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Copyright © Reuters 1998 May 2, 1998
Croation camp chief extradition likely next week BUENOS AIRES, - The extradition of World War II concentration camp commander Dinko Sakic to Croatia from Argentina is likely in the middle of next week, an Argentine government official said Saturday. ``We think it will happen next week,'' Victor Ramos, head of the Argentine government's anti-racism unit that first sought Sakic's arrest, told Reuters Saturday. ``It is a simple procedure.'' Sakic was arrested on Thursday after Croatia sent an official extradition order to Argentina last week. Croatia wants Sakic to stand trial for war crimes committed while he headed the Jasenovac camp, known as the ``Auschwitz of the Balkans,'' from 1942 to 1944. Up to 85,000 Jews, Gypsies and Serbs were murdered at the camp run by Croatia's Ustashe Nazi regime. The timing of the extradition ``will depend on the bureaucracy of Croatia's police and ours,'' Ramos said. He estimated that Sakic could leave the country on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday next week. Sakic was formally told of Croatia's extradition request by Argentine Federal Judge Hernan Bernasconi on Friday and accepted the terms of the extradition. If he had decided to appeal the extradition it could have taken months of legal wrangling before he would be sent to Croatia. Sakic lived in Argentina openly for 50 years, but an Argentine television investigation revealed his dark past on April 6. He was immediately reported absent from his Atlantic coast home and speculation grew that he had taken flight. Phone calls to his home in Santa Teresita went unanswered and the Croatian embassy and Interpol said they did not know where he was. But he was eventually arrested there and taken to Dolores courthouse 120 miles (200 km) from Buenos Aires.
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