Return to Killing

27 February 2003 SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina--On Christmas Eve last year, Muamer Topalovic, 25, a Bosniak from Konjic, a town in the Herzegovina-Neretva canton, entered the home of the Andjelic family, Croatian returnees in the village of Kostajnica, and opened fire, killing three family members. This gruesome killing was the gravest crime to date against returnees in post-war Bosnia.

Topalovic quickly confessed the crime to investigators, explaining that he had committed it for religious reasons. The Andjelics were killed just as they were preparing to leave their home to attend a midnight Christmas mass.

“A month ago, while I was praying in the mosque, it first occurred to me that I should do something against the Croats. I wanted to scare them. I didn't want to kill them,” Topalovic told Reuf Zaimovic, an investigating judge in Mostar.

The Konjic townspeople regard Topalovic as a religious fanatic. He was a member of the Furgan humanitarian organization for Bosnia, financed by the High Saudi Committee, and the Active Islamic Youth organization.

Topalovic readily confessed to the crime, but investigators still do not know the motive for Topalovic’s brutal murder of his neighbors on Christmas Eve.

Cantonal Interior Minister Goran Bilic was decisive in saying that the motive for the murder “is pure religious fanaticism.” “Topalovic acted alone. He killed the Andjelics with a rifle,” Bilic said.

“I remember firing at a man and wounding him in the arm. Then someone grabbed the rifle and pushed me against the wall. I fired again. I know that I hit that other man as well. I remember two children slipping past me. I didn’t want to shoot at them because they were children. I entered the room. The wounded man was standing and two women tried to hide under the beds. I shot at the man again. I remember shooting at the women as well, but I don’t know whether I hit them or not. Then I turned to leave. I saw the children hiding under the table. I went pass them, they were just children,” said Topalovic relating his crime to the investigating judge.

Topalovic murdered Andjelko Andjelic, 68, his sister Mara, 48, and his daughter Zorka, 30. Andjelko's son, Marinko, 31, suffered serious injuries which have left him without an eye and the ability to use his left arm.

The inhabitants of Kostajnica describe the Andjelic family as good neighbors, God-fearing folk and sincere friends.

The murder deeply shook the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the first time after the war in Bosnia, members of all religious communities, as well as international representatives in Bosnia, united to send a strong message condemning the crime.

Two days after the tragedy, International Community High Representative in Bosnia Paddy Ashdown, Muslim-Croat Federation President Safet Halilovic, Bosnian Council of Ministers Chairman Adnan Terzic, Islamic Community head Mustafa Ceric and numerous domestic and foreign officials visited the family. All of them said that the police and judiciary ought to receive support in their efforts to punish the perpetrator of this crime in the strongest possible way.

“It should be stressed that after the murder of three members of the Andjelic family, the Inter-Religious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which brings together representatives of all four major confessions, reacted and condemned any violence committed in the name of religion and against religion and attacks on returnees, and urged the relevant state bodies to do their job and ensure that the freedom and rights of all peoples living in Bosnia and Herzegovina are protected,” said the Bosnian Helsinki Committee in an analysis on the condition of human rights in that country.

“Unfortunately, reactions of this sort from religious dignitaries are rare, and they could exert their authority to directly contribute to the restoration of tolerance, trust and safety for the returnees,” the Committee said.

Muamer Topalovic was arrested in Serbia in 1998, for planning the assassination of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. He spent 15 months in a prison in Sabac, and 20 months in a prison in Sremska Mitrovica.

He says that he wanted to kill Milosevic because “he brought great injustice and evil to the Bosniaks.” He never revealed any details of his plan, and the public in Serbia knows little about it.

Prosecutor Mirsad Resulovic says that Topalovic is well-aware of his actions “because several times during the investigation he said he regretted murdering innocent people.” Topalovic lived with his parents, off of their meager income, he himself being unemployed. He claims that he frequented a psychiatrist several years ago.

Muamer's father, Avdija, has renounced and disowned his son. “I am fighting for my wife Hafiza's life now; she had a nervous breakdown after learning of what Muamer did. Her health is now completely shot. Our whole family has renounced Muamer,” Avdija said.

He adds that his son never saw a psychiatrist, and that Muamer had said this to support an appeal for his release pending trial--his claims of suffering from extreme psychic disorders--are not true. Avdija lays the whole blame for Muamer’s conduct on “vehabis”, Islamic extremists, with whom he began associating several years ago.

“He was an excellent pupil. But he abandoned school when he met one bearded vehabi. He came to me one day and said: ‘I met a wonderful man who preaches and teaches wonderfully.’ Soon, he was completely theirs,” Avdija recalls.

Muamer’s father says that the purpose of the vehabi doctrine is to transform followers into “heroes, regardless of the cost,” and adds that it is even possible that Muamer did not murder the family at all, but took the blame in order to become “a famous, brave vehabi and a hero among his friends.” Muamer’s maternal uncle Remzo Corbadzic thinks the same: “Vehabis seduced him. They are to blame for everything.”

Muamer Topalovic is currently in a Mostar prison. His trial is scheduled for March. No lawyer has accepted to defend him, and he has a court-appointed defense counsel. The vehabi order has given him no public support, while the Islamic Active Youth and Furgan organizations, upon learning of Topalovic's crime, denied that he was a member of either of them. As for Bosnia, this is yet another warning that the war is not over for some.

by Merima Spahic

[This article is part of the Reporting Diversity Project by the Media Diversity Institute and Beta News Agency. The project is supported by the European Commission.]