Fikret Alić is a
Bosniak
The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
survivor of the 1992
Keraterm and
Trnopolje concentration camps near the city of
Prijedor
Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...
in northwest
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
. The journalist
Ed Vulliamy, whose reporting of Trnopolje and another concentration camp at
Omarska helped draw public attention to the atrocities being perpetrated in the Prijedor camp system, described Alić as being "probably the most familiar figure in the world" in the summer of 1992, when the image of his emaciated frame, seen behind barbed wire at the Trnopolje concentration camp, was seen around the world as emblematic of the violence being inflicted on non-Serb civilians by
Bosnian Serbs
The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби Босне и Херцеговине, Srbi Bosne i Hercegovine), often referred to as Bosnian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, босански Срби, bosanski Srbi) or Herzegovinian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, � ...
under the leadership of
Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb politician who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal ...
during the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
and genocide.
["I am waiting. No one has ever said sorry" by Ed Vulliamy, guardian.co.uk, 26 July 2008](_blank)
accessed 23 July 2011
Press visit to Omarska and Trnopolje
In the summer of 1992, in response to media interest roused by rumours about atrocities being committed by Bosnian Serb forces in ad hoc prison camps, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić invited journalists including
Roy Gutman, a British film crew from
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
, and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''’s Ed Vulliamy to visit the camps. Local Serb officials sought to block their access to the camps but eventually took
Penny Marshall, Ian Williams and Ed Vulliamy to Omarska, where they were allowed to speak to prisoners in the canteen under very constrained circumstances. They were stopped at gunpoint by the camp commander from visiting the areas of the camp where most of the prisoners were being held.
After leaving Omarska they drove past another camp,
Trnopolje, where they found more shocking scenes. The journalists, accompanied by camp guards and a Serbian television crew, interviewed staff and inmates. Fikret Alić was among a group of very recently arrived prisoners from the Keraterm camp being held in a corner of the camp, which was also a transit camp for the removal of the non-Serb population from the local
Kozarac and
Prijedor
Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...
area.
The footage from Omarska and Trnopolje was broadcast by ITN on 6 August 1992. The image of Fikret Alić, his emaciated condition highlighted by his gaunt face and protruding ribs and his prisoner status emphasised by a prominent strand of barbed wire, was prominently featured. The reporters' confirmation of the camps' existence and the suffering of inmates fuelled public outrage about the
war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Alić's image became iconic of the suffering of civilians and prisoners.
In a rare emotive address, former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
criticized her successor
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...
's inaction, beginning with the words "I never thought I’d see another holocaust in my life."
The Report submitted to the United Nations Security Council by the Bassiouni Commission, the Commission of Experts investigating the reports of atrocities in Bosnia, identified Trnopolje as a concentration camp
functioning as a staging area for mass deportations mainly of women, children, and elderly men and described the
Omarska and
Keraterm camps to which the adult non-Serb men were taken as death camps.
The regime at Trnopolje was far better than in Omarska and Keraterm but "none the less harassment and malnutrition was a problem for all the inmates. Rapes, beatings and other kinds of torture and even killings were not rare." Although the Commission considered that Trnopolje was not a death camp like Omarska or Keraterm, it observed that "the label «concentration camp» is nonetheless justified for Logor Trnopolje due to the regime prevailing in the camp."
(The Report used the Bosnian word "logor" specifically to distinguish the Prijedor camps from the wide range of institutions encompassed by the English term "camp" and emphasise the inhumane nature of the camp regimes.)
''LM'' controversy
The journalists' reports were used as evidence in war crimes tribunals in The Hague. But the picture also sparked controversy; five years after its original publication, the magazine ''LM'' (formerly ''
Living Marxism'') published an article entitled 'The Picture that Fooled the World', claiming that the reporting had been misconstrued to give a misleading impression of the camp as a concentration camp run by Serbs for
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
and
Croats
The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
rather than just a collection centre for refugees. It was alleged that Alić's emaciated condition was the result of a childhood bout of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. Ed Vulliamy retorted that those who had died in Trnopolje and Omarska camps were those 'most horribly insulted' by the ''LM'' suggestions. Alić denied ''LM'' allegations and testified against his tormentors in a libel action in the UK High Court brought by ITN against ''LM''. Following dramatic evidence given by the camp doctor Idriz Merdžanić the jury found against ''LM'' and awarded substantial damages to ITN and the journalists.
"High stakes in battle over Serbian guilt - ITN libel trial: Terrified eyes of a camp doctor said more than celebrity campaigning or the might of a giant news organisation", Julia Hartley-Brewer, The Guardian, 15 March 2000
accessed 23 July 2011
Alić subsequently described to the Bosnian television programme ''60 minuta'' how his condition was brought about by the internal injuries he suffered in the brutal treatment he experienced in the death camp at Keraterm. He also described how he had had to be smuggled out of the camp disguised as a woman.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alic, Fikret
Yugoslav Wars prisoners of war
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina