Andrun witnesses describe Gabela

Four former members of the Croat Defence Council (HVO), who appeared as defence witnesses in the trial of Nikola Andrun,claim that for a while the indictee was a guard in Gabela detention camp and that he later came to the facility as an “unengaged man”.

The prosecution claims that Andrun, as deputy warden of Gabela detention camp located near Capljina, committed crimes against detained Bosniaks, both soldiers and civilians.

Pero Putica was a guard in Gabela camp from June 1993. He described the facility as a “civilian prison” where “all who refused to go to front lines” were detained.

He met Andrun immediately after he came to Gabela, but said that the indictee did not have duties and stressed that, in his knowledge, the indictee was an “unengaged man” at the time.

“Every camp inmate knows that Andrun was never armed. He went to storage sheds to talk to people and see the situation,” the witness told the court.

Putica said that every camp inmate in Gabela received two meals per day and that they could receive two-hour visits every Saturday, which was a free day for them.

As member of HVO, Vlatko Vego distributed food to soldiers and camp inmates in Gabela, although he could not remember in the courtroom when he did those jobs. According to this witness, there was “plenty” of food, and camp inmates spent time by “playing ball, showering and squirting water”.

Vego noted that he used to see Andrun sitting near the entrance to Gabela camp and that he did not have “any function”.

Nikola Pehar, the third defence witness,claims that he met Andrun in 1993 when he came to Gabela camp as a guard.

According to the witness’s words, there was no deputy warden in Gabela camp, the camp inmates had visitation rights and the guards “furtively” took them to their houses to visit family.

During cross examination, Prosecutor Vesna Tancica asked the witness whether there was a guard commander in Gabela camp, to which that witness answered not as far as he knows.

After questioning witness Nikola Pehar, the prosecutor also alleged that there is “founded suspicion” that the questioned witness committed a war crime as guard commander in Gabela detention camp.

Until June 17, 1993, Mirsad Suta distributed food for HVO and Army of BiH, after which he was arrested and taken to Gabela camp where he stayed for nine months.

He was detained in the camp from July 17 to 24, after which he was transferred to the “more extreme group”, which consisted of 55 camp inmates which HVO transferred to a silo in Capljina every time the International Committee of the Red Cross visited, after which they were brought back to Gabela.

Mirad Suta said that he saw indictee Andrun in front of the camp gate, although he does not know what function he had, and added that the word among camp inmates was that the indictee was “Boka’s deputy”.

Bosko “Boko” Previsic is the former warden of Gabela camp who, according to the witness, issued all orders and abused camp inmates.

Suta said that on multiple occasions he received food from his family via Nikola Andrun, and when asked by the prosecutor if the camp authorities had to give permission for such visits, the witnesses responded affirmatively.

The continuation of the main hearing is scheduled for November 15.