Sulejman Hafiz Pačariz was an Islamic cleric and Bosniak commander of the Sandžak Muslim militia from Hisardžik during the Second World War. When the Germans took over control over Sandžak in 1943, Pačariz was appointed as the commander of the SS Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak. Forces under his command were referred to as Pačarizovci. He allegedly led his forces while riding a black horse. During the final days of World War II in 1945, Pačariz was captured, put on trial, and was found guilty for massacres of civilians and subsequently was executed as a war criminal as a result.
Early life
Pačariz was born in the village of Bioča, near Berane in 1900. His father was a local hodža. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, his village was set ablaze by the Army of Montenegro, from which his family fled first to Lozna near Bijelo Polje, and then to Brodarevo where his father became the local imam. In 1922, the Chetniks killed his father because he supported the local outlaw Jusuf Mehonjić. Until that time, Sulejman was a member of the Yugoslav gendarmerie. After the murder of his father, Sulejman joined the outlaws of Mehonjić for a short time and returned to the gendarmerie. Before 1930, he accepted the position of imam in Hisardžik, and in 1938, he would accept the position of military imam in the city ofBar.
At the beginning of the Yugoslav theatre of World War II, the Ustaše occupied the region of Sandžak and appointed Pačariz, together with some other prominent Muslims from Sandžak, as military officers of the Sandžak Muslim militia. They were initially given the ranks of Major and primarily engaged the royalist Chetniks within the region and outside of Sandžak. By September of 1941, the Ustaše handed control over Sandžak to the Italians.
Within forces of Italy
At the end of the autumn season, Montenegrin communists attempted to negotiate with Pačariz but failed to convince him and his subordinates to join the Yugoslav Partisans. Afterwards, Pačariz mobilized Muslims who lived in Prijepolje on the right bank of the Lim river, and in the former municipalities of Velika Župa and Seljašnica to be armed in case of any offensives made by the Chetniks or the Partisans. He received arms and military equipment from the Ustaše and later from the Italians. Pačariz would often report larger numbers of militiamen under his command and kept their monthly salaries received from Italians for himself. In mid-November of 1941, a Chetnik unit of 40 men went to Kosatica, attempting to disarm the local Muslim militia commanded by Pačariz. The militiamen refused to surrender their arms, and a skirmish ensued, in which two of them were killed while one Chetnik was wounded. Motivated to avenge the death of his two men, the militia attacked the part of Kosatica that was populated by Serbs, then capture, brutally torture and kill seven Serbs from Kosatica after the battle.
On the 22nd of December 1941, forces of the Muslim militia from Hisardžik and Sjenica, commanded by Pačariz, were successful in repelling the attack from the Partisans who attempted to capture Sjenica. In this battle, 18 Partisans were captured. Pačariz occasionally visited them in Sjenica's prison. In February 1942, Pačariz engaged the Italian forces in Prijepolje that attempted to carve a path to Sjenica and escort 18 Partisans who were captured the following battle. The Italians intended to exchange captured Partisans for captured Italians. He escorted 13 Partisans to Prijepolje, leaving 5 wounded Partisans in Sjenica. All the Partisans that Pačariz brought to the Italians were killed in the Purića stream, below Srijetež. Pačariz later established the so called flying platoon of his most loyal men. He used it to forcefully mobilize people and to force wealthier Muslims to buy arms from him. Those who opposed to him were brutally beaten and terrorized, and sometimes killed. Together with other commanders of Muslim militia, he participated in a conference in village of Godijeva, and agreed to attack Serb villages near Sjenica and other parts of Sandžak.
Within forces of Germany
Following his appointment to the post of Höhere SS-und Polizeiführer Sandschakin September 1943, Karl von Krempler came to be known as the "Prince of Sandžak" after his relatively successful formation of the SS Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak. He went to the Sandžak region in October and then took over command of around 5,000 militiamen of the Sandžak Muslim militia, headquartered in Sjenica. This formation was sometimes thereafter called the Kampfgruppe Krempler or more derisively the "Muselmanengruppe von Krempler ". As the senior Waffen SS officer, Karl von Krempler appointed Pačariz as the formal commander of the unit, but as the key military trainer and contact person with German arms and munitions, remained effectively in control. Pačariz participated in the Axis organized Operation Kugelblitz that started on 4 December 1943. In November 1944 Pačariz together with his units retreated to Sarajevo where there SS Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak was put under command of Ustaše General Maks Luburić. Pačariz was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the NDH.
Death
In 1945 Pačariz was captured near Banja Luka by the Yugoslav Partisans, and subsequently put on trial and later was found guilty for massacres of civilians. He was executed as a war criminal. Pačariz is also commemorated in a song.
