ZAGREB, June 28 (Hina) - "Jasenovac was not a death factory as is being claimed today", Dinko Sakic, a commander of the World War II concentration camp of Jasenovac, said in the continuation of his defence before the Zagreb County
Court on Monday. Sakic is being tried for war crimes committed against civilian population. After having presented his biography last week, Sakic today spoke about conditions in the camp. "The prisoners were fed well and treated in a humane and fair manner", he said rejecting the accusation that the had killed Mile Boskovic. Sakic was subordinated to the Chief Administration for Public Order and Security, and the commander of the First Ustashi Defence Corps, which secured the camp. The defendant dismissed all accusations against him and the Ustashi authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) as "pure Balkan tricks and lies", which the communists and partisans used to hide
ZAGREB, June 28 (Hina) - "Jasenovac was not a death factory as is
being claimed today", Dinko Sakic, a commander of the World War II
concentration camp of Jasenovac, said in the continuation of his
defence before the Zagreb County Court on Monday.
Sakic is being tried for war crimes committed against civilian
population.
After having presented his biography last week, Sakic today spoke
about conditions in the camp.
"The prisoners were fed well and treated in a humane and fair
manner", he said rejecting the accusation that the had killed Mile
Boskovic.
Sakic was subordinated to the Chief Administration for Public Order
and Security, and the commander of the First Ustashi Defence Corps,
which secured the camp.
The defendant dismissed all accusations against him and the Ustashi
authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) as "pure
Balkan tricks and lies", which the communists and partisans used to
hide their crimes.
Sakic claims to have learned of the "Boskovic case" from Maks
Luburic, while he was outside of the camp. "Luburic told me to go
back to the camp and tell Colonel Marko Pavlovic to shoot Boskovic
because the Montenegrins consider it a disgrace to be hanged".
The whole affair had been caused by the camp's administration,
which was composed of prisoners and which stole food, clothing and
medicines.
"They had feasts, stole from the regular supply service and
confiscated packages of other prisoners, their fellow sufferers,
and some of the prisoners reported it. After an investigation, the
court martial sentenced Mile Boskovic and nine other prisoners to
death by hanging", Sakic explained.
"I respected Boskovic. He was an experienced and intelligent
person, and I often talked with him in order to learn something",
Sakic said, adding he could not avoid being present at the
executions due to the post he held.
"On that morning, I walked along the convicts and when we came close
to the execution site, Boskovic told me to convey his regards to
Luburic because he had approved that Boskovic, as a Montenegrin, be
shot dead and not hanged like others", the defendant said.
The defendant claims that Boskovic had been shot dead by an Ustashi
non-commissioned officer, Mile Sudar, upon orders by Major Prpic,
while other NCO's hanged the rest of Boskovic's group.
"I don't know to what extent Boskovic had been involved in the
stealing, but it is a fact that he was the head of the camp hospital,
in the basement of which a bunker with large quantities of food,
footwear and medication was discovered", Sakic said.
According to Sakic, "only those who acted against the Croatian
state and those suspected of such activities" had been sent into
labour and concentration camps. "No one was sent into the camp
without having received a legal verdict", he stressed.
Once in the camp, the prisoners' personal belongings would be taken
away, about which, according to Sakic, an official record would be
made. The valuables would be sent to the Croatian State Treasury in
Zagreb, and after having served the sentence, the prisoner would be
given back his belongings, Sakic said.
He then described the accommodation and food and the organisation
of life in the camp. Each of the six buildings had a person who was in
charge of it, an inmate, who would inform the newly-arrived about
camp rules and regulations about prisoner conduct.
Two prisoners would be in charge of hygiene and as a measure of
preventing typhoid, the prisoners' heads would be shaven. Contrary
to statements by the survivors, Sakic claims water from the well was
drinking water and its quality was checked occasionally.
Sakic stressed several times that during the time he was the camp's
commander, from early July to early October 1944, there had been no
epidemic or any other infectious disease, nor had prisoners been
subjected to hard physical labour or deliberate withholding of
food.
The prisoners worked Monday to Saturday, from 7 am to 12 am and from
2 pm to 5 pm, in the summer to 6 pm. "Sunday was the day of rest for
everyone", he stressed.
The Economy Office of the First Ustashi Corps was in charge of food
supply both for the prisoners and the Ustashi. "Everyone received
the same quantity of food", Sakic said, adding that the prisoners'
meals would be improved with farm products. The quantity of food for
prisoners was approved on the basis of their number.
Sakic claims the prisoners who performed hard physical labour
received additional meals.
Also, he said, no Ustashi officer had the right to arbitrarily
punish prisoners, nor could the guards interfere with the
prisoners' work. That, he said, was taken care of by the "inmates'
administration", headed by an inmate called 'logornik'.
Sakic admitted prisoners had been maltreated, but added they had
been maltreated by the working groups' supervisors, who were also
inmates. The camp administration was organised and led by Jewish
prisoners, he added.
Sakic confirmed that prisoners had the right to receive one package
monthly from their family, friends, the Red Cross and the Zagreb
Jewish Community, which, he added, had been the only Jewish
community operating in Europe during the war.
According to Sakic, some prisoners, who had the necessary
qualifications, would be asked, and no pressure was applied, to
stay working in the camp after they had served their sentences.
"To them we offered to stay working as state employees. Those who
accepted it would be given good salaries and a flat in Jasenovac,
and some of them brought their families there", Sakic said.
"Luburic was a Croatian patriot who tried to help every Croat free
himself from delusions and make him useful for the Croatian state
and people", Sakic said, adding Luburic had been in charge of
exchanging the most important Croatian communists.
He claimed more than 1,000 Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska inmates had
been exchanged for imprisoned Ustashi soldiers.
"On one occasion, we released 160 partisans from Dalmatia. We
realised that they were good people and Croats", Sakic said.
He also mentioned a case which happened during his command of the
camp, when 172 male and female inmates were released on the occasion
of "commander Pavelic's" birthday.
Sick prisoners were treated in the camp hospital, which, Sakic
claims, was supplied with medications, whereas "serious cases were
treated in the Ustashi hospital".
Sakic also described a visit of an international Red Cross
commission, which in early August 1944 spent five days inspecting
Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska. "I remember that the commission's
head was a Jew who expressed satisfaction with the way the buildings
were equipped, as well as with work conditions and food. He
expressed special gratitude for the humane and fair treatment of
the Jews, about which he later wrote a positive report", Sakic
said.
(hina) jn rml