Sisak Trial: Witnesses Testify About Disappearances

Marijanka Sesljaga Spanovic testified that on September 6, 1991,  two uniformed men, who identified themselves as policemen, came to the Spanovic family home in Sisak.

The witness said that they took her husband Rade into a white van with five or six other uniformed men inside and she never saw her husband again.

Sesljaga Spanovic said that she had sued the state in 2003 requesting 400,000 kunas [about 50,000 euros] compensation for her loss, and she insists on her request.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Dragoljub Rajsic testified about his father Dragan, who also went missing in 1991.

The witness said that his father was taken from their family home in the centre of Sisak, to a place near a radio station guarded by the police.

Those policemen told Dragoljub later that “three men in different uniforms, one in military uniform, another in a police one, and the third in civilian clothing”, took away his father.

Dragoljub Rajsic never found out who those people were.

Ljuban Crljenica testified that his house was searched in 1991 by Croatian policemen, and he was taken to a police station, but released soon afterwards.

Two former high police officers stand trial for war crimes in Sisak.

Vladimir Milankovic, wartime deputy police commander of the Sisak area, is charged with allowing, encouraging and failing to investigate the physical and psychological torture, illegal detention and humiliation of Croatian Serb civilians in the Sisak area from July 1991 until June 1992.  

He is also charged with personally torturing and ordering the illegal arrest of a large number of Serb civilians from Sisak, which resulted in the death of 24 people.

Bosnjak is indicted for organising and leading a group within  the special police unit “Wolves” which detained and tortured Serb civilians, allegedly killing eight of the 24 victims named in the indictment. 

The trial continues on September 4.