Ivan Turudic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Accused War Criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic – Callous Manipulator

December 7, 2016 by inavukic 21 Comments

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)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Benkovac, Captain Dragan, Croatia, Darko Kruljac, Dragan Vasiljkovic, Glina, Ivan Turudic, Judge Damir Romac, Judge Marija Majic, Knin, Osman Vikic, Robert Hajdic, Serb aggression in Croatia, war crimes

Croatia: Justice Against Corruption Still In Claws Of Baptism Of Fire

September 9, 2015 by inavukic 18 Comments

Ivo Sanader, former prime minister of Croatia
Photo: Marko Lukunic

Justice in ridding Croatia of paralysing corrupt practices inherited from the communist power-bases of former Yugoslavia, or at least reducing them so that corruption ceases to stifle democratic progress including the economy, has indeed been a long-suffering entity in Croatia. Croatia that is free from corruption is the new bright position people want Croatia to be in. Frank Serpico, New Yorks’s retired police department office who became famous for blowing the whistle on corruption within the police department in late 1960’s and early 1970’s said: “The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll on our self, our families, our friends, and especially our children. In the end, I believe, as in my case, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our dignity.”

For years Croatia had been unable or unwilling, or both, to deal decisively with thieves and troublemakers that define the deep-rooted corruption. When in 2014 Zagreb’s District Court delivered a guilty verdict in the first and biggest to date corruption case involving the former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Hypo and INA-MOL (Croatian gas and petrol energy company with Hungarian MOL clout) there was a breath of relief in Croatia and abroad. Finally – the breath of fresh air and hope for justice showed optimistic promise that Croatia was well on its way in getting rid of paralysing and almost omnipresent corruption it inherited from communist Yugoslavia days. Sanader was sentenced to eight and a half years and I thought: justice against corruption has been baptised and it will grow from now on.

Zsolt Hernádi, CEO MOL
Photo: Budapest Business Journal

Sanader was arrested in Austria as he fled Croatia in an attempt to avoid facing criminal charges, and was extradited to Croatia in July 2011. Series of trials for a string of serious charges of corruption, bribery and war profiteering offences commenced late 2011. In December 2011 criminal charges were laid against Sanader, which stipulated that for a 10 Million euro bribe he negotiated with president of Hungary’s petrol/energy company MOL, Zsolt Hernádi, that MOL receive majority ownership in Croatia’s INA company. These charges were attached to previous one for war profiteering in which Sanader is alleged to have taken a provision of 3.6 Million kuna (475,000 euro) from Hypo Bank while holding the office of deputy foreign minister of Croatia. As far as bribery from MOL, Hungarian Zsolt Hernádi has continuously denied any wrongdoing although he has refused to attend the Croatian court.
After the 2014 verdicts against Sanader, Croatian Supreme court confirmed those Zagreb District Court guilty verdicts.

But, in July 2015 Croatia’s Constitutional court overturned those guilty verdicts, citing procedural errors (not facts of evidence for the criminal acts) and ordered a retrial. The Constitutional court said that in its decision it did not go into whether Ivo Sanader was guilty of war profiteering and criminal acts of receiving bribes for which he was found guilty because it, the Constitutional court, did not have jurisdiction. The Constitutional court had overturned the guilty verdict because it found that all guarantees for a fair trial and all mechanisms of judicial protection provided through the legislation were not secured for him. http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/390689/Ukinuta-presuda-Ivi-Sanaderu-za-Hypo-i-INA-MOL.html (Click this link for PDF in Croatian/ Summary of Constitutional Court decision 24 July 2015)

The Constitutional court findings say that there had been a breach of rules of a milder law in relation to the constitutional guarantee for a milder sentence. Article 31, clause 1 of the Constitution of Croatia provides that ” No one may be punished for an act which, prior to its commission, was not defined as a punishable offence by domestic or international law, nor may such individual be sentenced to a penalty which was not then defined by law. If a less severe penalty is determined by law after the commission of said act, such penalty shall be imposed.”

The decision also refers to a breach of Constitutional right to explanations of the part of judgement dealing with the rule of the milder law.

And so, on Monday 7 September 2015, Croatia began a retrial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader on corruption charges, including a case of a bribe allegedly taken from Hungarian oil firm MOL to allow it acquire a dominant stake in Croatia’s biggest utility (INA).

Judge Ivan Turudic
Photo: Slavko Midzor

As the retrial got under way, Sanader’s lawyers requested the judge (Ivan Turudic) be changed as he had overseen the previous trial and they submit that he may be biased against Sanader in the second-trial. According to media reports Sanader’s lawyers will seek not only that Turudic be disqualified from hearing the case or presiding over the hearing but that he also be removed from his position as president of the Zagreb District Court. Judge Ivan Turudic, on the other hand, says that he can see no reason why he could not preside over the retrial. Any disqualification of a judge from presiding over the trial or hearing the case will need to be decided by a higher court (in this case Supreme Court of Croatia).

