Dronjak: Witnesses Describe Time in Detention

Emir Demirovic, former member of the reserve military police forces with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, said that he was captured on June 10, 1992 and taken to Vrtoce detention camp, and was later transferred to Slavko Rodic school building in Drvar, where he stayed for about 13 days.

“They locked us in a room without air, light or any other conditions for living. After soldiers had eaten, they would take us out for lunch. However, some soldiers would stay there each day in order to provoke us or throw cans at us. It was hard and it got worse and worse every night,” the witness said, adding that he was transferred to a detention camp in Prekaj and then to Kozilak.

Demirovic said that two months later military trucks came in order to transport them to Kamenica detention camp. He said he a person, whose name, as he found out later, was Ratko Dronjak, “hit him hard in the face” on that occasion.

Dronjak is charged with having organised the unlawful detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians and prisoners of war in Kamenica detention camp and the Slavko Rodic school building from 1992 to 1995. The indictment alleges that civilians and prisoners of war were subjected to torture, beating, murder, inhumane treatment and forced labour in those buildings.

Describing the living conditions in Kamenica detention camp, the witness said that guards used to treat prisoners in a normal way during the day, but nights were “difficult”, because they would “take people out and beat them up”.

“One day, on our return from Drvar, where we performed some physical labour, Dronjak gave me half of a cigarette pack and asked me if I was the one whom he had hit. He told me that he had done it out of frustration,” Demirovic said.

Mahir Ljubijankic was examined as the second witness at this hearing. The former member of ABiH said that he was captured and taken to Kamenica detention camp, where guards beat prisoners every day.

“Sometimes they would divide us into two groups and forced us to hit each other. They once took us behind the building and hit us with batons. A guard took me aside, put my hand on a stool, took an ax and told me to say what we were supposed to do to them during our military operation. I had nothing to say to him. He then put my head on the stool and hit me on my spine. I lost consciousness,” Ljubijankic said.

Ljubijankic said that some people were killed in the detention camp, but he did not know the guards who beat or killed people or the Kamenica detention camp Manager.

The next hearing is due to be held on May 26 this year, when two Prosecution witnesses will be examined.

S.U.