ZAGREB - MERCEP'S SOLDIER CONFESSES CRIMES

AIM Zagreb, 3 September, 1997

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Croatia has certainly never issued a statement with so much charge and insinuations in the finally initiated but still unwilling sanctioning of war crimes in this space. On the first day of September, it made it public that by order of the public attorney, it had arrested Miro Bajramovic, a member of the so-called Mercep's unit openly suspected by some Croatian media of a series of war crimes committed in the course of 1991, but to this day at large (except for a few of its members who have spent a few months in the investigative prison in the beginning of 1992, suspected for the known murder of Zec family in Zagreb, which has never been taken to court).

The immediate cause for the arrest of Bajramovic is extremely unusual and so far such a case has never been registered in Croatia, and probably nowhere else. He was taken into custody based on his extensive statement given to Split weekly Feral Tribune in which he confessed that Mercep's unit executed 280 people in Pakracka Poljana, between 90 and 110 in Gospic ("because we were there for too short a time, not even a full month"), and that it left a bloody trail in Zagreb, Slano and elsewhere. Targets of the executions which were often preceded by very cruel torture ("You know which way is the best?", Bajramovic revealed to Feral's journalists, "You burn the prisoner with the flame from a gas pressure container and then you pour vinegar on him, but you do this mostly on the genitals and the eyes"), were mostly the Serbs, regardless of whether members of armed units or civilians. A certain number of the Croats were also executed, who had been suspected of alleged collaboration or conspiracy (like Marina Nuic because of alleged planning of an attempt on the life of wounded Mercep).

Bajramovic himself shouldered responsibility for the death of 86 persons, out of which he killed 72 with his own hands, nine of whom were women (he claims that children were not murdered, with the exception of Aleksandra Zec, and he also says that he did not participate in harassment of prisoners, or at least that he did not do it "for pleasure"). On the same day when this shocking testimony was published, Bajramovic was arrested, but it was immediately clear that he would not be able to finish this story. Bajramovic accuses several of his former collaborators in torturing and executions (Munic Suljic, Nebojsa Hodak, Igor Nikola, Sinisa Rimac, all known names from the court chronicle of crimes shyly opened by the Croatian party). He also accused Tomislav Mercep, Zvonimir Trusic and former minister of police and high HDZ official, Ivan Vekic, of having ordered the executions.

And if he really wanted, although he will not do it, of course, he could go much further and say much more, because he said that his unit had received an order "from the headquarters" to "reduce the percentage of the Serbs in Gospic", and that the order for its deployment in Pakracka Poljana was given from above (the unit of Tomislav Mercep in which Bajramovic was "assistant commander", was organized by the ministry of the interior and its official name was the First Zagreb Special Unit of MUP). This part of Bajramovic's statement contains the greatest quantity of dynamite which, burning with a very slow fuse, six years after the war, can nevertheless demolish the whole construction of defence from responsibility, which the Hague tribunal has at least for the time being silently accepted.

It was confirmed, this time more clearly and convincingly than ever, that not even the most beastly crimes were committed on inaccessible and dark margins of the war where, as often claimed, uncontrolled desperadoes did whatever they wished, but that by following the line of issuing orders, the very top of the authorities were reached. Certain past events, but especially personnel shifts or replacements are now acquiring a new, recognizable explanation in the new context. None of the persons who gave orders for crimes described by Bajramovic are still participating in the authorities. Vekic was replaced a few years ago back, Mercep split with the ruling HDZ on the eve of the spring elections, and Zvonimir Trusic is nowadays claiming to be an irreconcilable critic of Tudjman's regime. A conclusion could be drawn from this that the Croatian leadership has a long time ago started to conceal the most conspicuous tracks of its war sins, for the purpose of which silent removal from political posts of some of the most exposed protagonists - without proving their responsibility at court, which could loosen up their tongues - seemed the most appropriate.

But this plan obviously did not take into account the possibility of a dramatic turn in which some of the executors, broken down by an unexpected weakness, would serve as witnesses against themselves and their recent comrades (40-year old Bajramovic is an unemployed mechanical engineer and father of four children, and according to his allegations in the Feral, the main motive for his appearance in public was that he was the only one of his former fellow-combatants, nowadays mostly wealthy people, who has not "done well"). This shocking incident which resembles snapping of the chain at the strongest link, suddenly exposed the vulnerable sides of the Croatian state top echelons. They simply could not find the answer for the question how such a severe, in details never more embarrassing testimony about war crimes committed by the Croatian party, could be uttered in front of the journalists' microphone and not in court. That is why the very next day MUP issued a new statement by which it informed the public that another three members of Mercep's unit mentioned by Bajramovic had been arrested (Suljic, Hodak, Nikola), under suspicion that they had committed crimes about which an investigation had already been instigated, but as stressed, also new ones which had not been known so far.

This is indeed, a very lame excuse. If it had wished to, the leadership could have revealed these "new" crimes before, since it has a well-financed and well-equipped police at its disposal and, as far as the public is informed, at least four secret services. After all, Bajramovic and the other arrested members of Mercep's unit, including himself, have always been at their disposal, which is best illustrated by their arrest completed in just a day and a half, regardless of this being done in summertime when many of them are not at their home addresses. Nevertheless, this is just a tactical manoeuvre, because in its first statement, MUP spoke about Bajramovic's statement which was "allegedly" given to Feral, suggesting that this weekly had in fact made up his testimony and in this way defend the executioner from his own confession.

Now when the arrests had been made it is obvious that this possibility has been rejected and that the article in Feral was welcomed as an outer stimulus for the arrest of another group of former warriors with an exceptionally compromising past, for the first time from the territory of Croatia (so far only those from B&H were either arrested or kept under police surveillance). This could be a new proof of cooperativeness with the Hague tribunal, which is raising the level of demands from FR Yugoslavia and Croatia step by step (recently extradition of former Yugoslav army officers, Radic, Sljivancanin and Mrksic, was demanded). And Zagreb wished to submit this proof in the manner which it would be easiest for it to defend in its own back yard. Because it was not the authorities that were to be blame for the arrests, but everything was initiated by that Feral again.

MARINKO CULIC