1. Jovan Divjak was a Bosnian army general who served as the Deputy Commander of the Bosnian army's general staff until 1994, during the Bosnian War.
17 Facts About Jovan Divjak
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Jovan Divjak's father was stationed in the Yugoslav People's Army in Serbia.
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From 1969 to 1971, Jovan Divjak was in the Cadet Academy in Belgrade, and from 1979 to 1981, he served in the War and Defense Planning School there.
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Between 1991 and 1993, Jovan Divjak was court-martialed by the JNA for issuing 120 pieces of light armor and 20,000 bullets to the Kiseljak Territorial Defence and was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
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Jovan Divjak avoided the sentence by leaving the JNA and joining the Territorial Defense of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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In prison, Jovan Divjak was on a hunger strike for four days.
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Jovan Divjak later became the Deputy Commander of the Territorial Defense forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a month later he oversaw the defence of Sarajevo from a major JNA attack.
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Between 1993 and 1997, Jovan Divjak served as the Deputy Commander of the Headquarters of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, charged with co-operating with civilian institutions and organisations.
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Jovan Divjak himself commented on the issue by saying that he felt like a "flower arrangement" and said that "of course, someone has to be a flower arrangement too".
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Jovan Divjak expressed that it was shameful if his service to the army were only temporary.
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Jovan Divjak was the executive director of OGBH, which he co-founded.
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From 1998 until his death, Jovan Divjak was a member of the Association of Independent Intellectuals "Krug 99", Sarajevo.
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Jovan Divjak enjoyed popularity among the general public of Sarajevo, and has been dubbed Jovo Jovan Divjak, General Jovo and Uncle Jovo.
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Jovan Divjak appeared in the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia in 1995 and is the subject of a 2013 Al-Jazeera World documentary, Sarajevo My Love.
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Jovan Divjak was married to his wife Vera from 1960 until her death in 2017.
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Jovan Divjak had a Bosniak godson whose brothers were killed in the Bosnian War.
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On 8 April 2021, Jovan Divjak died in Sarajevo at the age of 84.