"A wretch who loves Bosnia more than himself": the death of Omer Filipović in the Manjača camp

A professor from Ključ

Omer Filipović was born on 4 April 1953 in Ključ. He studied history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo, then returned to his hometown and taught history at a secondary school.

In the early 1990s he became involved in politics. According to the portal genocid.ba, he took part in founding the SDA in Ključ, whose president became Asim Egrlić, and then, with his brother Muhamed, founded the Muslim Bosniak Organization (MBO) in Ključ and became its president. After the 1990 elections he became vice-president of the Ključ municipal assembly as a representative of the MBO. The witness Adil Medić described him before the Hague Tribunal as a deputy head of the municipality and the president of a small party, the MBO.

Aid to refugees and the flag on the municipal building

In the autumn of 1991, according to genocid.ba, 25 buses of Croat refugees from Slunj arrived in Ključ. Omer Filipović helped them together with others and bought up all the bread in the local bakery for them.

On the eve of the referendum on independence, on 29 February 1992, Omer and Muhamed Filipović, according to the same source, raised the flag of the SR BiH on the municipal building. Genocid.ba also states that Omer led the Territorial Defence staff in Ključ.

The takeover of power and the arrest

At the end of May 1992, Omer Filipović negotiated with the JNA on the surrender of weapons and in the end agreed to disarmament, as the officer Velimir Kevac testified before the Hague Tribunal. According to genocid.ba, Serb rule in Ključ was officially established on 27 May 1992, after which crimes against the non-Serb population began.

According to the portal genocid.ba, Omer Filipović was arrested on 30 May 1992 and interrogated at the police station. On the cover of his written statement he wrote a sentence that later became his epitaph: "A wretch who loves Bosnia more than himself and his own blood."

Stara Gradiška and Manjača

Omer and Muhamed Filipović were taken first to the Stara Gradiška camp and then to the Manjača camp. Manjača was run by the army of the Bosnian Serbs; the detainees, mostly Bosniak and Croat civilians, were regularly beaten.

Adil Medić testified before the Hague Tribunal that Omer Filipović complained about the conditions in the camp and about the beating of detainees, and that soon afterwards he died following brutal abuse. According to the testimony of his cousin Nedim Filipović, Omer refused to say before television cameras that the war in Ključ had been started by the "Green Berets" and that detainees in Manjača were being treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. After that, according to Nedim's words, he was tortured several times and held in isolation without food.

Death

According to the testimony of Omer's brother Muhamed Filipović, on 28 July 1992, after being beaten for 20 hours in front of a barn, Omer ran into a minefield and came out of it on the condition that the guards stop beating the detainee Esad Bender; after that he was killed. According to his brother, Omer died that day at 23:10.