Prosecution witness: Knin targeted, civilians killed

Former UN officer in Croatia Andries Dreyer says Knin was targeted by Croatian forces in 1995, killing Serb civilians during and after Op Storm. Dreyer, who was a security officer in the UNPROFOR unit in Knin, gave details of the attack as he testified at the Hague Tribunal today, stating that he witnesses a shelling on the second day of the Croatian Army operaton on August 5, when a bomb fell on civilians gathered in front of the UN base, killing five or six people. Prosecution witness: Knin targeted, civilians killed Also, while patrolling nearby villages several days afterwards, he saw “dozens of dead civilians from up close.” General Ante Gotovina, who was the commander of the operation, Ivan Cermak, a military administrator in Knin, and Mladen Markac, a captain in the Croatian military police, were indicted by the Hague Tribunal for the persecution of the Serbian population of Knin and other war crimes allegedly committed in August and September 1995. “The target of the artillery was all of Knin… I was driving through the city and there was no safe place…My life and the lives of my people were in danger through the city,” Dreyer said. He added that the Croatian forces shelled the city with mortar fire and that he did not see that anyone in the city was shooting back. “While I was gathering UN personnel from around Knin at about five in the morning, you could hear loud explosions all around us, and pieces of bricks and glass were flying around… We moved into a residential area, thinking that we would be safer, but we were wrong… The shelling was maybe not that heavy, but it was there,” Dreyer said. He said that the Croatian forces continued the assault of Knin on August 5, with the same intensity as the day before. “At about ten in the morning, we saw from the base, three shells falling closer and closer to a group of civilians who gathered in front of our gates…We realized that the fire was being ‘corrected’ towards the target…the fourth shell fell right in the middle of the group and killed five or six people…No one in that group was wearing a uniform,” Dreyer said. The former UN officer added that he patrolled the villages around Knin on August 9 and saw “dozens of dead and a significant amount of damage.” “Some of the victims were elderly people, I remember a man and woman in their seventies, both shot in the head from up close execution-style... On the road that leads to Zagreb, we found four or five bodies in their undergarments, all killed by shots to the head... None of them was wearing a uniform... We found killed livestock and dogs in the villages as well,” Dreyer said. Dreyer will be cross-examined by the attorneys of all three defendants as the trial continues.

Prosecution witness: Knin targeted, civilians killed

Also, while patrolling nearby villages several days afterwards, he saw “dozens of dead civilians from up close.”

General Ante Gotovina, who was the commander of the operation, Ivan Čermak, a military administrator in Knin, and Mladen Markač, a captain in the Croatian military police, were indicted by the Hague Tribunal for the persecution of the Serbian population of Knin and other war crimes allegedly committed in August and September 1995.

“The target of the artillery was all of Knin… I was driving through the city and there was no safe place…My life and the lives of my people were in danger through the city,” Dreyer said.

He added that the Croatian forces shelled the city with mortar fire and that he did not see that anyone in the city was shooting back.

“While I was gathering UN personnel from around Knin at about five in the morning, you could hear loud explosions all around us, and pieces of bricks and glass were flying around… We moved into a residential area, thinking that we would be safer, but we were wrong… The shelling was maybe not that heavy, but it was there,” Dreyer said.

He said that the Croatian forces continued the assault of Knin on August 5, with the same intensity as the day before.

“At about ten in the morning, we saw from the base, three shells falling closer and closer to a group of civilians who gathered in front of our gates…We realized that the fire was being ‘corrected’ towards the target…the fourth shell fell right in the middle of the group and killed five or six people…No one in that group was wearing a uniform,” Dreyer said.

The former UN officer added that he patrolled the villages around Knin on August 9 and saw “dozens of dead and a significant amount of damage.”

“Some of the victims were elderly people, I remember a man and woman in their seventies, both shot in the head from up close execution-style... On the road that leads to Zagreb, we found four or five bodies in their undergarments, all killed by shots to the head... None of them was wearing a uniform... We found killed livestock and dogs in the villages as well,” Dreyer said.

Dreyer will be cross-examined by the attorneys of all three defendants as the trial continues.