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WITNESS FROM BOSNIA DESPOT TESTIFIES AGAINST SAKIC

ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - The main hearing in the trial of former concentration camp commander and war crimes suspect Dinko Sakic continued at the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday with the testimony of Bosnian citizen Milos Despot, aged 75. Despot was imprisoned at Jasenovac, a Croatian World War Two concentration camp, at one time commanded by the defendant, between September 1942 and April 22, 1945, when the inmates broke free. The witness accused Sakic of killing inmate Mile Boskovic, two Jewish inmates, and another inmate who had stolen a corn-cob. Sakic became the commander of Jasenovac in mid- or late 1943, after marrying Nada Luburic, stepsister of Maks Luburic, the commander of all camps in the Independent State of Croatia (1941- 1945), Despot said. "I've known Sakic since 1942, when he was an exemplary, well-dressed youth who didn't commit crimes, but he became a dangerous man once he was ap
ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - The main hearing in the trial of former concentration camp commander and war crimes suspect Dinko Sakic continued at the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday with the testimony of Bosnian citizen Milos Despot, aged 75. Despot was imprisoned at Jasenovac, a Croatian World War Two concentration camp, at one time commanded by the defendant, between September 1942 and April 22, 1945, when the inmates broke free. The witness accused Sakic of killing inmate Mile Boskovic, two Jewish inmates, and another inmate who had stolen a corn-cob. Sakic became the commander of Jasenovac in mid- or late 1943, after marrying Nada Luburic, stepsister of Maks Luburic, the commander of all camps in the Independent State of Croatia (1941- 1945), Despot said. "I've known Sakic since 1942, when he was an exemplary, well- dressed youth who didn't commit crimes, but he became a dangerous man once he was appointed commander," the witness said, adding Sakic commanded the Jasenovac camp until the breakthrough. Describing the Boskovic murder, which took place in September 1944, Despot said he was not far from where Sakic shot Boskovic to the head. "I remember Sakic telling him before to choose the death he wanted," he said. He also recalled a muster ordered due to an alleged escape two or three days afterwards. Sakic singled out two or three Jews and shot them dead. Despot also remembered when a young inmate stole a corn-cob from a farmer who was passing through the camp with a cart loaded with corn. "Sakic saw that, ran after the inmate and immediately shot him with a gun." Despot was 18 when, alongside all 287 men from his native village, he was arrested and taken to Sremska Mitrovica, where they were all sentenced to death. "I don't know why they spared and transferred us to the Jasenovac camp," he said, adding he was taken there without any ruling, "just because I'm Serb." At the camp he worked on a boat on the Sava River. "I experienced everything. We worked hard the whole day, and food was scarce," he said, adding "famine raged." He was "saved" by the food packages his mother sent him. "Inmates were taken to be executed on a daily basis, the executions mostly took place at Gradina." Despot did not see any of the executions, but heard about them from two of his fellow villagers who transferred the inmates to Gradina, across the Sava, on a ferry. "If I'd seen the mass executions, I wouldn't be alive today," Despot said, adding musters at which inmates were singled out were a regular occurrence. The Ustashi would come to inmates' barracks at night. "They would interrogate the inmates about their nationality, and then take them away," Despot said, pointing out "nobody would every see again" those who were taken away. The criteria by which the inmates would be selected for executions were illness, old age, and exhaustion. Despot remembered he often transferred the inmates to labour across the Sava. "Many would never return," he said, adding he often saw the bodies of those killed at Gradina float in the river. He recalled many inmates were executed when the Ustashi were closing the camp's section III C in November 1942. Despot also remembered mid-1944, when the third Herzegovina company headed by Jr. Lt. Malenica brought to the boat between 120 and 160 girls and women tied with wire. "After sailing out, Malenica ordered the women to undress. There were shouts and cries for help. The crew who worked on the boat were directed to a tugboat, while the women were killed with knives." Despot believes the Ustashi soldiers who carried out the executions were not guilty, because they were "just executing the orders of the commanders, the real culprits." "Not all Ustashi were the same, there were even good people among them," he added. Despot mentioned a two-month "lull" in 1943, when Brkljacic commanded the Jasenovac camp, when performances were staged for the inmates, and masses served for Croatian inmates. "Sakic would play soccer with the inmates," the witness said, adding the "lull" lasted until the inmates started making escape attempts. Despot saw Sakic for the last time on the eve of the breakthrough, when he and other Ustashi officials discussed the "liquidation of the camp" which the witness said was the Ustashi attempt to cover up the traces of their crimes by burning corpses. At one time during the testimony, the defendant commented Despot's statements, but panel of judges chairman Drazen Tripalo told him to calm down, as he would have the opportunity to interrogate the witness. Despot was supposed to testify on May 4, but he did not receive the summons forwarded by diplomatic route. He decided to come to testify once he heard about the Sakic trial. Jovan Stjepanovic, a witness from Belgrade, failed to show up in court today. The panel of judges will subsequently decide whether he will be summoned again. The main hearing will resume on Wednesday. (hina) ha

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