Accused War Criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic – Callous Manipulator

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

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

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)

Croatia: War Crimes Trial Against Serb Dragan Vasiljkovic Finally Commences

DRagan Vasiljkovic at court Split, Croatia 20 September 2016 Photo:Hamze Media

Dragan Vasiljkovic at court
Split, Croatia
20 September 2016
Photo:Hanze Media

 

Serb former paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic (aka Captain Dragan, Daniel Snedden) went on trial in Croatia on Tuesday 20 September 2016 accused of torturing and killing soldiers and civilians during the 1991-95 war of Serb aggression against Croatia. Prosecution alleges that Vasiljkovic, 61, violated the Geneva Conventions while in charge of a Serb paramilitary unit known as the Red Berets by torturing and murdering civilians, prisoner Croatian soldiers and police in the rebel Serb stronghold of Knin in summer 1991 and Bruska near the town of Benkovac in 1993. The charges carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence in Croatia.

 

The 61-year-old was indicted in January 2016 for the detention and torture of Croatian civilians and police in the ethnic Serb rebel stronghold of Knin (the so-called self-proclaimed Serbian Republic of Krajina) at the start of Croatia’s 1990s independence war. As commander of a Serb paramilitary unit, he did “nothing to prevent and punish such crimes” that occurred in 1991, and personally took part in them, according to the prosecutors.

 

Prosecutors claim he orchestrated a deadly attack in 1991 on the central town of Glina and the surrounding region in which a civilian and a German reporter were killed while the local Croat and other non-Serb population were forced to flee their homes.

 

The trial in the city of Split will be held under heavy security measures and so far the prosecution has put forward 55 of its witnesses and defence is still to put forward its list of witnesses. Hence, its likely that the trial will last quite a while.

Dragan Vasiljkovic at war crimes trial Split, Croatia 20 SEptember 2016 Photo: Hamze Media

Dragan Vasiljkovic
at war crimes trial
Split, Croatia
20 SEptember 2016
Photo: Hanze Media

Vasiljkovic was extradited last year (2015) after Croatian authorities sought an arrest warrant for the fugitive. Extradition process from Australia took ten years, much of which period Vasiljkovic spent in custody awaiting outcomes from and exhaustion of all his rights under the Australian laws. Vasiljkovic has dual Serbian and Australian citizenship, told the court in the Adriatic city of Split that he “feels absolutely no guilt”. He is also accused of drawing up plans to attack police stations.

 

It’s believed to be the first time an Australian citizen has faced court for war crimes and this had ignited a bitter debate about whether he is a national hero (in Serbia) or depraved criminal. Vasiljkovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia and moved to Melbourne aged 14 with his family and was granted Australian citizenship in 1975 according to court documents. He returned to Serbia during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. When Croatia declared independence in 1991 Vasiljkovic trained Serbs to lead operations against the Croats. A Bosnian woman, Jamila Subasic, has accused him of rape and claims he abused her in front of other men. He denies being present at the hotel where it is alleged to have taken place.

Velibor Bracic Photo: NIKSA STIPANICEV / CROPIX

Velibor Bracic
Photo: NIKSA STIPANICEV / CROPIX

A former Croatian prisoner of war, Velibor Bracic, 41, travelled 2009 from Croatia to testify in the NSW Supreme Court in a defamation case brought by Dragan Vasiljkovic against Nationwide News, publisher of The Australian newspaper, had told the court that an Australian citizen accused by Croatia of war crimes (Dragan Vasiljkovic) kicked him in the head in a fortress prison in the early 1990s. recalled how Vasiljkovic personally beat him while showing his subordinates how to do it properly.”He said: ‘If you beat him then you should do it like this’ and then he kicked me in face,” Bracic told Nova TV upon the suspect’s extradition. He described his detention as “24 hours of mistreatment each day… beatings with rifle butts, hands.”
On one occasion, the guards allegedly brought in a baby bear and the inmates were forced to kiss the bear’s backside.
Other times, guns were put in their mouths, while a guard, with his hand on the trigger, would ask: “Do you want us to kill you?” Mr Bracic said. The inmates were also taken outside for mock executions.
The inmates were later transferred to the abandoned Knin hospital. In addition to beatings, the prisoners were allegedly given electric shocks and sexually assaulted.

Anne McElvoy Photo: Twitter

Anne McElvoy
Photo: Twitter

British newspaper executive Anne McElvoy, who was a war correspondent for The Times in 1991, told the Sydney court in 2009 via videolink she had asked a Serb paramilitary commander in Knin, who had said he was Captain Dragan, about his views on targeting civilian buildings.
“He said: ‘Nobody needs to be armed since I got here. I’m not here to kill people, just neutralise the enemy. When the Croatian side uses hospitals or police stations in their villages as fortified positions, I’m sorry, I just have to massacre them.’ ”

 

Slobodna Dalmacija news portal from Split reports that entering the court in the city of Split in Croatia 20th September 2016 Vasiljkovic said that he was defending Yugoslavia, that he had the feeling it was pulling away from him and that he is not an aggressor. In that context he mentioned that he feels the Adriatic Sea is his.
Well, nothing new there – Serbia and Serbs who attacked Croatia all thought the same and many still do. Hence, Croatia needs vigilance for its own safety for the Serb hunger for Croatian lands is quite vicious.

