Radic et al: Good conditions in Vojno detention camp

Rudo Ravlic, a former guard at the Vojno detention camp, appeared as a Defence witness at the trial of the four former members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). He claims that the women and children, whom he guarded, were “not deprived of anything” and that “they looked better when they left the detention camp than when they were brought in”.

“Nobody told them how much they could eat. They had three meals a day. They used to receive cooked food for lunch. It was the same food that was prepared for the military. I once gave them a card box containing personal hygiene items,” Ravlic said, adding that he “did not lock the female detainees at night, but they did it themselves from the inside.” 

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Marko Radic, Dragan Sunjic, Damir Brekalo and Mirko Vracevic with the events in Vojno detention camp in 1993. Women, children and men were held in Vojno. The indictment alleges that the detainees were abused, tortured, beaten up and taken to other locations to perform forced labour. 

Speaking about indictee Radic, Ravlic said he “never saw him coming to Vojno”. He claims to have seen Sunjic “occasionally”, when he was fixing car batteries and made sure that the rooms in which detainees were held were cleaned.

The witness said he “does not know” Brekalo at all. He confirmed that Vracevic was a guard in Vojno. 
“Mario Mihalj was my superior in Vojno. He was an extremely angry man. We had an argument when I gave the detained children some warm milk. Soon after that I left Vojno and I joined the local guards in my village,” Ravlic said, but he could not remember when exactly he left Vojno.

The witness claims that a person named Mate Pavlovic appointed him as a guard. He does not know to which Unit this person belonged. 

Mario Mihalj and Mate Pavlovic died before the investigation into the events at Vojno was completed.

The second Defence witness Ivan Pole also claims to have been a guard in Vojno for about a month. He said that, in the course of his shifts, “nobody took away the female detainees” and they “never complained about having been abused by somebody when he was not around.” 

Pole said he “thought” that the female detainees had plenty of food and that “they had at least two meals per day.”

During cross-examination the witness confirmed he was a member of the HVO First Bijelo Polje Battalion and that indictee Radic was his superior in June 1993. According to him, Radic was later on “promoted and became commander of the Second Brigade”. The witness said that the First Bijelo Polje Battalion was under the command of the Second Brigade. 

This witness also said that Mate Pavlovic appointed him as a guard in Vojno. He heard that he was a commander, but he did not know to which unit he belonged.  

“We had to do what we were told to do. The situation was chaotic, people were killed, some were captured…I just came to Vojno and reported to Mihalj,” Pole said, adding that others found out that he was a guard after some time.  

The witness thinks that other guards in Vojno were members of the First Bijelo Polje Battalion.  

The trial is due to continue on April 18.