Members of the Osijek-Baranja County branch of the association of former prisoners of Serb-run concentration camps (HDLSKL) on Friday started pressing charges with the County Prosecutor's Office against known and unknown perpetrators over detention, torture and abuse in prison camps in Serbia and in Croatian areas formerly occupied by Serb rebels.
The president of the county association, Damir Buljevic, told reporters outside the Prosecutor's Office that charges would be pressed by some twenty veterans, former prisoners of Serb-run camps in Dalj, Beli Manastir, Vukovar, Belgrade and Stajicevo.
We want to send a message that we are not satisfied with the work of the Chief State Prosecutor's Office, and that by pressing charges we want to help it launch proceedings and find the perpetrators of those crimes, Buljevic said, recalling that some 30,000 people passed through Serb-run prison camps and that about 300 were killed.
He said the association was satisfied with Thursday's decision of the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office that the results of preliminary inquiries and other investigative steps showed that there were no grounds for launching criminal proceedings against Tihomir Purda, a Croatian veteran arrested on 5 January at a border crossing between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on an international warrant issued by Serbia.
He said the association wanted to know if Purda would be a scapegoat.
"We can only believe that Croatia will send this case to Sarajevo and that based on the evidence collected, Purda will return to Croatia and not be extradited to Serbia," Buljevic said.
