Jusuf Prazina

He was found dead in a canal near the German border by two hitch-hikers on 31 December 1993. In 2001, documents detailing wartime conversations between then president of Croatia Franjo Tuđman and president of the Croatian parliament Stjepan Mesić were declassified. In one part of these documents, Mesić revealed his suspicions that Bosnian Croat extremists were to blame for Prazina’s death. The most concrete links came from an unsuccessful six-year investigation by the Bavarian Criminal Police.

The HVO authorities appointed Prazina head of their Special Forces and assigned him to guard over the Sarajevo-Mostar corridor near the hydroelectric power plant Salakovac in northern Herzegovina. There he routinely stopped and maltreated passing Bosniaks; particularly those that hailed from Sarajevo or Sandžak. Following the start of the Bosniak-Croat conflict that spring, the HVO launched a major offensive in Mostar on 9 May 1993. Prior to the conflict, the population of Mostar (the major urban center of Herzegovina) was nearly evenly split among the two peoples. With the battle front running down the city's main boulevard, the HVO set out to ethnically cleanse the western side of town under their control. Prazina and his unit, sent down from their previous post, were responsible for carrying out the bulk of this operation.

Following his actions in Herzegovina Prazina left for Croatia, spending several months in a villa on the Dalmatian coast provided for by the Croatian government. General Stjepan Šiber would later recount to Sarajevo media a brief encounter he had with him in a Zagreb hotel lobby in early May 1993. He stated that Prazina approached him, expressed regret for his actions and asked to be forgiven and reinstated to the ARBiH. Šiber assured Prazina he would do what he could, after which the two never saw each other again. Not allowed to carry weapons by the Zagreb authorities, Prazina allegedly grew bitter and restless.

Through bribes and threats, he eventually managed to get a permission to go to Slovenia for himself and twenty close companions. From there the group moved through Austria and Germany before finally relocating to Liège, Belgium. Although Prazina settled himself and his followers in a neighborhood populated mostly by immigrants from Turkey and the Maghreb, he eventually established himself among the city's small Yugoslav emigrant community. There, Prazina was last seen the night of 3 December 1993. He went out with his bodyguards after a game of cards and never came back. The next morning, German police found his Audi abandoned at the railroad station in Aachen. The car body had two bullet holes from a 9 mm handgun; presumed to be a Beretta. Prazina's body was discovered in a canal alongside a highway near the German border by two Romanian hitch-hikers on New Year's Eve. The bullets found in Prazina's head corresponded to the holes in his car, and the ownership of a Beretta by one of his bodyguards sealed the case in the eyes of Belgian police. The four bodyguards were arrested, and three of them went on to be tried and sentenced to serve time in prison.

As the specific motive was never established, the case allowed for numerous conspiracy theories. Croatian media at the time blamed the Bosnian government of Alija Izetbegović and claimed there were links to the Syrian secret service. In 2001, documents detailing war-time conversations between then president of Croatia Franjo Tuđman and president of the Croatian parliament Stjepan Mesić were declassified. In one part of these documents, Mesić revealed his suspicions that Bosnian Croat extremists were to blame for Prazina's death. The most concrete links came from an unsuccessful six-year investigation by the Bavarian Criminal Police. The investigation implicated Bosniak gangster Senad "Šaja" Šahinpašić, and was based on tapped phone conversations which showed that Šahinpašić was aware of Prazina's death by 5 December 1993 – well before his body had been discovered. Šahinpašić had previously been involved in threatening altercations with Prazina, who had considered Šahinpašić to be a threat due to his financial resources and Sandžak origins. Witness testimonies and the nature of the questions asked by investigators showed that the German police had serious indications that Prazina had been killed by Zijo Oručević from Mostar. Specifically, one witness testified that he believed Šahinpašić had convinced Oručević to issue an order for the assassination of Prazina. Deciding that there was not enough evidence for a prosecution, the police closed the investigation on 15 December 1998.

With the onset of the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992, Prazina expanded his gang into an effective paramilitary fighting force. This force was central in the effort against the besieging Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), and he was rewarded for his contribution to the city's defense by appointment to the head of the government's special forces. Prazina proved problematic for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He wielded great power through this enterprise: in early 1992, after being shot during a pit-bull fight, doctors at Koševo hospital were hesitant to perform the necessary operation due to the great risk involved. In response, Prazina's small army besieged the hospital and forced the surgeons to attempt the job. Although a bullet remained (causing him to have a limp and reduced range of motion on his left hand for the rest of his life), Prazina ultimately survived and continued his activities. By the time the Yugoslav Wars were underway, Prazina had been arrested and jailed five times, and was a well-known figure in Sarajevo's underworld.

A troubled teen, Prazina's youth allegedly contained numerous stays in various jails and correctional facilities of the former Yugoslavia. By the 1980s he had become involved in organized crime, eventually heading his own racketeering gang based around his home in the city's Centar municipality.

Jusuf "Juka" Prazina (pronounced [jǔsuf jûka prǎzina] ; 7 September 1962 – 3/4 December 1993) was a Bosnian gangster and paramilitary warlord during the Bosnian War.