Momčilo Đujić

Who was Momčilo Đujić?

Momčilo R. Đujić was a Dalmatian Serb priest and self-appointed Chetnik commander who led a significant proportion of the Chetniks within the northern Dalmatia region of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. As a Serbian Orthodox priest, he joined the Chetnik movement led by Kosta Pećanac after the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934. After the invasion of Yugoslavia, he defended local Serbs against the Ustaše and collaborated with the Axis powers against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout the remainder of the war as the commander of the Chetnik Dinara Division. He survived the war, surrendering to the British and eventually emigrating to the United States, avoiding several denied extradition attempts by the Yugoslav government, who accused him of being responsible for the deaths of 1,500 people. Settling in California, Đujić played an important role in Serbian émigré circles and founded the Ravna Gora Movement of Serbian Chetniks alongside other exiled Chetnik fighters. He later retired to San Marcos, where he wrote poems and jokes that were published in both the United States and Serbia. He was instrumental in perpetuating Chetnik ideas in the Yugoslav Wars and controversially appointed Vojislav Šešelj as a Chetnik vojvoda in 1989. In 1998, Đujić said that he regretted awarding the title to Šešelj. On 21 May 1998, Biljana Plavšić, President of the Republika Srpska at the time, awarded him the Order of the Star of Karađorđe. Đujić died at a hospice in San Diego in 1999, aged 92.