Zagreb Banski Dvori Trial: Bajic's Interview Read in Court
Zagreb's County Court has resumed the in absentia trial of six Serbian citizens over the 1991 Banski Dvori rocket attack, hearing testimony from Ljubomir Bajic, who admitted responsibility.
The Zagreb County Court has resumed the trial, in absentia, of six former members of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), all Serbian citizens, charged over the October 7, 1991 rocket attack on Zagreb’s Banski Dvori. For the Serbian public, the case carries particular weight because the defendants, among them former general Ljubomir Bajic, have refused to answer to Croatian courts, and the trial is proceeding without any of the six in attendance.
At the hearing, parts of an earlier interview Bajic, then commander of the JNA’s 5th Air Corps, gave to Radio Free Europe in 2017 were read into evidence, along with his 2018 appearance on the television program Cirilica and his written response to the indictment.
What Bajic said about the attack on Banski Dvori
In the 2017 Radio Free Europe interview read out in court, Bajic said:
I stand by the decision to bomb Banski Dvori, and the victims who died are collateral casualties.
He also claimed the rocket attack had targeted then Croatian president Franjo Tudjman.
In further remarks read at the hearing, referring to an earlier statement by Tudjman, Bajic said:
That attack was legitimate, because its target was the man who said he was happy his wife was not a Serb and a Jew.
At the same time, he told the court he has no intention of appearing before it:
I have no intention of responding to the calls of the Croatian judiciary.
Why are the six being tried in absentia?
None of the six defendants is available to Croatian courts, so the proceedings continue without them. Alongside Bajic, the indictment names Slobodan Jeremic, Djuro Milicevic, Cedomir Kovacevic, and pilots Ratko Dopudja and Damir Lukic. According to Veritas, all six hold Serbian citizenship, and Lukic also holds Croatian citizenship.
How the attack was carried out, according to the indictment
The indictment from the Zagreb County State Attorney’s Office alleges the six acted on a plan drawn up by the JNA’s top command. Jeremic, prosecutors say, informed Bajic of the attack plan; Bajic was at the time commander of the 5th Air Corps and head of the operational group for combat command. Milicevic, on Bajic’s order, gave the order to attack. Two Super Galeb G-4 aircraft took off from Udbina airfield earlier that day and, according to the indictment, reached Zagreb around 3 p.m. Dopudja, with Kovacevic as co-pilot, dropped MK-82 aerial bombs on Banski Dvori, while Lukic fired 16 M-74 Munja 128-millimeter rockets at the building and surrounding structures.
The targets were Tudjman and Stjepan Mesic, then president of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), as well as Ante Markovic, president of the SFRY Federal Executive Council, all of whom had left the room that was hit shortly before the attack. According to the indictment, one civilian was killed, one person was seriously injured and three were lightly injured. Material damage to Banski Dvori and nearby buildings was estimated at nearly 37 million kuna.
The indictment was filed in late December 2020 but was not confirmed until December 2, 2022, after the defendants challenged certain evidence, in particular witness statements taken without the defense present, and demanded that the entire case file be translated into Serbian and written in Cyrillic.
The attack on Banski Dvori took place on the night Croatia’s parliament, the Sabor, made its final decisions on the country’s independence; independence was proclaimed the following day. The court is continuing the trial in absentia, and according to available information, the next steps in the proceedings have not yet been scheduled.
