WITNESS QUESTIONED IN SAKIC CASE

( Editorial: --> 6864 ) ZAGREB, Oct 8 (Hina) - The investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court on Thursday questioned Pava Molnar (aged 77) in the case against the former Jasenovac concentration camp commander Dinko Sakic. Pava Molnar, now retired, was arrested on February 26, 1942, in Zagreb as a medical student and was accused of being an anti- fascist. After spending two to three months in the Remand Centre in Savska street in Zagreb, she was taken to the camp in Jasenovac with a large group of other detainees. The men remained in the Jasenovac camp while the women were taken to Stara Gradiska. Molnar remained at the camp until January 1944, when along with another eleven inmates, she was exchanged for a group of German officers. The commander of the women's jail was Ante Vrban. Upon arrival, detainees were immediately sorted. Jewish and Orthodox women were taken to a special unit known as the "Kula", she said. Molnar said that she had not seen Dinko Sakic and could not recognise him. She also said that she did not see any mass execution nor had she heard of such a thing. She assumed though, that following the operations on Mt Kozara (north-west Bosnia), a fair number of people had been killed, as at the time she worked in a warehouse sorting various personal belongings and clothing. Molnar stated that in 1942 Maja Buzdon had killed a Jewish women because she found an aspirin on her. When a new contingent of women arrived at the camp in 1942, and a personal search was conducted and particular items found on 8-10 inmates, commander Vrban separated these women and personally shot them with his pistol, Molnar said. Molnar spoke about the particularly difficult conditions in the camp. Detainees often fell ill from typhoid and dysentery. Hygiene conditions were horrific and there was a shortage of water and the food was bad. It was especially harsh in the "Kula". Women died there or were attacked by rats, said Molnar, adding that the situation improved somewhat after 1943, when prisoners were allowed to receive packages. (Hina) sp jn/rml 081813 MET oct 98