Ismet Đuherić

Who is Ismet Đuherić?

Ismet Đuherić was the first commander of the Meša Selimović Company of the Army of the Republika Srpska. The unit consisted of 120 men, mostly Bosniaks from a few villages in the municipalities of Bosanski Brod and Derventa, but also Serbs and Croats. According to some reporters, the unit was and until today remains one of the controversies of the Bosnian War. During the Bosnian war, Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the Serb-controlled territories in the process which would later be known as ethnic cleansing, excluding some villagers who were instead organized into Meša Selimović unit with the help of Slavko Lisica, a Serb general who accepted to help remaining Bosniaks on Ismet Đuherić's request.

Today Ismet Đuherić lives with his wife Hanumica in the village of Sijekovac near Bosanski Brod. He and his daughter are employees of the oil refinery in Brod. Discounting several months spent as refugees in the nearby villages of Dubočac and Kobas, the Đuherićs are the only Muslim family that has spent the whole war in the village of Sijekovac. Đuherić has been elected to serve as president of the Sijekovac local community again, as he did before the war.