SAKIC PLEADS NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS OF HIS INDICTMENT

ZAGREB, June 29 (Hina) - "I don't claim that conditions in the camp were ideal, but I do claim that things I am charged with in this trial did not take place. Jasenovac was no sanatorium but it also was not a torture chamber as some are trying to depict it. This is all I want to say and I don't want to answer to further questions", said Dinko Sakic completing his defence before the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday. Sakic, a commander of the World War II concentration camp of Jasenovac, is charged with war crimes against civilian population. Pleading not guilty on all counts of the indictment, Sakic "categorically denied" that during his command of the Jasenovac camp, prisoners had been subjected to deliberate withholding of food and forced labour, that the sick had been executed and that those unfit for labour had been subjected to hard labour as well as that prisoners had been executed. I have never wantonly, or for any other reason, maltreated or killed anyone, Sakic stressed. Speaking about the "Zvonara" building, Sakic said it was a camp prison over which he had no powers whatsoever. The prison was under the jurisdiction of the security service commander, Sakic said, adding that during his command of the camp, the "Zvonara" had not functioned, except in the case of the Boskovic group, and that Colonel Marko Pavlovic and the court martial were in charge of the prison. Sakic also denied that prior to the execution of the camp's accordion player Wollner a muster of prisoners had been ordered during which a group of Jews was selected and taken to the "Zvonara". Everything that was said about the alleged crimes at Gradina and Granik are communist lies, he said. Commenting about the testimony of Zdenko Schwartz, who said the Ustashi used to play tag - order a muster, force prisoners to flee and then shoot at them, and that on one occasion he saw Sakic shoot at prisoners from the command building, Sakic said "those false claims sounded as if they were from a western". Speaking about his role in the Boskovic case, Sakic said it was his duty as a soldier to attend executions, in which, he said, he did not participate. "I have heard ten different versions about that", he said, adding that "OZNA (the Yugoslav post-war state security police) is responsible for those lies, because it forced the survivors to give false testimonies". We were accused of alleged crimes and brigand-like methods which the communists applied, Sakic said. Sakic said after the war a Jasenovac inmate, Ivan Skomrak, had through their mutual friends sent him a book called "Andrija Hebrang - Witnesses Speak" with a dedication "To Dinko Sakic with love. A former inmate of yours". According to Sakic, Skomrak wrote in the book: "I was imprisoned at Jasenovac as a communist and I can understand that, but I cannot understand that after that my comrades imprisoned me for two years on Goli Otok. Compared to Goli Otok, Jasenovac was a five star hotel". According to the defendant, Skomrak also wrote that Boskovic, two or three months before his execution, had said that survivors should intercede for Sakic so that he could receive a mild punishment, because he was better than other camp commanders. Skomrak allegedly commended Sakic for ordering that jerseys and football boots be made for prisoners. "Yes, there were several prisoner soccer teams in the camp, who often had matches with an Ustashi team inside, but also outside of the camp", Sakic emphasised. After Sakic presented his defence, his attorneys suggested to the panel of judges that a doctor-dietician be heard, so that it could be established whether prisoners could survive with, as witnesses described it, poor or meagre meals. The defence also suggested that the panel hear an expert who would speak about the establishment of concentration and labour camps in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), their jurisdiction and command structure, and that witnesses who spoke differently of the same events be confronted. County State Attorney Radovan Santek and attorney Cedo Prodanovic, representative of the family of the killed inmate Boskovic, opposed the defence's suggestions claiming they were superfluous, inappropriate and cynical, and that they would only unnecessarily prolong the trial. "If our suggestions are rejected, that would question the credibility of this trial and the fairness of the verdict", said Ivan Kern, an attorney for Sakic. The decision on the defence's proposals will be announced at tomorrow's hearing. (hina) jn rml