WITNESS IN SAKIC TRIAL ON KILLING METHODS AT JASENOVAC CAMP

ZAGREB, Mar 18 (Hina) - The first witness in the main hearing in the trial against war crimes suspect Dinko Sakic, the former commander of a Croatian concentration camp during World War II, on Thursday resumed his testimony at the Zagreb County Court. Witness and former camp inmate Dragan Roller on Thursday spoke about nutrition at the camp, camp rules, junior commanders, the part of the Jasenovac camp called "3C", executions at the Gradina site, and else. The Ustashi ate much better food than the inmates, Roller said. They had a separate kitchen and ate military food. The inmates who worked at the Ustashi kitchen were happy about it as they themselves ate better food, unlike other inmates who ate at a separate inmates' kitchen. A month after arriving at the camp, the inmate was able to receive an unlimited quantity of packages. "I used to receive a package every week at (the) Stara Gradiska (camp)," Roller said. After being transferred from Stara Gradiska to the Jasenovac camp, the inmates would not receive packages as their relatives did not know the new address. The inmates would then steal food from Ustashi storehouses, the witness said. Especially banned at the camp was communication between men and women. Roller said that was the reason why an inmate at the Stara Gradiska camp had his throat cut by Ustashi Vrban. Speaking about living conditions at the "3C" section at the Jasenovac camp, Roller said imprisoned in this section were mainly communists and anti-regime fighters, and not the Rome as is usually thought. Inmates at "3C" were starved, they slept on boards in the open, and there were up 100 of them, Roller said and recalled inmate Gavrancic who froze to death. Junior commanders at the camp decided who was to be sent to labour and who to the infirmary. Roller said the inmates unwillingly reported as ill. The inmates were unable to avoid musters. If found out, they would be sent to the "zvonara", a bell-tower, which Roller said was something nobody was willing to risk. He explained the bell-tower was a workshop to which inmates would be taken before being executed. The witness said the killed inmates' clothing would be collected and sorted out in another workshop. That was how we concluded who had been killed, he added. The inmates' secret organisation was called "Otpor" (Resistance), and Roller was among the six or seven who headed it. There was a communist organisation at the Stara Gradiska camp, he said. Describing how inmates were killed, Roller said the Ustashi would take the inmates to Gradina, a site along Sava River, with their hands tied with wire. The inmates stood along the edge of a dug grave, one Ustashi would hit them on the head with a large wood mallet, while another would slit their throats with a knife. Roller said he learned this from inmates who worked as gravediggers. "The mallet was the most well-known killing instrument. It was a well-established killing-method," the witness said. He said that after the war, he learned that before the Jasenovac camp was liquidated in April of 1945, the Ustashi dug out the bones of the killed, poured oil over and burned them at Gradina. Roller said the former Yugoslavia could have determined the number of victims buried there if it had wanted to. The attorney of one injured party, Cedo Prodanovic, was interested in the criteria used to imprison the inmates. "The Serbs were imprisoned because they were Serbs, the Jews because they were Jews, while imprisoned Croats were enemies of the regime," Roller said. The chairman of the court's panel of judges later banned Prodanovic from making questions, with the explanation that questions could only relate to the case of Dr Boskovic, the injured party mentioned above. Prodanovic had no further questions. He said his trial rights had been violated, and that he would seek power of attorney from other inmates. (hina) ha jn