Dronjak: “Impossible” Conditions in Detention Camp

Mile Dujmovic, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, who was captured by the Serb Army in November 1994, said that he was beaten up while in Kamenica detention camp in Drvar over something he had not done.

“We were in the toilet and went back to our room. Guards came and asked who had locked Stipe and Zlata Dujmovic in the toilet. When he lifted a stick, he pointed to me. He could have pointed to any of us. I said I had not done it and I was not afraid of being beaten up.

“He first hit me with his feet in my stomach, leaving me short of breath. I fell on the floor. Three men continued beating me with a stick, kicking me on my head, kidneys, stomach, ribs…” the witness said.

Dujmovic said that during the course of his detention in the camp, “some people died of illness, while others died of beatings”, but he did not personally see guards beating anyone, because they would take detainees out and beat them.

“I remember a Miro from Bugojno. He introduced himself as Miro. He had severe wounds on his hands and legs. He was taken out, together with Muslims, to be beaten up.

“Guard Baja came in and said that he should be carried out in order for his wounds to be dressed. So, we carried him out. A physician came to dress his wounds and she said: ‘My God, Baja, what are you doing to these people?’, adding that the man would not survive. He died later that night,” Dujmovic said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Ratko Dronjak, allegedly the former Commander and Manager of Kamenica detention camp and Slavko Rodic school building prison in Drvar, with having participated in torture, murder and other inhumane acts committed against non-Serb detainees.

Dujmovic said that it was “a public secret” that Dronjak was Manager of the detention camp, adding that other detainees, who had spent longer periods in Kamenica, told him that.

The witness said that he was exchanged in May 1995, adding that he had a 40 per cent disability as a result of the injuries he suffered in beatings at the detention camp.

Another former HVO member, Josip Santic, testified at this hearing. He was captured in November 1994. The witness said that Croats were not beaten up as much as Muslims in Kamenica, but he heard from others that a few of them died after having been beaten.

Santic said that “the living conditions” in the detention camp were “impossible”, adding that they went to the toilet once a day and otherwise were forced to go to the toilet in the room in which they stayed.

“It was horrible. We used to eat in that room as well. We would get one meal per day. It tasted like swill. I weighted 68 kilograms when I came to the camp and 52 when I went out,” the witness said. He was exchanged in April 1995.

The trial is due to continue on March 24 this year.