Dragomir Andan, defence witness of Mico Stanisic

Dragomir Andan, former Republika Srpska police official, began his evidence at the trial of two Bosnian Serb police officials, Mico Stanisic, the first interior minister in the Bosnian Serb government, and former chief of the Banja Luka region police Stojan Zupljanin. Andan was called by Stanisic’s defense.

In the first part of his evidence today, the witness talked in detail about his career and the posts he held in the police from 1976 when he first got a job in the BH MUP, in the State Security Service. From 1996 to 2000, Andan lived in Belgrade; he was unemployed and worked as a labourer in the port and had a market stall.

Andan returned to the Republika Srpska police in 2000. As the director of the Republika Srpska police, in 2005 Andan was in charge of cooperation with the ICTY. In mid-2007, Andan was fired after Carla Del Ponte, the Tribunal’s chief prosecutor, called for his dismissal because he was suspected of being part of the network that helped and financed Radovan Karadzic. Andan’s identity documents were seized, he was banned from leaving BH, from taking public office and from taking part in politics. Last year, his identity documents were returned to him and he was allowed to leave the country. However, Andan is still banned from public office.

Andan today described how the situation in the BH MUP grew ‘more complex’ in 1991, especially in personnel policy. After the first multi-party elections in Bosnia, many ‘tried and trusted employees’ who had worked in the police for 20 years were dismissed, the witness contends. People with less or no experience were given their jobs. In that period, according to the witness, what counted was your party affiliation, and professionalism was no longer part of the recruitment policy. The witness illustrated his claim, saying he heard from a colleague that Ismet Bajramovic a/k/a Celo was issued an official badge of the BH MUP; Bajramovic had a criminal record.

As the witness also said, Croats and Muslims employed in the BH MUP started forming groups as early as in 1991 but not publicly as the Serbs did. Their way was ‘wise and more perfidious’. Andan claimed he saw Croat police officials gathered around Bruno Stojic, who was an assistant minister at the time, in a restaurant. Muslims would get together in the office of Avdo Hebib, also an assistant interior minister. Andan contends that in 1991 Croats started organizing paramilitary units and that he saw about 200 members of the HOS training at a stadium near Ljubuski.

Andan will continue his evidence tomorrow at the trial of the Bosnian Serb police officials charged with crimes against Croats and Muslims in 20 BH municipalities in 1992.

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