Milorad Ekmecic, historian, died at 86

  Dead Famous

Dead. Milorad Ekmecic, born October 4, 1928 and died August 29, 2015.

He was Serbian historian who was a member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts (SANU) and the Senate of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.During World War II, Ekmečić lost 78 members of his family in the Prebilovci massacre.

His father, uncle and other members of his family were killed by their neighbour.

The surviving members of his family formed a unit of the Yugoslav Partisans in Prebilovci.

In the late years of the Yugoslav era, Ekmečić was a professor of history in the University of Sarajevo.

Originally a supporter of Yugoslavism, during the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia he became a proponent of Serbian nationalism.

In 1990, Ekmečić helped establish the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He became a leading member of the party, and is regarded as a “spiritual father of Bosnian Serb nationalists”.

During the Yugoslav Wars he was abducted by Bosniak groups, who aimed at trading him for the safe passage of a convoy of children through areas held by Bosnian Serb nationalists in Ilidža.

Ekmečić is a member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska. He is also a member of the Senate of Republika Srpska.