The footballers of Red Star and Partizan played the 180th Eternal Derby, in which Red Star won 2:1. The match began with a minute of silence for Ratko Mladić, while the Delije also had a banner dedicated to him.
The banner showed a sign bearing the words – Reuf Selmanagić Crni, along with a message underneath.
“Take that down! Come on, climb up there, don’t make me tell you ten times,” the message read.
This is a clear reference to Mladić’s entry into Srebrenica and his order to remove the sign bearing Selmanagić’s name, an event that has already been reported on.
Who was Reuf Selmanagić Crni?
He was born in 1916 in Srebrenica. He came from the prominent Selmanagić family of Srebrenica, which left a deep mark on the history of the town.
A technician by profession, before World War II he got a job at the Rajlovac airport near Sarajevo, which was used by the Royal Yugoslav Air Force. The occupation of Yugoslavia found him there in April 1941, after which the airport was used by the forces of the German Luftwaffe and the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). After the establishment of the collaborationist Independent State of Croatia, the Ustaše regime began the open persecution of Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascists.
Selmanagić disapproved of the persecution of his Serbian colleagues by the Ustaše. He was deeply affected by the dismissal of Serbs from service, and later witnessed three of his colleagues being taken away, as well as the persecution of Jews in Sarajevo. These events had a profound impact on him and turned him into a determined opponent of the occupation and Ustaše regimes.
The event that changed Crni’s life and determined his fate was a major Ustaše crime against Serbs.
During World War II, Ustaše forces carried out a horrific pogrom in the Sarajevo neighborhoods of Reljevo and Alipašin Most on September 7, 1941, in which around 300 Serbian civilians, including women and children, were killed.
After this horrific Ustaše crime against Serbs, Reuf “Crni” Selmanagić decided to fight those who had committed it.
The group Selmanagić belonged to established contact with the National Liberation Movement (NOP). After that, their activities consisted of gathering information about enemy forces, which they passed on to NOP activists outside the airport. At the end of 1942, a cell of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) was formed at Rajlovac Airport. Its members were: Mustafa Saračević, cell secretary, pilot Ibro Sijerčić, pilot Enver Rezaković, worker Adem Budimlić and Reuf Selmanagić.
In addition to gathering information, they actively worked on collecting weapons, ammunition and other military equipment – binoculars, compasses, various office supplies, as well as medical supplies and instruments, which they obtained from the airport clinic. Selmanagić became particularly specialized in the illegal work of obtaining military and officers’ uniforms, and was especially involved in smuggling out rifles. This task was extremely demanding and responsible, and above all dangerous, because every entry into and exit from the air base was strictly controlled. The fact that they had to travel by railway, which was the only means of transportation, under constant surveillance by the Ustaše Railway Battalion, created an additional difficulty, meaning that even the slightest carelessness could arouse suspicion and lead to a search, which could have fatal consequences.
With the arrival of units of the Fifth Krajina Division in this area in the summer of 1943, and especially after the formation of the Visoko-Fojnica Partisan Detachment in July 1943, contact was established with the National Liberation Movement organization at Rajlovac Airport. Permanent connections were then established, which remained operational until the end of the war. A courier network for the transport of mail, weapons and military equipment was particularly well organized. After Vladimir Perić Valter arrived in Sarajevo in September 1943, the Sarajevo Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia took over this courier network.
The party organization to which Selmanagić belonged also worked on recruiting members of the Croatian Home Guard into the National Liberation Movement, as well as organizing their transfer into the National Liberation Army. In the second half of August 1944, the transfer of a certain number of Home Guard soldiers and officers to the Partisans was organized. The Sarajevo Intelligence Center organized the transfer of a larger number of Home Guard aviation officers and non-commissioned officers on September 9, 1944, who, as agreed, left the Rajlovac Air Base with full military equipment and weapons. Mustafa Saračević and Selmanagić, activists from Rajlovac, took part in this operation. Together with the Home Guard members, they were sent to the headquarters of the Tenth Krajina Division, where they joined the Partisans. As an already experienced underground operative, who was involved in intelligence work and collaborated with Valter Perić, Crni Selmanagić was then appointed intelligence officer of the Visoko-Fojnica Partisan Detachment.
He was involved in the operation to transfer people from the Sarajevo area into Partisan units, organized by the Sarajevo Intelligence Center, through which more than 2,000 people passed. Four routes were organized for transferring new fighters to units of the Tenth Krajina Division, leading in the following directions: Sarajevo–Rajlovac–Reljevo–Jaruge–Dobroševići (first route), Ilidža–Osiјek–Bojnik–Dobroševići (second route), Reljevo–Rječica–Dobroševići (third route), and Bučki Most–Dvor–Bioča–Dobroševići (fourth route). Osman Zerdo, his son Osmo, Nail Zečević and Reuf Selmanagić were engaged on the fourth route. On this route, in the village of Dvor near Visoko, there was a very important point (Osman Zerdo’s house), through which almost all groups passed as they made their way to liberated territory via Sarajevo–Kiseljak–Kreševo and Visoko.
He was killed on April 10, 1945, in the vicinity of Visoko.
Why did he become known throughout the wider region?
His name became particularly well known because of an event on July 11, 1995, when Ratko Mladić, entering Srebrenica, ordered a soldier to remove the sign bearing the name “Selmanagić Reuf Crni Street.”
This was also recorded in the transcript of the footage of Mladić’s entry into the city.
The street later changed its name several times, and the question of its name became part of a broader dispute over the renaming of streets in Srebrenica.
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Source: Telegraf.rs, Foto: Telegraf.rs; Wikipedia
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