Jusuf "Juka" Prazina (; 7 September 1962 – 4 December 1993) was a Bosnian organized crime figure and warlord during the Bosnian War.
A troubled teen, Prazina's youth allegedly contained numerous stays in various jails and correctional facilities of the former Yugoslavia. By the 1980s, he had become involved in organized crime, eventually heading his own racketeering gang based around his home in the city's Centar municipality.
With the onset of the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992, Prazina expanded his gang into an effective paramilitary fighting force called Juka's Wolves. This force was central in the effort against the besieging Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), and he was rewarded for his contribution to the city's defense by appointment to the head of the government's special forces. Prazina proved problematic for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following a warrant for his arrest in October, Prazina stationed himself on Mount Igman and coordinated attacks against the ARBiH until his eventual defeat and expulsion in January of the following year. Prazina moved to Herzegovina where he joined forces with the Croatian Defence Council and committed numerous crimes against civilians in the region. He left Bosnia and Herzegovina a few months later for Croatia, and lived on the Dalmatian coast before traveling through a number of European countries and finally relocating to Belgium.
He was found dead in a canal near the German border by two hitch-hikers on 31 December 1993. In 2001, documents detailing wartime conversations between then president of Croatia Franjo Tuđman and president of the Croatian parliament Stjepan Mesić were declassified. In one part of these documents, Mesić revealed his suspicions that Bosnian Croat extremists were to blame for Prazina’s death. The most concrete links came from an unsuccessful six-year investigation by the Bavarian Criminal Police.
Early life in Sarajevo
Prazina had two siblings: sister Vasvija and brother Mustafa. Growing up, he was known to his educators as a troublemaker and problematic student, spending time in a number of correctional facilities. It was also around this time that he became involved with a local gang on his home street of Sutjeska. As a teenager, he enrolled in a streamlined secondary school focusing on commerce, which perhaps contributed to his eventual involvement in racketeering. His early transgressions were limited to bullying and street brawls.
Shortly before the war, Prazina established and registered a debt collection business. His preferred methods, however, were mostly illegal. Prazina was known to first demand some form of authorization, then threaten a debtor and, if still receiving a negative response, use various forms of violence to force payment. In all this, Prazina developed a sophisticated network of around 300 armed "collectors" under his control.
He wielded great power through this enterprise: in early 1992, after being shot during a pit bull fight, doctors at Koševo hospital were hesitant to perform the necessary operation due to the great risk involved. In response, Prazina's small army besieged the hospital and forced the surgeons to attempt the job. Although a bullet remained (causing him to have a limp and reduced range of motion on his left hand for the rest of his life), Prazina ultimately survived and continued his activities. By the time the Yugoslav Wars were underway, Prazina had been arrested and jailed five times, and was a well-known figure in Sarajevo's underworld.
Siege of Sarajevo
Rise to power
Following the start of the siege of Sarajevo, Prazina set out with his gang to defend the city from the attacks of the VRS (or "Chetniks," as he called them). Rapidly swelling his numbers, by May he was able to gather some 3,000 men outside the city's Druga Gimnazija high school (in the neighbourhood where he grew up on Sutjeska Street) and declare their intention to "defend Sarajevo." Juka's Wolves, as the group was called, were thoroughly armed with sawed-off shotguns and AK-47s (provided in part through a connection with the Croatian Defence Forces), and uniformed with crew-cuts, black jump-suits, sunglasses, basketball shoes, and sometimes balaclavas.