Local Justice – Ilic: Upset and Scared

Stana Ilic said that Monika came to her place in late April 1992 and that they lived together with an older friend of hers until mid-May 1992.
“I remember that Monika went out of the house a few times in order to speak to her mother. She looked upset and scared when she came back, because her mother told her to go back to the house, where she lived, saying that Goran Jelisic requested her to do it,” said Stana Ilic, Monika’s grandmother.
Monika Karan-Ilic is charged in eight counts with having tortured, treated in an inhumane manner and mentally abused the civilian population in Luka concentration camp and the Public Safety Station in Brcko every day from the beginning of May to July 10, 1992.
In 2001 the Hague Tribunal sentenced Goran Jelisic to 40 years in prison for crimes committed in Brcko.
Borislav Ilic, indictee Monika’s father, said that, following his divorce, his daughter was given to her mother, adding that she had many problems, because “she did not care about her in an appropriate way”.
“With an intention to help Monika, who was 16 at the time, I brought her to my house at the beginning of May 1992, because I wanted to transfer her to Serbia. However, I was mobilised the following day already, so I went to the frontline, where I stayed for seven or eight days. Monika was in my house with her grandmother and an elderly woman the whole time,” Ilic said.
Witness Ilic said that, one day prior to his return from the frontline, her mother took Monika away. He said that he did not hear from her for a month and a half.
“One day in July 1992 Goran Jelisic came and said: “I am your son-in-law”. I forced him to leave my courtyard. I still cannot believe that Monika committed the things charged upon her, because she had never demonstrated animosity towards any persons of different ethnicity before the war,” indictee Monika’s father said.
Testifying as third Defence witness, Slobodan Tatomirov, the closest neighbour of Monika;s father, said that he used to see Monika in mid-May 1992, because she lived in her father’s house.
“I occasionally saw her until mid-May, because I too went to the field as part of my military duties,” Tatomirov said.
The trial is due to continue on October 29.

M.A.