Page "Siege of Sarajevo" Paragraph 22

On 8 January 1993, Hakija Turajlić, the Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb soldier.

He had went to Sarajevo International Airport to greet Orhan Sefa Kilercioğlu who accompanied an aid shipment from Turkey.

In order to return to Sarajevo he had to pass through Serb controlled territory for which UNPROFOR was supposed to provide protection.

The UN convoy which was taking Turajlić to Sarajevo was stopped by Serb soldiers at a roadblock a few kilometers from the airport.

After a 90 minute standoff a French UNPROFOR officer opened the door to the armoured personnel carrier in which Turajlić was sitting and a Serb soldier killed him with an AK-47.

Turajlić was hit with 7-8 rounds.

The French troops did not return fire, call for reinforcements — less than six hundred yards away — or detain the killers.

British troops who arrived on the scene were ordered to leave.

Turajlić's murder strained relations between the Bosnian government and UNPROFOR and was also the reason that peace talks in Geneva were cancelled.

The UN and the Serbs both refused to cooperate with the Bosnian government investigation and help find the killer.

A Bosnian Serb soldier, Goran Vasić, was eventually charged with Turajlić's murder but was ultimately acquitted of that charge in 2002.