Algerian Civil War | |
Location | near Blida, Algeria |
Date | 14 December 1993 |
Target | Hidroelektra workers |
Attack type | Mass murder, terrorism |
Deaths | 12 |
Injured | 2 |
Perpetrators | Armed Islamic Group of Algeria |
The Hidroelektra workers massacre was the mass killing of 12 employees of the Croatian construction company Hidroelektra, which at the time was contracted to build a dam and a pipeline in Algeria. [1]
Before the Algerian Civil War started, the SFR Yugoslavia and Algeria established trade relations, with Yugoslavia's Hidroelektra company acquiring rights to construct a dam and a pipeline in Algeria, specifically near the city of Blida, to create a proper dam to supply power to the city. Workers from various parts of the socialist republics of the country would arrive, especially with those from SR Croatia and SR Bosnia and Herzegovina that were under contract of the company. They had relatively amicable relations with the Algerians, despite them living under a regime where open religious practice and affiliation was socially looked down upon by those living in Yugoslavia.
Following the 1991 Algerian legislative election in which the Islamic Salvation Front won, the country descended into turmoil. Several foreign nationals were killed and a Hidroelektra warehouse in Algeria was burnt down. The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria demanded that all non-Muslim foreigners leave the country before December 15, 1993. One day before this deadline, the group stormed the camp where all the workers resided in Algeria. At that time, most of the workers had already left the camp, except for a group of 22 men who were still there. [2] Simultaneously, SFR of Yugoslavia would collapse in 1991, after the countries Slovenia and Croatia would break away. SR Bosnia and Herzegovina would follow suit in 1992. The latter countries mentioned would be locked into conflict with FR Yugoslavia shortly after their independence. Croatia would later acquire Hidroelektra.
The attack occurred as part of the Algerian Civil War, but was also connected [3] with the Croat-Bosniak War, which had started earlier that year. The workers were near the end of a four-year contract and were due to leave Algeria in a few days. [1]
According to a testimony from one of the survivors, the group of 50 assailants entered the camp through holes in the fence surrounding the encampment, sometime in the evening. [4] The militants searched the barracks looking for workers and soon rounded up most of them. One worker remained hidden, while two workers were on a different location, thus avoiding the incident. They then tied up the workers and looted them. [4]
Some of Hidroelektra's workers were Bosniaks, so the militants separated them from the rest of the group. They then tested the workers by asking them to pray in Arabic. Two of the Bosnian Croat workers successfully pretended that they were Muslims since they knew the prayers due to growing up alongside them. [4]
One of the surviving workers recalled that after not knowing how to pray, he was taken to a different site where attackers threw him to the ground and slit his throat. He lost consciousness but remained alive as the executioner failed to cut his vital neck arteries. He claims that he pretended to be dead, but subsequently started to shiver due to shock. This resulted in an unknown person approaching him again and inflicting another deep cut, this time on the back side of his neck. [4] Another worker had his face half-slashed, causing him to faint and making terrorists think that he was dead. [2] Except for them, 12 other workers were put to death. [1] [2] [4]
The surviving men were soon saved by the Algerian Army whose arrival routed the attackers. The injured men were then taken to a hospital where they received the necessary medical assistance. [5]
Following the massacre, the Croatian Government dispatched a delegation led by future prime minister Ivo Sanader, who was then a Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. This delegation brought the surviving workers back to Croatia, as well as human remains of those who were killed. [4]
Alija Izetbegović was a Bosnian politician, Islamic philosopher and author, who in 1992 became the first president of the Presidency of the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He later served as the first chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Vladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and demographer who published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s on demographic losses in Yugoslavia during World War II and of Axis forces and civilians in the Bleiburg repatriations shortly after the capitulation of Germany. From 1964 to 1982, he worked as an adviser for industrial development in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Hasan Čengić was a Bosniak politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Defence Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the Bosnian War, Čengić was the main fundraiser and weapons buyer for Alija Izetbegović's administration.
"Muslims" is a designation for the ethnoreligious group of Serbo-Croatian-speaking Muslims of Slavic heritage, inhabiting mostly the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The term, adopted in the 1971 Constitution of Yugoslavia, groups together a number of distinct South Slavic communities of Islamic ethnocultural tradition. Prior to 1993, a vast majority of present-day Bosniaks self-identified as ethnic Muslims, along with some smaller groups of different ethnicity, such as Gorani and Torbeši. This designation did not include Yugoslav non-Slavic Muslims, such as Turks, some Romani people and majority of Albanians.
The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December 1995 when the Dayton accords were signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, and the Republika Srpska, the latter two entities being proto-states led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.
Feminnem is a girl group from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of three members. They represented both countries at the Eurovision Song Contest; Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005 and Croatia in 2010. On 21 February 2012, Pamela, Neda and Nika decided to start solo careers and leave Feminnem and effectively disbanded the group. They were named after American rapper Eminem. In May 2022, the group were decided to get back together, and their members posted on social media announcement of their comeback.
Hamdija Pozderac was a Yugoslav communist politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served as the 4th President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1971 to 1974. Pozderac was also a member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia for SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1986 to 1987, and served as President of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1982 to 1984. He was forced to resign from politics due to a corruption scandal in September 1987.
The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia as a "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole" in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and abolished on 14 August 1996.
