WITNESS BOBANAC TESTIFIES IN SAKIC TRIAL

ZAGREB, Mar 24 (Hina) - The main hearing in the Dinko Sakic trial resumed at the Zagreb County Court on Wednesday with the testimony of witness Miljenko Bobanac. Sakic, the former commander of Jasenovac, a Croatian concentration camp during World War II, is accused of war crimes against humanity. Bobanac, born 1922, was arrested on August 10, 1942 as a member of the Yugoslav Communist Youth Alliance (SKOJ). He was imprisoned in Slavonski Brod and was transferred to the Jasenovac camp on October 7, 1942. Describing his arrival at the camp, the witness said above the entrance hung the inscription "Order, Labour, and Discipline." First stationed at section "3C", the witness was transferred by Captain First Class Jozo Matijevic, a former school buddy, to labour at a clothes storehouse. The clothes were taken from inmates upon their arrival at the camp. Speaking of Matijevic, the witness said he killed 600 women and children when a camp in Djakovo was closed down. Bobanac was amnestied and released on August 30, 1944. "Dinko Sakic then handed me the discharge certificate and wished me the best." The witness spoke about a major muster on October 18, 1942. Six hundred Serbs from Srijem and Romany, as well as six Slovene priests, were killed. The execution was supervised by Tomic, he said, adding the camp's commander at the time was Ivica Brkljacic. "Among those killed was an inmate in a wheelchair," Bobanac said, adding inmates were terrified of musters. Asked by the county state attorney whether he had been present at any execution which occurred during the time the defendant commanded Jasenovac, Bobanac answered in the negative, explaining he worked at an Ustashi hospital in the town of Jasenovac at the time. Bobanac said he had known Sakic since 1936 or 1938 in Slavonski Brod, but added they had ever been introduced. "I learned in May of 1944 that Sakic was at the Jasenovac camp," he said, adding Sakic arrived at Jasenovac with an Ustashi battalion from Stara Gradiska which Vrban brought to Jasenovac to guard the camp. "Sakic took administration of the camp after Easter of 1944, during a lull, there were no mass executions at that time. It was the same in June, July, and August. When he was commander, I did not come into contact with him," Bobanac said. He neither saw nor heard any mass executions in that period, even though, he added, single ones did take place. Bobanac said inmates woke up at six in the morning. They were sent to labour at a nearby embankment with no breakfast. "At least 15 to 30 inmates were 'built into' that embankment, but nobody was called to account for that," the witness said. "Food at the camp was bad and insufficient. A kilogram of corn-flour would be cooked in 50 litres of water with no salt. The inmates would get 12dkg of bread." The witness said the inmates were subjected to hard labour and abuse. "It was calculated. That could be borne for 14, 15 days. The inmates were living skeletons who would be taken to Gradina where they were killed." Speaking about the camp's organisation, the witness said the inmates who initially supervised labour were Jews. "Nobody was accountable to anybody. Hinko Picili, who divided the organisation of camp labour into 16 groups, was directly linked to the UNS and did not account to anyone. The camp was set up along the Sava (river) so they could carry out the genocide more easily," Bobanac said. The witness worked at the camp's office and was courier for all 16 labour groups. Speaking about the "Zvonara" (bell-tower), Bobanac said: "Who got inside did not come out, but was carried out." In charge of the bell- tower was Ljubo Milos, whose subordinate was inmate Cividini. The latter would interrogate and torture the inmates. "The interrogations at the 'Zvonara' lasted up to August 1944, when I got out of the camp," Bobanac said. The witness confirmed he knows the camp had a crematorium which had been built by Picili. Labour group head Fuad Midzic had told him the inmates were taken to the crematorium. During 1943, Picili attempted to make soap out of the bones of inmates executed at Gradina, Bobanac said. He learned about transports of inmates who were taken to a secondary railway track in the town of Jasenovac from the head of the station. The man was later hanged, Bobanac said. He explained he did not personally see any transports, but added they stopped after the mass executions of 1942. Single killings took place even after the lull in the middle of 1944, Bobanac said responding to a question put by the president of the trial chamber. He had heard about the murders of professor Josko Bogdanovic, Slobodan Micic, and Fuad Midzic at the Granik site. Asked about the command structure, Bobanac said the "elite" battalion of Maks Luburic had jurisdiction over the camp. Next came the battalion of Major Majic. The heads at the camp were subordinate to the UNS, while the commanders of the Ustashi units which guarded the camp were independent. The witness said there were up to 3,000 inmates at the Jasenovac camp daily. The figure would sometimes drop considerably during the night, because inmates were taken away and executed. "I knew that because I was a courier at the camp's headquarters." Bobanac said the Ustashi hospital in the town of Jasenovac was well supplied with medicine. "They had better medicine than in Zagreb," he said, and added that on one occasion when he worked at the hospital, the Ustashi took some 60 inmates and executed them at the Gradina site. Bobanac also spoke about inmates' executions during wood-cutting, and about the execution of a group of inmates among whom was Doctor Mile Boskovic. He read about this from reports he was given by the partisans as these executions took place after he got out of the camp. Arriving at the court this morning, defendant Sakic brought with him "Pregled Srpskog Antisemitizma" (Review of Serbian Anti- Semitism), a book by Tomislav Vukovic and Edo Bojovic. The main hearing will continue on Thursday. (hina) ha