TWO WITNESSES' TESTIMONIES READ IN COURT IN SAKIC WAR CRIMES TRIAL

ZAGREB, May 24 (Hina) - The trial of war crimes suspect and commander of a Croatian World War Two concentration camp, Dinko Sakic, resumed at the Zagreb County Court on Monday with the reading of testimonies of witnesses Katarina Hrvojic and Adolf Fridrich. Due to poor health, the two witnesses were questioned at their homes on May 18. Hrvojic was arrested in Zagreb in early January 1942 for assisting the Communist Party. She was imprisoned in the capital until mid- March when, alongside her three sisters, she was taken to the Kula tower in the Stara Gradiska concentration camp. She remembered the arrival of Maks Luburic, an Ustashi official, who threatened the inmates at a muster by telling them he would "re- educate" them, because they were future Croatian mothers. After two months in the Kula tower, Hrvojic was transferred to the women's part of the camp, commanded by Maja Buzdon. Hrvojic said she saw defendant Sakic for the first time in front of the Stara Gradiska headquarters in 1942. He was telling Buzdon she had sent only old and weak women to Jasenovac, the camp he was commanding. Seeing Hrvojic, Sakic singled her out and said he needed "such" young women, fit for work. "When I saw him giving orders to Maja Buzdon, I realised he must be someone important," Hrvojic said in her testimony. When she was transferred to the Jasenovac camp in the spring of 1944, Hrvojic said the commander was Sakic. In January 1945, when she was exchanged, he no longer was. Speaking about the Stara Gradiska camp, Hrvojic remembered three women being taken away to the so called Gagro hotel, where they were executed. She had also heard about the Zyklon-b poisoning of children who had been brought from Kozara, a mountain in north- western Bosnia. Hrvojic also recalled one time when the Ustashi took a large group of women, Jew and Orthodox, from the village of Mlaka to a boat on Sava River. She later saw their corpses float in the river. The witness also remembered coming across a hanged inmate at the Jasenovac camp, and seeing a vehicle full of corpses in the spring of 1944. That October, the Ustashi selected 33 young women from her group, she said, adding they never returned. Croat women felt "privileged" until 1944 because of better treatment. The other witness, Adolf Fridrich, was arrested in Zagreb in August of 1941, "only because I'm a Jew." "They told us we were arrested on account of security measures at the Zagreb Trade Fair which was taking place at that time." Fridrich was taken to the Jasenovac camp in September. He never saw Sakic abuse or kill anyone, but had heard that Sakic had shot Mile Boskovic. The witness was present on several occasions when witnesses were singled out, but said he avoided musters by hiding around the camp. During the time Sakic commanded Jasenovac, Fridrich said several soldiers and all of the camp's electricians were executed. The executions of new arrivals to the camp, who were taken to the Gradina execution grounds across the Sava immediately upon arrival, were taking place at Sakic's time as well, the witness said. He claimed abuse was frequent, adding the executions, approved and planned at headquarters, were carried out with knives, by shooting or hanging. Sakic commanded Jasenovac "until the end of the camp", Fridrich said, adding he did not remember anyone replacing him. Fridrich survived the breakthrough from the camp on April 22, 1945. He lost 24kg during his detention, and added only he and one brother out of ten siblings survived the war. (hina) ha jn