Dinko Sakic's Portfolio
From the Press
Srpska Mreza

JERUSALEM - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman notified visiting Foreign Ministry Director-General Eytan Bentsur yesterday that he has asked for the extradition from Argentina of Dinko Sakic, the wartime commandant of the Jasenovac death camp.

Tudjman's move came 24 hours after the Yugoslav government submitted evidence of Sakic's alleged involvement in crimes against humanity to the Argentine authorities.

Of the estimated 500,000 persons who perished in Jasenovac, almost all were citizens of Yugoslavia, which then comprised Croatia as well, and 20,000 were Yugoslav Jews. The camp originally was used as a place of internment for members of the anti-Fascist and anti-Nazi resistance. Most of its victims were Serbs, but Croats and Gypsies also died there.

Bentsur welcomed Croatia's decision to request Sakic's extradition, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shir-On said.

The meeting was held at Tudjman's initiative, Shir-On went on, noting that he used the opportunity "to clarify his position and that of democratic Croatia which condemns the country's Ustashi-Fascist regime and especially the crimes it committed against the Jews." Bentsur was asked before his departure for Belgrade and Zagreb by the Simon Wiesenthal Center's director in Israel, Efraim Zuroff, to raise the Sakic case and to seek his extradition to Croatia.

"We think there is great significance in there being a trial of an Ustashi leader in Croatia," Zuroff said. "It would contribute to the elucidation of the Croatians' role in Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution of the Jewish Problem.'"

Reports from Buenos Aires indicate that an arrest warrant was issued by Argentina's justice ministry, but Sakic evidently has not yet been taken into custody.

Zuroff said he also urged Bentsur to discuss the contents of Tudjman's book, the original edition of which reportedly contains references to the Holocaust that minimize its extent and consequences. Tudjman deleted these passages in subsequent editions.