Answer
Alija Izetbegović became the first president of the newly-independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. He was a Muslim leader who had been imprisoned by the Yugoslav authorities in the 1980s for his political views. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, he became the president of the new Bosnian state. Izetbegović was a controversial figure, and his presidency was marked by conflict with the Bosnian Serbs and Croats.