RETIRED MUSICIAN TESTIFIES BEFORE ZAGREB COUNTY COURT IN SAKIC CASE

( Editorial: --> 5947 ) ZAGREB, Oct 5 (Hina) - The investigative judge at the Zagreb County Court on Monday questioned retired musician Mijo Topljak, 84. Topljak was arrested by the Ustasha in 1942 in Zagreb. The witness gave testimony in the case of Dinko Sakic, former commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945). Topljak testified that after three to four days of imprisonment in the concentration camp, he was transferred to a camp in Stara Gradiska, from where he was released at the end of 1943. Topljak said he had not seen, nor had any contact with Sakic, but that he had heard other camp prisoners say Sakic was "an honest fellow". According to him, he had never witnessed any mass executions. However, he added, he had been present when two camp prisoners escaped from the camp labour site. They were subsequently caught, put in prison and presumably executed. Topljak said he had seen a German truck deliver 11 Chetniks to the Jasenovac camp, one of whom was dead, while the others were in an appalling state. In the camp they were fed, dressed, and transferred with Topljak to Stara Gradiska. It is assumed that they had surrendered and refused to fight against the Ustasha. In 1941, Topljak was drafted, then demobilised and sent to an police course , after which he was deployed in Tuskanac (a neighbourhood of Zagreb), where he was arrested. At the Stara Gradiska camp, Topljak testified, he sang in a mixed choir and laboured outside the camp. After his release from the camp, he arrived in Zagreb and volunteered into the homeland defenders' army, and was posted with the army military orchestra. At the end of World War II, he fled towards Dravograd, and was apprehended near Celje. He said he walked, together with 1,000 prisoners, to Svarca (Karlovac). Only half of the prisoners were left alive, he testified. (hina) lml 051723 MET oct 98