Jovan Divjak, Defender of Sarajevo, Dies at Age 84

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Former Bosnian army general Jovan Divjak, who defended Sarajevo during a 44-month siege of the city, died Thursday in the Bosnian capital at the age of 84, his organization said. 

Divjak was one of the very few ethnic Serbs to fight for the Bosnian army during the devastating 1990s inter-communal conflict that ripped the former Yugoslavia apart.  A champion of a multi-ethnic Bosnia, Divjak died after a "long illness," according to his organization, Obrazovanje Gradi BiH, which means "education builds Bosnia and Herzegovina."  When the conflict broke out in Sarajevo in April 1992, Divjak, a retired Yugoslav army officer, was a member of Bosnia's territorial defense forces.