State Prosecution Witnesses Describe Prisoner Abuse in Livno School

Zdenko Andabak, Muamir Jasarevic and Sead Velagic have been charged with the detention, torture and murder of Serb civilians who were detained in the Ivan Goran Kovacic school building in Livno in 1992. The indictment charges them with 29 counts of detention, torture and murder.

Andabak was the commander of military police with the Croatian Defense Council for the operational zone of North-Western Herzegovina. Jasarevic was Andabak’s deputy. Velagic was a member the Croatian Defense Council’s military police in Livno.

State prosecution witness Dragomir Ljuboje testified at today’s hearing. Ljuboje said he and his family members were detained at the Ivan Goran Kovacic school at the beginning of August 1992. He said he saw many Serb detainees upon his arrival. He said the conditions in the school were horrible and that they were once deprived of food for three days in a row.

Ljuboje said prisoners were taken out of the school building and were beaten.

“We called it the lotto. You never knew whose name would be chosen. They called me out one evening. A man known as Svabo beat me with a military boot,” Ljuboje said. He said his father was beaten several times.

Ljuboje said a detainee named Vojko Jagodic told them he was beaten by a man named Sejo Velagic.

Ljuboje said he met Velagic and Muamir Jasarevic in the school building. Ljuboje said he heard that Andabak was the head of both the school building and the Croatian Defense Council.

He said that prior to being detained in the school building, he and his father were held in a police station in Livno for a month. When he was released from the school building, he had to regularly report to the “Elektro” building. He said he left Livno through an exchange on July 23, 1993.

Cedomir Oljaca was the second state prosecution witness to testify at today’s hearing. Oljaca said he handed over a gun he had gotten from the Serbian Democratic Party to the police. He said before being detained in the Ivan Goran Kovacic school in August 1992, he was held in the Territorial Defense Headquarters.

“Sejo Velagic interrogated me during my first evening in the school. I hadn’t known him from before. I told him about the gun. The first time the number of assigned and surrendered pieces of ammunition did not match up, Velagic slapped me in the face. He told me, ‘Don’t make me wake this man up.’ Babo [Jasarevic] was sleeping in an armchair,” Oljaca said.

Oljaca said his interrogation lasted three days, and said a man named Svabo hit him as well.

“Velagic took me out with Svabo on the third night and drove me to my place to see my family. He told me not to tell anyone about it. It meant a lot to me. I was lucky because he was the investigator,” Oljaca said. He said he was detained in the school for three or four days before being released by Velagic.

Oljaca said he once saw Andabak in the school gym.

The trial will continue on December 2.