OSIJEK AREA OSIJEK, Aug 27 (Hina) - Police in eastern Croatian Osijek-Baranja county informed last week that they had pressed charges against one man who treated his fellow-townsman as a slave for nine years. It has been the second
case of slavery recently registered in this county. The police has preferred charges against 65-year old Romany (Gypsy), Djordje Petrovic, who lived in Bilje, on the suspicion that he committed a criminal act of taking 56-year-old Antun Krkalo into slavery. At the beginning of the Homeland War when eastern-most Croatian areas were occupied by Serb rebels, supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Antun Krkalo had driven his family to Osijek where they could find a safe shelter, and Krkalo returned to Bilje (the occupied town at the time) to keep his house. But, the Baranja Romany Djordje Petrovic took Krkalo and virtually made him be his slave. Krkalo lived as the slave
OSIJEK, Aug 27 (Hina) - Police in eastern Croatian Osijek-Baranja
county informed last week that they had pressed charges against one
man who treated his fellow-townsman as a slave for nine years. It
has been the second case of slavery recently registered in this
county.
The police has preferred charges against 65-year old Romany
(Gypsy), Djordje Petrovic, who lived in Bilje, on the suspicion
that he committed a criminal act of taking 56-year-old Antun Krkalo
into slavery.
At the beginning of the Homeland War when eastern-most Croatian
areas were occupied by Serb rebels, supported by the then Yugoslav
People's Army (JNA), Antun Krkalo had driven his family to Osijek
where they could find a safe shelter, and Krkalo returned to Bilje
(the occupied town at the time) to keep his house. But, the Baranja
Romany Djordje Petrovic took Krkalo and virtually made him be his
slave. Krkalo lived as the slave of the Petrovic family from 1992 to
June this year, doing the most difficult physical chores.
Petrovic restricted his free movement and threatened to kill him if
he tried to flee. From 1992 to 1997 the Petrovic family and Krkalo
lived in the Croatian town of Bilje. With the beginning of the
peaceful reintegration of Baranja into the rest of Croatia, the
Petrovics moved into Yugoslavia. They took Krkalo "smuggling" him
in a cupboard over the border.
The wife and daughter of Krkalo, who lived in a refugee settlement
in Cepin, outside Osijek, inquired about Krkalo's destiny all the
time and did not believe in speculations that he went missing or was
dead. In the meantime, a local court in Beli Manastir declared
Krkalo dead as he had not appeared for more than eight yeas.
In the end of June this year, Krkalo's daughter heard from a Serb who
arrived from Vojvodina (northern Yugoslavia) to Beli Manastir that
he had seen Krkalo in the Vojvodina village of Mali Idjos living
with the Romanies.
When she found his father in that village, he could not recognise
her as he was in serious mental and physical condition. Krkalo
weighed just some 30 kilos at the time. The Petrovics scared her
away but she contacted a local office in charge of refugees for
assistance. The Vojvodina Refugee Centre helped her to take her
father back to Croatia.
Krkalo then told the police that he had been treated as a slave all
the time. He used to sleep in dank sheds and caves where members of
the Petrovic family threw the rest of old bread to him to eat. They
beat him whenever they were unsatisfied with his work. Krkalo has
become seriously ill owing to the hardship he experienced for nine
years.
Petrovic is still at large in Vojvodina.
The other case of slavery took place in the Osijek area and has
already been a file which the court in this largest eastern Croatian
city is tackling.
The court has issued an indictment against a former superintendent
of Osijek-Baranja County Police, Dubravko Jezercic, and an ex-
policeman Tomislav Mikulic for extortion and slavery.
In 1996, the indictees forced Branko Markan to sell his house,
situated in the downtown Osijek, to Jezercic. Jezercic opened a
restaurant in the house, while Markan received neither money nor
the promised flat in Osijek for this "purchase". He had been
transferred to the farm of Mikulic's father outside Osijek. Since
then until this year Mikulic treated Markan as a slave, and Markan
lived and worked for him under threat on his life.
Markan, who is now in hiding as he fears for his life, made his story
public for the first time last week granting an interview to a
reporter of the "Vecernji List" daily.
(hina) jn ms