SECOND WITNESS FROM FRY TESTIFIES IN SAKIC CASE

ZAGREB, May 6 (Hina) - The testimony of Mihajlo Maric, 81, from Belgrade resumed the trial against the former commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia during WWII, Dinko Sakic, on Thursday. Sakic has been charged with war crimes against civilians. During his testimony, Maric accused Sakic of having killed Mile Boskovic and an inmate by the name of Pajtas. He also accused Sakic of having prolonged his time in the camp. Commenting on a camp muster in September of 1944 at which 22 members of the camp's party organisation, so-called the Boskovic Group, were hanged, Maric said he was standing five or six metres away when he saw Sakic shoot Mile Boskovic. "Boskovic had asked to be shot, not hanged. Sakic, who led the muster, ordered him to turn his back to him, but Boskovic said he would not do so because a Montenegrin always looks death in the eyes. Sakic then drew his pistol and shot Boskovic in the forehead," Maric said. According to him, a month and a half after Boskovic's killing, Sakic led a muster on the occasion of the so-called golden affair at which five camp inmates were executed. "The muster was ordered because some of the jewellery, confiscated from incoming prisoners, had disappeared. Three prisoners were shot by Maricic and Pajtas was shot by Sakic. Sakic told Ustasha Rasid not to waste ammunition on prisoner Spiler because there were other ways to kill. Rasic then slit Spiler's throat, after which he licked the bloody knife and put it back into the sheath," Maric said, adding Ustasha Mato Matkovic had also been involved in the affair. He was killed by his brother Ivica in a field behind the kitchen. Maric was born in the village of Obrovnica near Bjelovar about 80km northeast of Zagreb. "They could not prove I was a member of the (Communist) Party, so I was arrested because I was An Orthodox Serb," Maric stressed. After his arrest, he was taken to the Danica camp in Koprivnica, from where he was taken to the Krapje camp a month after which he was taken to Jasenovac. He was held in the Jasenovac camp from August 1941 until April 22, 1945, when he managed to escape. Maric said he met with Sakic "face to face" three times. The first time when he went to the Sava river where he worked on the maintenance of a water pump. "Sakic was just returning from riding. Shouting why I walked across his path, he hit me with his whip across the back three times," Maric, said. The second meeting was when Maric worked in the sanatorium. Maric was approached by Maks Luburic and Dinko Sakic. "Luburic asked me how long I have been at the camp and when I intend to go home. I replied I was there since 1941 and that I only have seven more days to go," he said. Sakic then ordered him to report to the camp's command centre the next day. There Sakic asked Maric to sign a piece of paper. "I knew I would end up with a bullet in my head if I refused, so I signed," Maric said. The following day Maric went to see Sakic again and it was then that he saw that he had signed a paper saying he was volunteering to stay at the camp for another two years. "I am probably the only volunteer of Jasenovac," Maric stressed. The last direct contact with Sakic occurred after he hit an Ustashi in self-defence. He then reported Maric to command. "They brought me to the command where Hinko Dominik Picili held a meeting which Sakic attended. Picili demanded an explanation for what had happened. Then they discussed how they would punish me. The Ustashi officers asked for me to be shot, hanged or slaughtered. Sakic then said 'I will shoot him', but Picili grasped his hand in which he held his pistol, and told him to calm down. So I remained alive," Maric said. He testified Sakic had worked at the camp as a clerk first, and commanded the camp from autumn or winter of 1943 to the beginning of 1945 when Nikola Lisac took over. Maric said he had seen Sakic at the camp before he had become commander, and the last time he saw him was on April 17 or 18, 1945, when he strolled around the camp accompanied by Ustashi officials. Speaking about the difficult conditions at the camp, Maric, as all the other previous witnesses, confirmed food was bad and insufficient, and hygiene non-existent. Stressing some musters had been organised because of prisoners' attempts to escape, Maric recalled a muster from the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944 when the Ustashi showed him the cut head of a prisoner who had tried to escape. Asked by Sakic's attorney Ivan Kern how he knew the person commanding the camp was Dinko Sakic, Maric said he was told he was by prisoners who worked at the command centre, but whose names he does not recall. The trial resumes on May 10. (hina) lml