Kondic et al: Creepy silence

At the trial for Kljuc crimes Prosecution witness Fahrudin Krivic said that he was captured in late May 1992, adding that he was then detained in various buildings, where he was severely physically abused, for eight months.  

“On Thursday, May 28, 1992 Zdeno Modric and Spasoja Stojanovic came to collect me, saying that I had to go to the police in order to give a statement. I was examined by a person named Sveto Ancic. Then he invited some unknown people, who beat me up because he was not happy with my responses,” Krivic said.

The State Prosecution charges Vinko Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic with organising a group of people and abetting them to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Kljuc in 1991 and 1992.

As he said, after having been cruelly beaten up in the police station in Kljuc, Krivic was among 21 detained men, who were transferred, by “truck”, to Mali logor barracks, near Banja Luka, where they were beaten up again. 

“There were some policemen and soldiers there, who beat us up. On the same day, May 28, 1992 we were transferred by truck to Stara Gradiska, where I stayed for 14 days. Some Kljuc residents were examined while we were there. They beat us up,” Krivic said.

He was among other men, who were transferred “by buses” to Manjaca on June 11, 1992. While they were in Manjaca they were forced to perform hard labour. He said he saw indictee Kondic there.

“I was not beaten up while in Manjaca, but some detainees were. I remember seeing Kondic once, when he came to the detention camp command but he did not enter the detention camp itself. For a certain period of time Predrag Kovacevic, known as Spaga, was deputy manager of the detention camp. After that he was appointed as manager,” Krivic said.

This witness was mobilised by reserve forces of the Territorial Defence in Kljuc “in late September 1991”. After that he spent some time in the school building in Sitnica, where they “did not perform any military practice”. 

Krivic said that most members of reserve forces left the Territorial Defence soon because they did not want to go to the battlefields in Croatia, adding that there were certain problems in that town in the first half of 1992, due to the arrival of reserve soldiers. 

“They would pass through Kljuc and shoot. They caused problems. I remember this creepy silence in the town in late May 1992, when people said that a person named Dusan Stojakovic had been killed in Krasulje and that some people had been wounded,” Krivic said.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, December 17, when this witness will be cross-examined.