Witness Describes Husband’s Mistreatment by Croat Military Police Forces During Livno Detention

Andabak, Jasarevic and 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 Sonja Bajilo said Livno was a dangerous place for Serbs from April 1992 onwards. She said she and her children moved away from the town and stayed with her parents in Veliki Guber in the municipality of Livno. Her husband, Milun Bajilo, also known as Grof, was taken away by the police.

“He was released some time later, but he was obliged to report to the police station. When he went to the station one Sunday, he didn’t come back. I was told he was arrested by the military police, who took him to the school building. I think this happened in August 1992,” Bajilo said.

According to Bajilo, police and military forces searched Serb houses in Veliki Guber every day. She said some of the houses were set on fire. She said her parents were also taken to the Ivan Goran Kovacic school building, but her mother was released two days later.

“She told me she had seen my husband in the school. She said he was beaten up and that whoever entered the room would beat him. He gave her his ID card, watch and comb, saying he would no longer need them,” Bajilo said.

Bajilo told the court she went to the school on September 16, 1992, to bring her husband food and clothes, but the guard at the door told her he had been taken away for a prisoner exchange.

“He told me to ask commander Zdenko Andabak where he was. He [Andabak] told me he had been taken away for an exchange to Yugoslavia, to be with other Serbs. Then he laughed,” Bajilo said. She her husband was found in a grave in Zastinje in 2002.

Responding to questions by Zdenko Andabak’s defense attorney, Bajilo said she didn’t know whether any weapons were found on property owned by her father, Dusan Radeta.

She said she left Livno with her children in March 1993.

State prosecution witness and former prisoner Milan Gulic also testified at today’s hearing. Gulic said he was detained in police garages in Livno for four months and was beaten during his detention. He said he was taken to the Ivan Goran Kovacic school for a few hours a couple of times in order to be exchanged.

He said while he was in the school, he witnessed the mistreatment and assault of prisoners in the gym.

He said his first exchange was unsuccessful. He was exchanged in July 1993.

The trial will continue on January 13, 2016.