Dronjak: Manager’s Slaps

Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Milanko Knezevic, a former guard at the Kamenica detention camp from 1992 to the beginning of 1995, said that detainees held there, were not treated in a correct manner, adding that they were beaten up, stayed in bad conditions and lacked food.

“Detainees were Muslims and Croats. Serb soldiers, who committed offences while serving in the Army, were held in a separate room. Detainees were occasionally given medical assistance because they were beaten up and exhausted. Some guards used to hit them. Dronjak was inclined to doing it too,” Knezevic said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Ratko Dronjak, former Commander and Manager of the Kamenica detention camp and “Slavko Rodic” school building prison in Drvar, with having organised the unlawful detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians and prisoners of war from 1992 to 1995.

The indictment alleges that civilians and prisoners of war, who were held in those buildings, were subjected to torture, beating, murder, inhumane treatment and forced labour.

Witness Knezevic said that other guards told him that Manager Dronjak killed a detainee from a revolver.

“When we came to the detention camp to take over our duty, I saw blood stains in the wooden house, in which we sometimes stayed. We asked the guards from the previous shift where the blood had come from. They said that Dronjak had killed a detainee,” Knezevic said.

Knezevic told the Court that indictee Dronjak once slapped him.

“I do not know why he did it. He was angry when he came to me and another guard. He disarmed us and forced us to leave the detention camp. He swore and insulted us… He slapped me two or three times for sure. I suppose that someone told him that we did not act on orders, because we avoided mistreating people,” Knezevic said, adding that he never saw Dronjak again after that.

Second Prosecution witness Ahmo Jukic said that, at the beginning of 1993 he reached an agreement about the surrender of about 15 Bosniak civilians from Sanski most, who were hiding in the woods near Kljuc, to the Serb Army and police in Kljuc.

“I reached an agreement about their surrender. Serb soldiers promised to me that those men would be taken to Kamenica and then exchanged and sent to third countries. I met one of them in Zagreb after the war. He told me that he did not go to Kamenica but the others did. I have never found out what happened to them,” Jukic said.

The trial is due to continue on June 30 this year.A.J.