Alija Omanović

Alija "Ale" Omanović was a Bosnian Muslim Ustaše official in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state during World War II, who carried out massacres and forced conversions to Islam of Serbs in Cazin and surrounding villages.

Before World War II

Before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 and the subsequent creation of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska), NDH), Omanović belonged to the right-wing faction of the Croatian Peasant Party (Croatian: Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS).[1] He headed the local HSS branch and was a commissioner of Hrvatski radiša (Croatian Worker) and Seljačka sloga (Peasants United) in Cazin. Omanović also maintained contact with Slavko Kvaternik and the Ustaše circles in Zagreb, at a time when this was a banned terrorist organisation.[2][3] Until 1929, Omanović was also a member of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, a political party gathering Yugoslav Muslims before its abolishment with the introduction of the 6 January Dictatorship of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.[4]

Independent State of Croatia

From the day the NDH was created on 10 April 1941, and the Ustaše came to power, notable citizens of several towns in Bosanska Krajina: Sanski Most, Bihać and Cazin organised an assembly to greet the advancing German troops.[1] Such an assembly was organised in Cazin on 11 April 1941, where Omanović gave opening words and invited the citizens of Cazin to welcome the Germans with Croatian flags.[1][2]

In the NDH, Omanović became an logornik (commander) in Cazin as part of the Ustaše.[5] Himzo Hadžić was appointed his deputy.[6] On 6 June 1941, Omanović was appointed a deputy to the commissioner (Croatian: stožernik) of the districts of Sana–Luka and Krbava–Psat Viktor Gutić.[7][8] Gutić was succeeded as a commissioner by Mirko Beljan in mid September 1941.[7]

Persecution of Serbs

During the existence of the NDH, Omanović participated in the organisation of the genocide of Serbs.[9]

On 28 and 31 July 1941, Omanović fraudulently invited Serb men aged from 15 to 70 from Vrelo, Gradina and Osredak for work in Germany. Around a hundred men responded to his call, only to be imprisoned in Cazin.[10][11] Omanović visited them together with Branko Vojinović from Osredak, a Serb who converted to Islam and became an Ustaše. Omanović conditioned their release with conversion to Islam or Catholicism. It was promised that those who would convert to Islam would retain their estate and would receive back all that was taken from them and more, while those who would choose Catholicism would be moved to Ćorkovača.[12] Men from Gradina and Osredak, advised by Vojinović, decided to convert to Islam, and men from Vrelo converted to Catholicism. A Catholic parish priest arrived in Vrelo a month later and was accompanied by thirty Croatian Home Guard soldiers. These actually protected the local Serbs from the Muslim Ustaše until 1943, when they all joined the Yugoslav Partisans.[13]

Unsatisfied with the number of the imprisoned Serbs, Grand Župan Ljubomir Kvaternik ordered the massacre of the Serbs who refused to respond.[14] Omanović and his men had already found adequate locations for the disposal of the bodies in Macini Dolovi in Gnjilavac, near hospital and gymnasium in Cazin, and at the Čongur hill.[15] On 2 August, Omanović, with the help of Ustaše from Bihać, Bužim, Krupa, and Glina started a campaign against the remaining Serbs in Cazin and its surrounding villages, including: Osredak, Selišta, Krndija, Vrelo, Gradina, Pištaline, Perna, Podgomila, Miostrah, Crnaja, Memić Brdo, Podgredina.[14] The Ustaše received support from Muslim civilians, including women and children, from the nearby villages, armed with axes, hoes, scythes and another cold weapon. The Serbs were mainly killed on the spot, with some fleeing and resisting.[10] Omanović led the killings, while Hadžić was the main organiser. Evner Kapetanović, Kvaternik's trusted man, personally participated in the massacre. The local imam, Bećir Borić, continued the massacres of remaining Serbs few days later.[16]

After the massacre, the Ustaše tried to persuade Serbs to return to their villages. To convince them, Omanović visited Serb villages with the Serbs who recently converted to Islam, and emphasised the necessity of conversion to Islam or Catholicism.[17] Serbs from Tržačka Raštela, 46 people, mostly women and children, responded to the call to return to their homes, converted to Catholicism, but were massacred later by Omanović's men on 22 September 1941.[18]

