Witness Describes Disarmament Operation in Grborezi at Andabak Trial

According to the charges, Andabak led an operation in the village of Grborezi on July 21, 1993, in which members of the Second Light Assault Battalion of the military police of the Croatian Defense Council opened fire on civilians in his presence, killing one person and wounding another.

The prosecution alleges that the members of the Second Light Assault Battalion then wounded another person, whom Andabak shot in the head.

Mirko Vrdoljak, a former member of the Petar Kresimir IV Unit of the Croatian Defense Council, testified at today’s hearing.

“I was in Komorani. We went to the village of Grborezi,” Vrdoljak said, recalling the disarmament of the Bosniak population on July 21, 1993.

Vrdoljak said the disarmament of the Komorani village took place without incident and that Bosniaks were taken to a school building in the village of Orguz.

Responding to questions by prosecutor Lejla Konjic, Vrdoljak said that Zdenko Andabak was their commander and that he was present on that day.

Konjic presented Vrdoljak with minutes from a statement he had given in 2014, and pointed to differences between his statements. Vrdoljak had said “according to what others said, he [Andabak] was in Grborezi.” He said he had never met or spoken to the defendant.

Vrdoljak said that Grborezi residents were invited over megaphones to hand over their weapons, which members of the military police and the Croatian Defense Council confiscated. He said he didn’t know why the Bosniaks were taken to the school building.

Konjic said she had no further questions due to the differences between the two statements given by Vrdoljak.

During cross-examination Vrdoljak said his group escorted a convoy of 20 or 25 Bosniaks. He said that while they were on their way back they heard a brief burst of gunfire followed by intense shooting. He said that according to rumours, Zdenko Andabak was at the entrance to the village of Grborezi.

Andabak asked Vrdoljak whether the non-Croats who were brought to the school were beaten or bloody. Vrdoljak said they weren’t, adding “everything was peaceful until we reached that last house.”

The trial will continue on July 1.