Well, well, it seems Sanader and his lawyers don’t worry about the independent facts revealed during the first trial against him, which facts point to guilt of actual corruption, bribery and war profiteering. Procedural matters are the hot coals in the baptism of fire of justice in this case. While Sanader and everyone should have the benefit of due process – which includes access to all rights under the law and procedural fairness – one cannot but think of Frank Serpico at this time: the fight for justice is never easy! Baptism of fire for many good things is an inevitable albeit regretful path to the good; we all want justice and want it now! Especially given that Croatia has been suffocated by corruption for a whole lifetime. Time to speed up the fight against corruption in Croatia and I hope that agenda will be included in someone’s election campaign platform! It’s election year with general elections likely to occur in a couple of month’s times. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A.;M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baptism of fire, corruption, corruption in Croatia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia, Frank Serpico, Ivan Turudic, Ivo Sanader, war-profiteering, Zsolt Hernádi

Croatia: Demands For Serbia’s Accountability For Crimes In Concentration Camps

July 15, 2015 by inavukic 27 Comments

Members of Croatian
Association Of The Inmates
Of Serb Concentration Camps
In The Split-Dalmatia County
File Motion For Damages
and Serbia’s Accountability
Photo: Sime Duvancic

Eighty-eight former inmates of Serb-run concentration camps from Split-Dalmatia County, during the 1990’s Serb-aggression against Croatia, on Tuesday 14 July 2015 filed a motion at the prosecutor’s office in Split for a peaceful settlement of their claims for damages in which they ask that Croatia request on their behalf that Serbia compensate them as a requirement for its accession to the European Union.

“Through this motion of peaceful settlement, through the institutions of the Croatian state, we wish to achieve a result that either our own country takes care of us or that it, at least, in a future move towards Serbia implements a condition that Serbia must satisfy our compensation claims before it can become a member of the European Union,” said Ivan Turudic, the Croatian Association Of The Inmates Of Serb Concentration Camps In The Split-Dalmatia County.

The 88 former inmates spent a total of 8,668 days in Serb-run camps, each losing about 99 days of their lives to torture and deprivation in these camps.
In 2006, over 30,000 former inmates, including 500 children and over 2,500 women, filed a class action in Serbia claiming damages from Serbia, but the action involving Croatian veterans’ claims was not even considered and the one involving children, the elderly and women was rejected by the court in Serbia.

Ivan Turudic, President of
Croatian Association Of The Inmates
Of Serb Concentration Camps
In The Split-Dalmatia County
Photo: Marko Saric

Turudic said there were few final rulings in the towns of Knin and Sibenik. “Recently, the problem has arisen that when a final ruling is passed, we cannot be compensated because those who were tried for war crimes have no property in Croatia.”

Dragan Vasiljkovic

Furthermore, Turudic says that it looks like the victims of the Serb-run concentration camps will not be able to extract any money as compensation from Dragan Vasiljkovic (a.k.a. Captain Dragan and Daniel Snedden) who had been extradited to Croatia from Australia last week to face war crimes charges (including torture in the Serb-run concentration camps) as he has been reported to be bankrupt after having to pay out damages for defamation in Australian courts.

Serbia must be held accountable and responsible for any damages suffered under its brutal aggression.

Members of the Croatian Association Of The Inmates Of Serb Concentration Camps In The Split-Dalmatia County say that while believing in the Croatian institutions they have been forced into an insufferable situation of hopelessness and left at the margins even though they comprise one of the groups that suffered most during the 1990’s Homeland War under Serb aggression.

Due to the suffering, many of them, because they were so brutally and violently tortured, will not live to see a final court ruling, let alone compensation – there is a high death rate among them, said Ivan Turudic.

He said damages were paid to “those who destroyed Croatia’s constitutional and legal order, while the victims are still waiting for the right to compensation.”

Victims of Serb Concentration Camps
In Croatia Seeking To
Make Serbia Responsible
For The Suffering Caused
Photo: M. Turudic

“We are justified in asking whether we, the veterans who were also incarcerated in concentration camps, have been forgotten in our own country, do we belong to a second order and have no right to justice, while the other side gets any of its cases or claims attended to promptly and we then ask by what right does that minority, which had committed the crimes in the name of Greater Serbia politics, continues to terrorise and impose its will upon the majority,” said Turudic.

Indeed, there is no way that the current government will even try helping the Croatian veterans along the way to justice and dignity through some deserved compensation. The communists and former communists within this government seem to be intentionally walking on egg-shells so as not to “offend” the Serb minority, from whose circles the 1990’s war criminals against Croatia and Croats arise, despite the blatant need for true justice.

No wonder, war veterans have been protesting non-stop in Zagreb for the past 270 days or so! New cases of veteran neglect and disregard arise all the time and this case of those who suffered terribly in the Serb-run concentration camps in Split-Dalmatia country is just another example of hopelessness and sadness that has gripped Croatia. Serbs will always deny guilt for any crimes – we are witnesses to that infuriating fact. Such being the case I would have thought that the Croatian government and its institutions would have put in extra effort to assist its veterans receive justice. The current foreign affairs minister Vesna Pusic would have surely been the one from Croatia who did not lift a finger in trying to keep these Croatian claims in Serbian courts afloat. While she cannot as minister interfere in court cases these though were rejected on political reasons, hence room to give firm diplomacy a go. But no. She has had a strong role in helping Serbia maintain its war crimes denial and injustice towards victims. So, the positive side is that Croatia has war veterans and victims of Serb aggression, ethnic cleansing, genocide, torture, rape… who will not permit they are forgotten! Any politician who picks up on that fighting for justice energy from the war veterans will, according to many indications of political psyche, be the winner of tomorrow as far as true leadership goes for Croatia. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)