ZAGREB, May 31 (Hina) - The trial of Dinko Sakic, a commander of the World War II Ustashi concentration camp of Jasenovac, continued on Monday before the Zagreb County Court with the testimony of historian Vladimir Zerjavic, aged 87.
Investigating the number of WWII victims in the former Yugoslavia, Zerjavic arrived at a figure of 1,027,000 victims, of whom, according to his estimates, up to 85,000 were killed in the Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska concentration camps. The witness said he was prompted to investigate these data by the manipulation of the number of victims, which Yugoslavia inflated in order to receive as large war reparations as possible from Germany and Italy. "After the war, Yugoslavia registered 1,706,000 victims with the international commission for war reparations in Paris, saying that about one million people had been killed in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska", Zerjavic said, adding this was th
ZAGREB, May 31 (Hina) - The trial of Dinko Sakic, a commander of the
World War II Ustashi concentration camp of Jasenovac, continued on
Monday before the Zagreb County Court with the testimony of
historian Vladimir Zerjavic, aged 87.
Investigating the number of WWII victims in the former Yugoslavia,
Zerjavic arrived at a figure of 1,027,000 victims, of whom,
according to his estimates, up to 85,000 were killed in the
Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska concentration camps.
The witness said he was prompted to investigate these data by the
manipulation of the number of victims, which Yugoslavia inflated in
order to receive as large war reparations as possible from Germany
and Italy.
"After the war, Yugoslavia registered 1,706,000 victims with the
international commission for war reparations in Paris, saying that
about one million people had been killed in Jasenovac and Stara
Gradiska", Zerjavic said, adding this was the beginning of the
fallacy about the number of war victims and those killed in camps.
Investigating the total number of WWII victims by using the data
about births and deaths recorded until 1939, an estimate of
population growth during the war and a list of war survivors from
1948, in 1989 Zerjavic arrived at a conclusion that 1,027,000
people had been killed in the war, of whom 59,188 were victims of
Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska. Allowing for the possible inaccuracy
of his data of some 25-30 per cent, Zerjavic concluded that a
maximum of 85,000 people could have been killed in the two camps and
that no new research would yield higher figures.
In his investigation the witness used 140 monographs, which he
found in the Institute for the History of the Labour Movement, as
well as a list of commissions of former Yugoslav republics from
1946, which was never published. Investigating these documents,
Zerjavic concluded that between 48,000 and 52,000 Serbs, about
13,000 Jews, 12,000 Croats and 10,000 Romany had been killed in
Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska.
Speaking about the dynamics of human losses in the two camps, the
witness said 60 per cent of victims had been killed or died during
1942, following a major battle on Mt Kozara. During 1944, 4,035 of
Jasenovac inmates were killed (Sakic was the camp commander from
April to November the same year).
The witness said he had not come across Sakic's name in the
documentation he investigated.
Between 1950 and 1952, the Alliance of Associations of People's
Liberation War Fighters (SUBNOR) compiled a list of war victims,
which also was never published. A third list of war victims in
individual camps, listed by years, republics and provinces, was
published in 1964, at the request of Germany, which did not want to
accept the earlier published figure of 1,700,000 victims, which was
the basis for Yugoslav reparation claims towards Germany,
amounting to US$40 billion, and towards Italy, amounting to US$10
billion.
"According to that list, which did not include quislings and
collaborators killed in the war, 597,323 people had been killed in
Yugoslavia", Zerjavic said, adding that list also had not been
published because the figure was much smaller than the one
Yugoslavia declared seeking war reparations.
Zerjavic said the person responsible for covering up the list was
Josip Broz Tito.
Studying the list, Franjo Tudjman arrived at the figure of 185,000
war victims in Croatia, which, Zerjavic said, caused consternation
in Belgrade. "It was an incredibly small number, so it had to be
checked again, and it was established that the number of war victims
in Croatia was 194,000", Zerjavic said, adding he considered the
1964 list relevant, and based his data on it.
The witness also addressed the investigation conducted by Anton
Miletic, who in 1990 published three books containing the names of
about 26,000 victims of Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska.
"At the 1997 international conference in New York, Miletic
increased the figure to 77,000, which was to some extent acceptable
event to the main promoter of a campaign to inflate the number of
victims - the director of the Belgrade Genocide Museum, Milan
Bulajic, who claimed Jasenovac was the third largest concentration
camp in Europe", Zerjavic said concluding that many investigations
into the number of victims were politically motivated.
The trial continues tomorrow.
(hina) rml