1. Assassination in Sarajevo
A presentation by Dr. Peter Hammond

3. Assassination in Sarajevo
A presentation by Dr. Peter Hammond

4. One Hundred Years Ago

5. Saturday, 28 June 1914, sparked the First World War.

6. On 28 June 1914,
the heir to the throne of the
Austria-Hungarian Empire,
Archduke Frans Ferdinand,
and his wife, Sophie,
were assassinated in
Sarajevo, Bosnia.
A Disastrous Date

7. Considering the catastrophic consequences, it is remarkable how little
is generally known about that fateful day, and what led up to it.
Fatal Failure

8. Security personnel and bodyguards can learn no end of lessons of
what not to do from the catalogue of security failings of that day.

9. Violent and Volatile

10. First of all, the scheduled visit of Archduke Frans Ferdinand to
Bosnia, was published as early as March. Sarajevo was a volatile
cosmopolitan, half-oriental community of 42,000 people.

11. For hundreds of years it had been under Ottoman-Turkish-Muslim
rule.

12. The Austrians had liberated Bosnia and Herzegovina from the
Ottoman-Turkish Empire in 1878.

13. In 1908, the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina were incorporated
formally into the Austria-Hungarian Empire.

14. The date chosen for the state visit of Archduke Frans Ferdinand to
Sarajevo was a date of painful historic significance for the Serbs –
Those Who Forget the Lessons of
History are Doomed to Repeat It

15. it was the anniversary of the disastrous defeat, 28 June 1389, at the
hands of the Ottoman-Turks at Kosovo.

16. Despite Austria playing the leading role in liberating the Balkans
from centuries of Ottoman-Turkish oppression, the neighbouring
country of Serbia was intensely hostile to Austria and wanted to
greatly expand its territory to include all the Slavs of the Balkans,
including Bosnia and Herzegovina into Serbia.
Serbian Hostility

18. Serbia was a monarchy, and having tasted victory against the Turks in
the Balkan War of 1912,
Serbian Nationalism

19. deluded itself that
it was a great power,
able to even take on the
Austria-Hungarian
Empire!

20. The head of Serbian Military Intelligence, Colonel Dragutin
Dimitrijevic, known by his code name Apis (after the Egyptian bull
god), also controlled The Black Hand, an international terrorist group
run by Major Vojin Tankosic.
The Black Hand

21. It was this group which provided The Young Bosnians,
including Gavrilo Princip,
with 4 Browning semi-automatic pistols,
6 bombs and cyanide capsules.

22. This was in May 1914. Princip received some training in pistol target
practice in the park in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

23. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic was described as:
"a revolutionary fanatic, pale, bald, heavy, enigmatic,
like a giant Mongolian."
The Devious Dragutin

24. Dragutin never married.
He was devoted to the movement of Serb-
nationalism and international terrorism.

25. He required his revolutionaries to undergo a hooded initiation ritual,
which included a seal engraved with skull and crossbones, a dagger, a
bomb and poison.
Occultic Initiation

26. Murder had been his business since his involvement in the 1903
assassination of King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia.
Murder was his Business

29. The king and queen were murdered in their own palace bedroom

30. by a group of Serbian army officers which included Dragutin.

35. Hardly a democracy, Serbia was described by many as a rogue state
whose rulers were intimately involved in international terrorism.
A Rogue
State

36. The evidence is
overwhelming that
the young Bosnian
terrorists who
murdered
Archduke Frans
Ferdinand received
their weapons
from the Serbian
military and their
basic training in
Belgrade Park.

37. The Serbian Prime Minister Pasic
informed the cabinet at the end
of May that assassins were on
their way to Sarajevo
to kill Frans Ferdinand.
Advance Knowledge

38. Serbian state documents include details about the movements of the
assassins, and of the bombs and pistols in their luggage.

39. The Interior Ministry in Belgrade was fully briefed on all aspects of
their mission. Yet no warning was forwarded to the Austrian
authorities of the planned assassination.

40. From the Austrian side, the lack of rudimentary security arrangements
on that tragic day is astounding. Acts of terrorism in, and from, the
Balkans were a clear and present danger.
Security Nightmare

41. British newspapers
published cartoons
of Serbian
anarchists asking
one another:
"What time is it by
your bomb?"
Dark
Humour

42. As Archduke Frans Ferdinand left his estate on 23 June to travel by
train to Bosnia, he commented: "Our journey starts…
down there they will throw bombs at us!"

43. The Emperor of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Frans Joseph,
A Trail of Terror

44. had lost his wife, the Empress Elizabeth,

45. She was boarding a steamer to Geneva at the time.

57. In 1908, a 20-year old Slav
student assassinated
Count Potocki,
the Governor of Galicia.

58. At the trial of an American born
Croat, who had fired
at a member of the royal family,
the judge asked if he thought
killing people was justified.
When is Murder
Justified?

59. The man responded:
"In this case it is!
It is the general opinion in
America,
and behind me are
500,000 American Croats!"

60. In 1906 an anarchist bombed the wedding procession
of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
Bombing a Wedding

61. King Alfonso was marrying a granddaughter
of Queen Victoria.

63. In June 1908, a young Bosnian, Bogdan Zerajic, had failed in his
attempt to assassinate the Emperor in Mostar.
Shots in Sarajevo

64. Later he had travelled
to Sarajevo and fired at
General Marijan
Varesanin.
It was alleged that
The Black Hand
of Serbia
had provided his
revolver.

65. In June 1912, the Governor of Croatia was fired upon in Zagreb.
Although the governor was missed, a member of his administration
was wounded.
Bullets and Bombs

66. In March 1914, the Vicar-General of Transylvania was killed
by a time-bomb sent through the post from Romania.

67. Numerous conspiracies to
assassinate officials were
detected and prevented by the
Austrian police.

68. Interestingly enough Gavrilo Princip was known by the Austrian police
to be a potential threat.
Inexplicable Complacency

69. Yet, when General Oskar
Potiorek, the Governor of
Bosnia was warned of the
threat from The Young
Bosnians, he only laughed.

70. The officials at Sarajevo spent more energy discussing dinner menus
and the correct temperature at which to serve the wines
than to issues of security.

71. So, on 28 June 1914,