 

 

There is still no limit as to how far Vasiljkovic will go to insult Croatians. At the entry to the court in Split on Tuesday he reportedly also said that many Australian Croats keep the picture of General Ante Gotovina (Croatian General who led the military operation Storm in August 1995 that liberated Knin and occupied Croatian territory of Krajina from Serb occupation) but that they also keep his picture.

 

Dragan Vasiljkovic war crimes trial Split, Croatia 20 September 2016 Photo: Hamze Media

Dragan Vasiljkovic
war crimes trial
Split, Croatia
20 September 2016
Photo: Hanze Media

Mid-September 2016 Vasiljkovic had sent a complaint to the UN claiming he was illegally detained in Australia for years and unlawfully extradited to Croatia. In his statement to the UN he alleged that he had suffered from the “violation of the right to liberty and security of a person, as well as the excessive length of the investigative detention”. He urges the UN Human Rights Committee to tell Croatia that he should be freed from custody and allowed to mount his defence while on bail. His lawyers are now awaiting a positive result from the UN, i.e. that Vasiljkovic will receive bail and be able to defend himself from outside prison. The problem with that is that he is a huge flight risk and I certainly hope that the UN Human Rights Committee will think of human rights his alleged victims had and that is a right to justice. If he gets bail he is likely to flee into Serbia or somewhere like that, which could take another ten years to get him back to trial in Croatia. As I see it, Vasiljkovic has had his ten years of evading justice and it’s now the victims’ turn to get justice. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

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https://inavukic.com/2012/10/06/red-poppies-of-croatian-independence/
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https://inavukic.com/2014/12/17/indicted-serb-war-criminal-dragan-vasiljkovic-loses-final-battle-against-extradition-to-croatia/

Indicted Serb War Criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic Loses Final Battle Against Extradition To Croatia

Dragan Vasiljkovic aka Captain Dragan aka Daniel Snedden Photo: News Ltd

Dragan Vasiljkovic
aka Captain Dragan
aka Daniel Snedden
Photo: News Ltd

 

Dragan Vasiljkovic, a Serb with Australian citizenship known as Captain Dragan during his reported murderous rampages in Croatia as part of Serb aggressing in the early 1990’s, and also known by his adopted name in Australia as Daniel Snedden, has spent the last eight years in Australian prisons as he fought legal battles against extradition to Croatia to answer to charges for war crimes against him. On Friday 12 December he lost his final battle not to be extradited to Croatia. The Australian Federal court had rejected his appeal.

 

Vasiljkovic is wanted in Croatia for war crimes he allegedly committed in the 1990s while serving as a paramilitary commander during the war of the said period.
His latest appeal against his extradition order centred on the legal delays in his case, issues relating to the Geneva Conventions, and questions of procedural fairness.
The 60-year-old, who was born in Belgrade and is an Australian citizen, has denied the allegations of war crimes and has challenged the extradition order since his arrest in Perth, Australia, 2006.

Croatia has charged Captain Dragan for war crimes, torture and killing of prisoners of war, attacks on civilians during 1991 and 1992 in the Republika Srpska Krajina (Serb occupied Croatian territory that was ethnically cleansed of all non-Serbs), and commanding an assault on the village of Glina that resulted in civilian deaths and injuries.
After protracted legal battles challenging the Croatian request, ex Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare approved the extradition in November 2012.
The Supreme Court of NSW ruled on a defamation action and found the former Serbian paramilitary commander had committed the war crimes of torture and rape, and had admitted to a massacre.
A spokeswoman for the Australian Attorney-General’s Department said in a statement to The Weekend Australian (13 & 14 December 2014): “The Full Federal Court today found that Mr Vasiljkovic had been accorded appropriate procedural fairness in the making of the former Minister’s decision to surrender him to Croatia.
The Court also found that the decision was made as soon as reasonably practicable and that the former Minister (Jason Clare) had not erred in exercising his general discretion.
“It is open to Mr Vasiljkovic to seek leave to appeal the decision to the High Court.”

According to SBS News Vasiljkovic’s lawyer said that a High Court challenge could be the next step in his fight against extradition.
Dan Mori, who represented confessed terrorism supporter David Hicks in American military court proceedings, is representing Vasiljkovic.
Mr Mori told SBS on Friday 12 December his main concern was that his client would not be afforded the protections of the Geneva Convention if returned to Croatia.
I’m very concerned about what would happen in Croatia,” Mr Mori said.
There’s some big unanswered questions. Is Croatia going to give him credit for every day he served here in Australia if he is brought back there, and he should be because the Geneva Convention requires it. But Australia has not sought that specialty assurance from Croatia.
Now it’s really time to look at the rationale and look at the decisions and see if there is any viable issues that may or may not support a special leave to the High Court.”
It would seem that even Vasiljkovic’s lawyer believes that there is a case to answer for war crimes; why else would he contemplate upon time Vasiljkovic has already spent in prison and whether Croatia would recognise it under some clause or article of the Geneva Convention!? I would say: now it’s really time for Vasiljkovic to face the charges against him in a Croatian court and stop stalling and obstructing justice for the alleged victims. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

For Further Information Click Link: Documents relating to the extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic – Daniel Snedden

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