Gotovina et al Judgement Volume I - ICTY

38964the unit remained throughout the day and following night. After being relieved by abattalion of Home Guards Regiment on 9 August 1995, Assistant Commander Zoricaordered the unit to return to its home base in Šibenik. He concluded his report by statingthat all members of the unit displayed exceptional courage and boldness in thecompletion of their tasks. 2657617. Witness 82, a Croatian member of an HV Home Guard Regiment from 18 Juneto 28 August 1995, 2658 testified that starting on 4 August 1995, he travelled with his unitfrom Ljubovo, in Udbina municipality, via Lovinac, Sveti Rok, and Ričice, all inLovinac municipality, to Gračac in the afternoon of 6 August 1995, and then finally viaBruvno, in Gračac municipality, or Donji Srb, in Donji Lapac municipality, to DonjiLapac. Many of the soldiers in the witness’s unit and some of the commanders werefrom the areas they travelled through and went to see the condition of their houses. 2659Upon entering the villages of Lovinac, Sveti Rok, and Ričice, the witness saw that thesevillages had been razed to the ground and the houses there had been burned and werealready overgrown with bushes and vegetation. 2660 The witness did not see any fightingin the villages as they moved through them, but his unit did come under sniper-fire andsuffered several casualties as a result. 2661 In Gračac, the witness saw that several housesand other buildings had been burned, and saw members of the Special Police in thetown. 2662 Almost all of the houses along the road to Donji Lapac had been burned ordestroyed. 2663 Some of the burned houses looked to the witness like they had beenburned years ago and had trees growing out of the ruins. Other houses appeared to thewitness to have been burned a number of days earlier, because they were no longer onfire, but were smouldering or covered in ash. 2664 A member of the Special Police toldthe witness that the Serbs had burned some of the houses before they left so as toprevent the HV from using them. 2665 Other houses the witness’s unit passed along the2657 P2384 (Report to the Commander of the Special Police from the Šibenik Special Police unit, 19August 1995), p. 3.2658 P2359 (Witness 82, witness statement, 29 September 2004), p. 1, paras 1, 8, 16, 21; Witness 82, T.16842, 16846-16847; P2360 (Military documents relating to Witness 82), pp. 4-5, 14, 21.2659 P2359 (Witness 82, witness statement, 29 September 2004), para. 25; Witness 82, T. 16853, 16858,16860.2660 Witness 82, T. 16853.2661 P2359 (Witness 82, witness statement, 29 September 2004), para. 29.2662 Witness 82, T. 16805.2663 P2359 (Witness 82, witness statement, 29 September 2004), para. 42.2664 Witness 82, T. 16761, 16770-16771.2665 P2359 (Witness 82, witness statement, 29 September 2004), para. 46; Witness 82, T. 16765, 16797,16864-16865.351Case No.: IT-06-90-T 15 April 2011 `