Dragan Vasiljkovic
November 2016
On trial for war crimes in Croatia
Photo: Miranda Cikotic/Pixsell

Cold, callous, focused and well-prepared was Dragan Vasiljkovic, the notorious Serbian Captain Dragan, on Monday 5 December 2016 as he entered the County court in Split Croatia where the criminal trial for charges of war crimes committed in the Croatian areas of Knin, Benkovac and Glina 25 years ago is taking place, writes Slavica Vukovic of Vecernji List. Fighting the Croatian extradition application to Australia for 11 years he was no doubt in a position to prepare his defence to some detail and studied every word in the witness statements presented to Croatia’s public prosecution with frantic fervour. He knows every comma in those statements, and even more than that as he tends to examine the witnesses about matters they had stated to the police or the prosecution but which are not contained in filed versions of their recorded statements. This is the reason why chief judge Damir Romac frequently warns Vasiljkovic to keep to the point or matter being addressed.

Besides being well prepared Vasiljkovic leaves the impression of an intelligent man, a cynic, a manipulator who invests quite a bit of effort in belittling and confusing the witnesses as well as a showman who, despite standing accused of war crimes, enjoys being at the centre of attention. As soon as he appeared before the Croatian court he used the opportunity for an emotional exposé of his beloved homeland Yugoslavia, which, he said, he was only defending.
“The Adriatic Sea was my sea, the same as it is yours today, and some fiends took it away from me. The aggression against Yugoslavia was carried out by domestic traitors and foreign mercenaries such as Jean Michel and thousands of others who came from the white world to carry out an aggression against my Yugoslavia,” Vasiljkovic said, insisting that he was a defender and not an aggressor. When asked to plea he said:
“I absolutely do not feel guilty!”

He shows no emotions as he listens to witness testimonies that describe the horrors they went through. He asks questions to each of them, insisting on details and attempts to devalue their testimonies. He tries to abuse his rights by offering his personal views of the events and so he tried to convince Darko Kruljac, the policeman that gave testimony on the attack on Glina police station, that the Croatian policemen were elite, hit squad, well armed and equipped.

“I’m convinced that I have before me an honourable police colleague. I’ve studied your unit. Do you agree that it was the most elitist one?” Vasiljkovic asked Kruljac and judge Romac promptly warned him to steer away from suggestive questions.

“I just want to relax the atmosphere a little, we don’t all need to be as bitter as Maria. I see the man before me for the first time,” replied Vasiljkovic to the judge, alluding to judge Maria Majic, a member of the panel of judges sitting before him.

Vasiljkovic attempted to devalue policeman Robert Hajdic’s testimony when Hajdic said that he saw three soldiers from 30 meters distance, a detail he omitted to state in his original witness statement fifteen years ago. Hajdic attributed the discrepancy in his statements to stress and then Vasiljkovic asked: “14 years have passed. Are you still under stress even after 14 years?” Vasijkovic received a reply from Hajdic he did not expect: “Because of your deeds and crimes some people suffer stress to this day.” Vasiljkovic found himself speechless.

County Court Split in Croatia
Photo: HINA/ Mario Strmotic/ ua

Osman Vikic is a Croatian policeman. Rebel Serbs captured him in June 1991 in Udbina. During the investigations he said that Vasiljkovic tortured and abused him several times but there, before the court, he said that he saw Vasiljkovic only once, as he arrived in the prison at Knin fortress and when Vasiljkovic asked him to whom he gave reports about the Serbian police in the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (Croatian territory occupied by Serbs). Vikic said that Vasiljkovic hit him.
Vikic said that later on members of the Knindza group, of which Vasiljkovic is exceptionally proud, had beaten him. Vikic said that he especially remembers the Serbian St Vitus Day holiday when the Serb paramilitary units arrived to the Knin prison drunk. “We were bludgeoned so hard that we no longer knew our own names,” said Vikic, explaining that soon after that he was released from prison. He said that two of his ribs and chest bone were broken from the beatings and that he suffered numerous hematoma and pneumonia.   “I have a witness statement that says that you betrayed Croatia because you went over to the Serbian Krajina side and so I’m interested to know who is lying: the witness or you?” Vasiljkovic attempted to provoke Vikic but judge Romac swiftly put a stop to that:

“As the accused you may put questions but you cannot interpret witness statements to suit your cause,” said judge Romac to Vasiljkovic.

” I have a remark to make. I have never spoken a single word to this man before. Everything he has said is not the truth to me and, hence, he should be examined with regards to giving false statements,” Vasiljkovic replied to judge Romac.

Vasiljkovic tried to confuse Adam Mrakovic, as well. Adam Mrakovic was commanding officer at TO Glina in 1991. Mrakovic said that he was stripped of his authority and that Vasiljkovic took over the command and coordinated the second attack against Glina police station. “You arrived in a costume uniform, with a beret on your head and with some pistol. I had heard of you, but frankly I need to say, when I saw you I was disappointed,” said Mrakovic.

That agitated Vasiljkovic and he fired questions at Mrakovic: “Did you and I have any contact? Did you have contact with anyone who knew me? When did you discover that there will be an attack against the police station?”

Australia’s and Serbia’s governments’ representatives are present in the court, observing the trial – Vasiljkovic is a citizen of both countries. The president of the Society of prisoners of Serb concentration camps in the Split-Dalmatia region, Ivan Turudic, is also often present in the court during the hearing. “I did not expect that he would express remorse, but I did expect that from the human side he would accept responsibility for what had happened. He is trying to twist all the assumptions, events and wash out the memory. His approach, when he insults with perfidy, when he provokes and belittles the witnesses, victims – that is to say, is truly painful to me from time to time,” said Turudic.

This episode of hearing before the criminal court in Croatia does not surprise nor does Vasiljkovic’s repugnant behaviour – he is an accused war criminal on trial, after all. It does rub salt into the still fresh wounds inflicted 25 years ago when Serbs like Vasiljkovic decided that genocide and ethnic cleansing of Croats was a way to preserve Yugoslavia; stop Croatia from seceding. By 1991 Serbs like Vasiljkovic have purposefully forgotten that Yugoslavia was concocted and patched together with the help of the Allies after WWI for the benefit of and at behest and plan of the Serbian king; without Croatian parliaments’ ratification or peoples’ will. So, Vasiljkovic, you are wrong – the Adriatic Sea is Croatian, not Yugoslav and it has been so forever bar for the few decades when Serbs tried to control and own it. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)