Momčilo Đujić (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Момчилo Ђујић, pronounced [mǒmtʃiːlo dʑûːjitɕ]; 27 February 1907 – 11 September 1999) was a Serbian Orthodox priest and Chetnik vojvoda. He led a significant proportion of the Chetniks within the northern Dalmatia and western Bosnia regions of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state created from parts of the occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II. In this role he collaborated extensively with the Italian and then the German occupying forces against the communist-led Partisan insurgency.
Đujić was ordained as a priest in 1933 and gained a reputation as something of a firebrand in the pulpit. After the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934, he joined the Chetnik Association of Kosta Pećanac, forming several bands in the Knin region of Dalmatia. The Chetnik Association became a reactionary force used by the central government to oppress the populace. Active in promoting workers' rights, Đujić was briefly jailed for leading a protest by railroad workers, and he was a member of the exclusively-Serb Agrarian Union political party.
After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Croatian Ustaše regime implemented a policy of widespread incarcerations, massacres, forced emigration and murder of Serbs and other groups, but Đujić escaped to the coastal zone annexed by Italy and began recruiting Chetniks in a refugee camp. When a general uprising began in August, Đujić returned to Knin and deployed his Chetniks to defend local Serbs from the Ustaše, and under his command they captured the town of Drvar in the Bosanska Krajina. He then quickly began collaborating with the Italians, gaining their help through signing a non-aggression agreement. At this time, he was still aligned with the insurgency led by the communists. He soon betrayed them and began subverting Partisan units and attacking them alongside the Italians. He formed the Chetnik Dinara Division in early 1942. By mid-1942, Đujić was encouraging his Chetniks to co-operate with NDH forces, and on 1 October Chetniks under his command perpetrated a massacre of nearly 100 Croat civilians in the village of Gata. In early 1943 he attempted to participate on the Axis side in the Operation Weiss campaign against the Partisans but this was blocked by the Germans. In August, the Dinara Division suffered significantly at the hands of the Partisans and through desertion. By the time of the Italian capitulation in September it was of little use for offensive operations. When the Germans occupied the area, they restricted it to guarding railway tracks from Partisan sabotage. By November 1943, the Chetnik supreme commander, Draža Mihailović, was ordering Đujić to collaborate with the Germans. In November 1944, Đujić and 4,500 of his Chetniks combined with German and NDH forces in an attempt to defend Knin from the ascendant Partisans. Đujić progressively withdrew his troops until they surrendered to the western Allies in May 1945.
Đujić was tried and convicted in absentia for war crimes by the new Yugoslav communist government, which found him guilty of mass murder, torture, rape, robbery, forcible confinement and collaborating with the occupying forces. Included in these charges was responsibility for the deaths of 1,500 people. He eventually emigrated to the United States, settling in California. He played an important role in Serbian émigré circles and founded the Ravna Gora Movement of Serbian Chetniks alongside other exiled Chetnik fighters. He later retired to San Marcos, California. In 1989, Đujić appointed the ultranationalist Serb politician Vojislav Šešelj as a Chetnik vojvoda. He later stated that he regretted awarding the title to Šešelj due to his involvement with Slobodan Milošević and his Socialist Party. In 1998, Biljana Plavšić, then President of Republika Srpska, presented Đujić with an honorary award. Plavšić was later convicted of crimes against humanity related to her activities during the Bosnian War. Đujić died at a hospice in San Diego in 1999, aged 92. Moves in Serbia to rehabilitate the reputations of Đujić and the Chetnik movement have been criticised as historical revisionism and falsification of history.
Early life, education and priesthood
Momčilo Đujić was the oldest of three sons and two daughters of Rade Đujić and his wife Ljubica (née Miloš), and was born in the village of Kovačić, near Knin in the Kingdom of Dalmatia, on 27 February 1907. The family was of Bosnian origin. Rade had moved to Kovačić with his disabled Austro-Hungarian Army veteran father, Glišo, and his brother, Nikola, in the late 1880s and lived off his father's army pension for a time. Ljubica hailed from the village of Ljubač, southeast of Knin. Shortly after his marriage to Ljubica, Rade established himself as a successful farmer.
Đujić's mother wished to name him Simo, after his uncle. Đujić's father disliked the name and, having been raised listening to the traditional Balkan gusle – a single-string musical instrument, and reciting Serbian epic poetry, named his son after Momchil, a 14th-century brigand in the service of Serbian Emperor Dušan the Mighty. It was not until Momčilo started primary school in 1914 that his mother discovered that he had not been named Simo at his baptism. Đujić finished primary school in 1918 and graduated as the best student in his class. Between 1920 and 1924, he attended lower gymnasium in Knin. After a two-year pause, he began attending the higher gymnasium in Šibenik, but in 1929 decided to leave for Sremski Karlovci, where he would attend the Serbian Orthodox seminary. He graduated from the seminary in 1931. In the same year he published a poetry book, Emiilijade. He was ordained a priest two years later. In 1931, Đujić was assigned to the Orthodox parish in Strmica, near Kovačić. Shortly before ordination, he married Zorka Dobrijević-Jundžić, the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant from Bosansko Grahovo. The two were married in the Church of St. George in Knin, where Đujić had been baptised as an infant. Đujić's first child, Siniša, was born in 1934. In 1935, Zorka gave birth to twins, a son named Radomir and a daughter named Radojka.
Đujić and his family were relatively wealthy by the standards of Depression-era Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Đujić consequently became the most influential person in the village. He sought to use his money and influence to help the Serb peasants in the Dalmatian hinterland. In 1934, he organised the construction of the "Petar Mrkonjić" cultural centre in Strmica, financed and oversaw the irrigation of farmland west of Mračaj and approved the casting of a pair of church bells on the Church of St. John the Baptist. The casting of new church bells – the originals having been destroyed by Austro-Hungarian artillery in 1916 – was financed with money donated by the Yugoslav government and further improved his reputation among the local population. Đujić's critics accused him of misappropriating funds, which he denied from the pulpit.
In October 1934, Vlado Chernozemski assassinated Yugoslavia's King Alexander. Đujić was chosen to stand by Alexander's coffin as the funeral train travelled through Knin. On this occasion, he met the future World War II Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović for the first and only time. The king's assassination was partially orchestrated by the Ustaše, a Croatian terrorist organisation at the time. Soon after this, Đujić began carrying arms and organising Serb paramilitary groups in and around Knin. "I knew that the country would not survive", Đujić explained, "because nobody can put Serbs and Croats in the same bag". In late 1934, he met with Kosta Pećanac, the head of the interwar Chetnik Association, and formed eleven Chetnik bands in the vicinity of the town. Chetnik insurgency did not have a long tradition in Dalmatia, and only emerged in the 1930s. Đujić subjected local Serbs to constant propaganda, hoping that it would convince them to join the Chetniks. Most ignored his appeals, and continued living peacefully with their Croat neighbours.