Trial for Crimes Against Serb Civilians in Livno Begins

According to the 29 count indictment, Andabak and Jasarevic imprisoned, tortured and killed Serb civilians detained in the Ivan Goran Kovacic elementary school in Livno in 1992. Velagic tortured Serb civilians detained in the same school.

Andabak was the commander of the military police of the Croatian Defense Council for the Operational Zone of Northwest Herzegovina from May to July 1992. From July 1992 onwards, he was the commander of the Second Military Police Battalion of the Croatian Defense Council. Jasarevic was his deputy. Velagic was a member of the crimes section of the Croatian Defense Council’s military police in Livno.

The defendants have been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise from April to September 1992, with the aim of forcibly and permanently expelling the Serb population from Livno.

According to the prosecution, superior officers Andabak and Jasarevic allowed military police forces to beat, interrogate, torture and kill civilians detained in the Ivan Goran Kovacic school, and participated in those acts themselves. Several prisoners died from their injuries, and the indictment alleges their charred bodies were found later on.

Prosecutor Lejla Konjic said she intended to prove the charges by examining 86 witnesses and one forensics expert, presenting statements made by two deceased witnesses, and filing 123 pieces of material evidence.

Konjic said the witnesses would describe the torture they were exposed to at the Ivan Goran Kovacic school, including the daily searches and arrests they witnessed both at the school and on police premises. She said approximately 300 Serb civilians were detained at the school.

Bajro Cilic, Andabak and Jasarevic’s defense attorney, said he would demonstrate that the defendants were at the bottom of the command hierarchy, and that “they were not at the level where decisions were made.”

Cilic said the security situation was difficult at the time and that “the military police had to stand in someone’s way.”

Velagic’s defense attorney said it wouldn’t present its introductory statement, and said they’d comment on the prosecution’s evidence.

The next hearing will be scheduled at a later stage.