Croatian Military Policeman Recalls Capljina Village Shooting

Witness Miro Ljuban, who was a member of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) military police, told the state court on Wednesday that he was sent to the village of Struge in order to arrest a group of men who had intruded into the village.

Civil policemen were already at the location when they arrived.

The witness said he and three other members of the military police heard somebody telling the intruders via megaphone to surrender. At that moment a man wearing shorts and a shirt came out of the woods on the opposite bank of the river and began walking towards them.

“We let him get close. I shouted at him, saying: ‘Stop. HVO military police here!’ He stopped and asked me if he could cross the river where the water was shallower. When I allowed him to do it, he began fleeing,” the witness said.

“At that moment I heard a short burst of gunfire. I jumped into a shelter. A few minutes later I saw the man lying down. He raised his hand asking for help,” he added.

The man wearing shorts had an HVO membership card in his hand, issued in the name of Aladin Veledar, the witness said.

“A few policemen were near us. Their vehicle was the closest to that place. The man was shot in the arm and groin. We loaded him into the vehicle. They transported him to the police station in Capljina,” he continued.

He said he heard a few days later that some more men had been captured in the village and that some had been killed, but he did not find out who had done it.

Nikola Zovko, the former commander of the police station in Capljina, Petar Krndelj, its former assistant commander, Kreso Rajic, the former commander of the Military Police Squad, and Ivica Cutura, a former worker at the police station in Capljina, are on trial for committing crimes in the Capljina area.

The indictment alleges that officers from the police station in Capljina, led by defendant Krndelj, and HVO military policemen participated in an operation in the village of Celjevo in Capljina municipality on July 19, 1993, when three Bosniak civilians were killed.

Also on Wednesday, testifying in defense of Zdenko Andabak, a Croatian Defence Council military policeman accused of wartime crimes in Livno, a protected witness said the defendant ensured the security of the Bosniak population in the area at the time.

The witness said that, when he heard about people being killed and shooting in the upper part of the town on July 21, 1993, he went there and asked Bosniaks to hand over their weapons.

According to the witness, two Bosniaks told him to call Andabak because he was the only one who could guarantee their safety.

The witness said that the defendant came and ensured that the Bosniaks were safe. He said he did not see Andabak carrying a gun on that occasion.