Bosniaks are a South Slavic ethnic group, native to the region of Bosnia of which the majority are Muslims (90%). The term Bosniaks was used to describe everyone in that region regardless of their religion until late 1800s. It was established again after decades of suppression in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Bosniak Assembly adopted the ethnonym to replace "Bosnian Muslims." Scholars believe that the move was partly motivated by a desire to distinguish the Bosniaks from the term Muslim to describe their nationality in the former Yugoslavia. These scholars contend that the Bosniaks are distinguishable from comparable groups due to a collective identity based on a shared environment, cultural practices and experiences.
Croatia is a predominantly Christian country, with Islam being a minority faith. It is followed by 1.3% of the country's population according to the 2021 census. Islam was first introduced to Croatia by the Ottoman Empire during the Croatian–Ottoman Wars that lasted from the 15th to 16th century. During this period some parts of the Croatian Kingdom were occupied which resulted in some Croats converting to Islam, some after being taken prisoners of war, some through the devşirme system. Nonetheless, Austria strongly fought against the Turks during these few centuries which resulted in the fact that the westernmost border of the Ottoman Empire in Europe became entrenched on the Croatian soil. In 1519, Croatia was called the Antemurale Christianitatis by Pope Leo X in one letter, as well as Poland, Armenia or Albanians.
Bosniaks of Serbia are a recognized national minority in Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the population of ethnic Bosniaks in Serbia is 153,801, constituting 2.3% of the total population, which makes them the third largest ethnic group in the country. The vast majority of them live in the southwestern part of the country that borders Montenegro and Kosovo, called Sandžak. Their cultural center is located in Novi Pazar.
The Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, also known as the Lašva Valley case, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership on Bosniak or Bosnian Muslim civilians in the Lašva Valley region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The campaign, planned from May 1992 to March 1993 and erupting the following April, was meant to implement objectives set forth by Croat nationalists in November 1991. The Lašva Valley's Bosniaks were subjected to persecution on political, and religious grounds, deliberately discriminated against in the context of a widespread attack on the region's civilian population and suffered mass murder, rape and wartime sexual violence, imprisonment in camps, as well as the destruction of religious and cultural sites and private property. This was often followed by anti-Bosniak propaganda, particularly in the municipalities of Vitez, Busovača, Novi Travnik and Kiseljak.
The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 18 October 1992 to 23 February 1994. It is often referred to as a "war within a war" because it was part of the larger Bosnian War. In the beginning, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) fought together in an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). By the end of 1992, however, tensions between Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats increased. The first armed incidents between them occurred in October 1992 in central Bosnia. The military alliance continued until early 1993, when it mostly fell apart and the two former allies engaged in open conflict.
The most widely professed religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Islam and the second biggest religion is Christianity. Nearly all the Muslims of Bosnia are followers of the Sunni denomination of Islam; the majority of Sunnis follow the Hanafi legal school of thought (fiqh) and Maturidi theological school of thought (kalām). Bosniaks are generally associated with Islam, Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Roman Catholic Church, and Bosnian Serbs with the Serbian Orthodox Church. The State Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the entity Constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska provide for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in ethnically integrated areas or in areas where government officials are of the majority religion; the state-level Law on Religious Freedom also provides comprehensive rights to religious communities. However, local authorities sometimes restricted the right to worship of adherents of religious groups in areas where such persons are in the minority.
The Bosniaks are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo as well as in Austria, Germany, Turkey and Sweden. They also constitute a significant diaspora with several communities across Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
Foreign relations between Croatia and Serbia are bound together by shared history, cultural ties and geography. The two states established diplomatic relations in 1996, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Croatian War of Independence and the independence of Croatia. Modern diplomatic relations are functional but cool, stemming from historic nation-building conflict and divergent political ideologies. Their relationship holds geopolitical importance in Southeast Europe given their economic influence in the region.
Bosnians are people native to the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the historical region of Bosnia. As a common demonym, the term Bosnians refers to all inhabitants/citizens of the country, regardless of any ethnic, cultural or religious affiliation. It can also be used as a designation for anyone who is descended from the region of Bosnia. Also, a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus is largely synonymous with the all-encompassing national demonym Bosnians and Herzegovinians.
Ethnic cleansing occurred during the Bosnian War (1992–95) as large numbers of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats were forced to flee their homes or were expelled by the Army of Republika Srpska and Serb paramilitaries. Bosniaks and Bosnian Serbs had also been forced to flee or were expelled by Bosnian Croat forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers. The UN Security Council Final Report (1994) states while Bosniaks also engaged in "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law", they "have not engaged in "systematic ethnic cleansing"". According to the report, "there is no factual basis for arguing that there is a 'moral equivalence' between the warring factions".
Anti-Croat sentiment or Croatophobia is discrimination or prejudice against Croats as an ethnic group and it also consists of negative feelings towards Croatia as a country.
Zlatko Hasanbegović is a Croatian politician and historian who has served as a member of the Croatian Parliament since 2016. He served as Minister of Culture in the cabinet of Tihomir Orešković from 22 January to 19 October 2016. Hasanbegović is also a member of the Zagreb Assembly and one of the founders of the Independents for Croatia party.
The 12, working on a water pipeline for the Croatian company Hidroelektra, were all Christians, and believed killed by one of the armed groups seeking to establish an Islamic republic in Algeria. The motive may have been to seek revenge for the plight of Muslims in Bosnia.
{{cite news}}
: |author=
has generic name (help)