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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.
They have been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise from April to September 1992 with the aim of forcibly and permanently moving the Serb population out of the Livno area.
Djordje Kovacic said he used to live in Livno and worked at a post office in the area before the war. He said the Serb population began leaving Livno in March and April 1992, but he didn’t want to leave.
“Rumours on forming division lines and sentries circulated, but I wasn’t involved in that. My family stayed in Livno the whole time. We lived just like everybody else. Civil duty was introduced at the beginning of April 1992,” Kovacic said.
Kovacic said he was detained in the Livno police station for three days on May 27, 1992, but was then sent back to perform his civil duties. Later on, on June 8, 1992, he said he was detained with a few other Serb civilians in garages that belonged to the police.
“One day prior to our exchange we were taken to the gym of the Ivan Goran Kovacic school, where we saw more people in civil uniforms. Some elderly men were there as well, but I didn’t see any women and children,” Kovacic said. He said this occurred in July 1992.
Kovacic said a man known as Ante the Miner took people out of the gym.
“He would point his finger at you and say, ‘you are coming with me.’ They returned some time later. One could notice some of them were beaten, but there were no such signs on others,” Kovacic said. He said he saw Ante kick detainee Bogdan Stevancevic in the chest.
Kovacic said prisoners were taken to an exchange location on the following day, but the exchange didn’t take place. He said he saw Zdenko Andabak on that day, and said he “greeted everyone in a decent manner.”
Kovacic said he could say “anything but good words” about the defendant. He said he heard he was some sort of head of the military police, but he didn’t know whether he was engaged at all with the Second Light Assault unit.
Kovacic said they were returned to the police after the failed exchange. He said when a larger exchange took place later on, he decided to stay in Livno.
Kovacic said he heard about Muamir Jasarevic, who was his colleague at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, later on. He said he didn’t know Velagic.
The trial will continue on September 23.