Fate

On 30 October 1941, a mobile punitive court of the NDH led a proceeding against Omanović, Borić and others for the massacre in Tržačka Raštela and other villages. Borić was sentenced to death, while the proceeding against Omanović was separated, since he couldn't be located. During the proceedings, Borić and other defendants blamed Omanović, claiming that he ordered the cleansing of the area. They also denied that they massacred the Serbs, claiming that they were killed in a fight instead. The court rejected their defence. The court characterised Omanović as an organiser of the massacre, and Borić as an "intellectual initiator".[18]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Bokan 1988, p. 22.
  2. ^ a b Jurić 2019, p. 358.
  3. ^ Hasanbegović 2010, p. 179.
  4. ^ Jurić 2019, p. 359.
  5. ^ Bokan 1988, pp. 22, 31.
  6. ^ Miljković 2011, p. 21.
  7. ^ a b Bokan 1988, p. 31.
  8. ^ Dizdar 1997, p. 145.
  9. ^ Bokan 1988, p. 64.
  10. ^ a b Miljković 2011, p. 73.
  11. ^ Ručnov 2001, p. 498.
  12. ^ Miljković 2011, pp. 24, 85.
  13. ^ Miljković 2011, p. 24.
  14. ^ a b Miljković 2011, pp. 52, 73.
  15. ^ Miljković 2011, p. 30.
  16. ^ Miljković 2011, p. 52.
  17. ^ Miljković 2011, p. 95.
  18. ^ a b Barić 2012, p. 57.

References

Books

  • Barić, Nikica (2012). "O djelovanju Povjerenstva za ispitivanje i uspostavljanje javnog mira i poretka u Velikim župama Krbava i Psat, Sana i Luka, te Pliva i Rama tijekom 1941. godine" [On activities of the Commission for examination and establishment of public peace and order in grand parishes of Krbava and Psat, Sana and Luka, and Pliva and Rama during 1941]. Bosna i Hercegovina 1941: novi pogledi [Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1941: new views] (in Croatian). Sarajevo: Institut za istoriju u Sarajevu. ISBN 9789958649134.
  • Bokan, Branko J. (1988). Prvi krajiški narodnooslobodilački partizanski odred [The First Krajina People's Liberation Partisan Detachment] (in Serbian). Belgrade: Vojnoizdavački novinski centar.
  • Dizdar, Zdravko (1997). Dizdar, Zdravko; Grčić, Marko; Ravlić, Slaven; Stuparić, Darko (eds.). Prvi krajiški narodnooslobodilački partizanski odred [The First Krajina People's Liberation Partisan Detachment] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Minerva. ISBN 9789536377039.
  • Miljković, Dušan D. (2011). Andrić, Milijan R. (ed.). Stradanja u Cazinskoj krajini i antifašistička borba (1941–1945) [Sufferings in Cazinska Krajina and antifascist struggle (1941–1945)] (in Serbian). Belgrade: AMD SISTEM d.o.o.
  • Ručnov, Marko (2001). Zašto Jasenovac? [Why Jasenovac?] (in Serbian). Belgrade: IKP "Nikola Pašić".

Journal

  • Hasanbegović, Zlatko (2010). "Iz arhivskog gradiva o Bihaćko-cazinskoj krajini u Drugome svjetskom ratu. Izvješće ustaškog satnika i logornika ustaškog logora Bihać Muhameda Hadžiabdića o stanju u Cazinsko-bihaćkoj krajini i pokretu Huske Miljkovića" [From the archival material on Bihaćko-Cazinska Krajina in World War II. The report of the Ustaše captain and commander of the Ustaše garrison Bihać Muhamed Hadžiabdić on the situation in Cazinsko-bihaćka Krajina and Huska Miljković's movement]. Bošnjačka pismohrana (in Croatian). 10 (32–33). Bošnjačka nacionalna zajednica Hrvatske: 177–188.
  • Jurić, Franjo (2019). "Ustroj civilnih i vojnih tijela u vlasti NDH u Velikoj župi Krbava i Psat sa sjedištem u Bihaću 1941.–1942. godine". Zbornik Janković (4). Matica hrvatska Daruvar: 355–389. doi:10.47325/zj. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.