Bundalo et al: Afraid to testify

Testifying against the three indictees, charged with crimes committed in Kalinovik, Ilija Djorem and protected witness W1 said that they were afraid to testify because their family members might suffer some consequences. 

“I have been under much pressure by Kalinovik residents after having given my statement to the Prosecutor in 2007. I receive threats. I am afraid for my family’s safety. They also offered me some money not to speak about the work of the police in those years,” Djorem said, adding that the three indictees were not associated to those pressures. 

This witness confirmed that the person who pressures him most was Aleksandar Cerovina, known as Sasa, with whom he had been in conflict earlier. Many Prosecution witnesses mentioned this person as one of the accomplices in some crimes committed in Kalinovik.

The Prosecution charges Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askraba with a number of crimes committed in Kalinovik in 1992 and 1993. 

The indictment alleges that Bundalo was commander of the Tactical Group in Kalinovik, Zeljaja was commander of the Public Safety Station in Kalinovik, while Askraba was manager of the Barutni magacin detention camp.

“Nedjo Zeljaja told me that I should guard some Muslims, who were detained in the school building. He said I should not let anybody go in there. I know that our police arrested men from Kalinovik. Policemen said that somebody had raped someone in that school building,” said Djorem, former member of reserve police forces with the Public Safety Station in Kalinovik.

Among other things, the indictment alleges that civilians were detained in “Miladin Radojevic” school building in Kalinovik in 1992.

Djorem said that he supposed that members of “paramilitary units”, who used to come to Kalinovik and “mistreat all residents, irrespective of their ethnicity”, also participated in the rape of women. 

This witness said that others told him that Cerovina “mistreated some detainees” and that Askraba was “commander” of Barutni magacin, to which the men were transferred from the school after some time. 

Prosecution witness W1 testified about physical abuse of detained civilians in the school in Kalinovik, as well as about the rape of women. The Trial Chamber granted her with protection measures, because “it feared that her testimony might have consequences to her children”. 

By the Chamber’s decision, personal data of W1 will remain protected for the next 20 years. It is not allowed to publish her photo in the media. The public was excluded from the part of the hearing, when the witness spoke about the rape of women in Kalinovik.

“During the shifts of Slavko Lalovic, known as Ustasa, reserve forces members used to come to the school and take us women out to rape us. Members of reserve forces also took out some men and beat them up. Some of them never came back afterwards,” W1 said.

Some Prosecution witnesses mentioned Lalovic as an accomplice in the crimes committed in Kalinovik in 1992.

Witness W1 was a refugee, together with her two children and other residents from Gacko, when she was captured and brought to the school building in Ulog in May 1992. After that she was transferred to Kalinovik, where she was held in the school gym. 

The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, December 16.