ZAGREB, June 24 (Hina) - War crimes suspect and commander of a Croatian World War Two concentration camp Dinko Sakic on Thursday began his defence at the Zagreb County Court three months after the beginning of the trial. Reading from
his notes from time to time, the defendant outlined his biography. Dinko Sakic was born in Studenci near Imotski on September 8, 1921. In 1923, he and his family moved to Bosanski Brod, where he finished elementary school. He attended secondary school in Slavonski Brod, but was expelled in 1943 and banned from attending any school in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia because of his promotion of Croathood, namely for waving the Croatian flag and distributing Ustashi propaganda. He was also banished from Slavonski Brod for five years. "Not yet aged 13 I spent one month in prison, and when I was banished from town, Serb policemen led me away tethered in chains," Sakic said. Th
ZAGREB, June 24 (Hina) - War crimes suspect and commander of a
Croatian World War Two concentration camp Dinko Sakic on Thursday
began his defence at the Zagreb County Court three months after the
beginning of the trial.
Reading from his notes from time to time, the defendant outlined his
biography.
Dinko Sakic was born in Studenci near Imotski on September 8, 1921.
In 1923, he and his family moved to Bosanski Brod, where he finished
elementary school. He attended secondary school in Slavonski Brod,
but was expelled in 1943 and banned from attending any school in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia because of his promotion of Croathood, namely
for waving the Croatian flag and distributing Ustashi propaganda.
He was also banished from Slavonski Brod for five years.
"Not yet aged 13 I spent one month in prison, and when I was banished
from town, Serb policemen led me away tethered in chains," Sakic
said. They wanted to send him to a correctional centre in Glina, but
he was "saved" by a judge and an attorney.
The defendant said a file was being made to the effect of having him
tried at age 18 under a then valid law on the protection of the
state.
Upon being banished, Sakic emigrated and collaborated with
numerous Ustashi leaders. He took the Ustashi oath, "that I would
fight with all means for the establishment of a free and independent
Croatian state", before Branko Jelic in Berlin on April 20, 1938.
Sakic emphasised that in mid-April 1941 he had been among the first
in Vienna to enrol in an Ustashi legion which numbered 600 members.
After a three-month training, he left for Zagreb, where he enrolled
in aviation.
"A former Yugoslav officer swore against my mother the Serb way, so
I beat him up. That's why I had to flee from Zagreb," Sakic said.
He went east, to Slavonski Brod, where his father had been mayor
throughout the war. He returned to Zagreb where he voluntarily
enrolled in Ustashi Defence units, commanded by Ustashi Captain
First Class Vjekoslav Maks Luburic.
He arrived at Jasenovac, Croatia's largest WW2 concentration camp,
on February 18, 1942. There Captain First Class Ivica Matkovic put
him in administration. "I wasn't satisfied, because I had asked to
be placed in a battle unit," the defendant said.
Towards the end of March 1942, Sakic was transferred to
administration at the so called labour camp Stara Gradiska, then
commanded by Mile Oreskovic. There Eugen Dido Kvaternik promoted
him to Ustashi Junior Lieutenant.
Sakic recalled coming across some 40 "Croatian masons" upon
arriving at the Stara Gradiska camp. They had been interned under
German pressure, but had special treatment under Luburic's orders.
"They wrote a letter of gratitude after the war for the humane
treatment they had been given," Sakic said.
In early November 1942, Sakic was directed into the Administration
Department at the Jasenovac camp, then commanded by Ivica
Brkljacic. In July 1943, Sakic was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel,
and was appointed commander of the camp on July 2, 1944, under a
decision of the chief for public peace and security.
"Two days before that, Luburic came to the camp and told me I had
been appointed to a new position and promoted to Ustashi Captain. I
told him I didn't feel capable of such an important and responsible
task, to which he responded that I was a soldier and that I had to
obey the order. He added I would soon be called to Zagreb, because I
had understood the essence of the Ustashi struggle and proved that I
could think with my own head, and that in my new position I would be
more useful than at the camp."
Sakic said he commanded the Jasenovac camp until October 1, 1944,
when Major Hinko Dominik Picili succeeded him.
In late August/early September 1944 he was in Zagreb where, he said,
he took part in preventing a coup.
On one occasion, Sakic refused a decoration because "in enemy
ranks, they decorated those butchers and bandits who most massacred
Croats, so they would probably judge by themselves and conclude
that I too had been decorated because I was a butcher."
Sakic said "the entire Croatian people, with small exceptions,
wholeheartedly welcomed the proclamation of the Independent State
of Croatia."
Prior to Sakic's defence statement, trial chamber president Drazen
Tripalo said the Supreme Court had turned down the appeal of Sakic's
defence to the trial chamber's decision to extend the defendant's
detention.
(To be continued)
(hina) ha