Commenting on the arrest of Josip Boljkovac, a former high-ranking official of the Yugoslav communist security agency OZNA and Croatia's first interior minister, Minister of the Interior Tomislav Karamarko has said that those who killed unarmed prisoners of war and civilians in the wake of World War II compromised the anti-fascist struggle and that trials for such crimes can only restore dignity to the anti-fascist struggle.
Addressing reporters outside government headquarters on Thursday, Karamarko said he did not understand why some were so worked up about the prosecution of a post-war crime. "We are not talking about crimes that were committed before 9 May 1945 in direct fighting. We are talking about crimes that were committed after 9 May 1945," he said.
Asked if it was appropriate to send heavily armed special police to arrest a man barely able to walk on his own, Karamarko said this did not depend on the police but on their rules of procedure.
The Zagreb County Court on Wednesday decided to set month-long detention for Boljkovac, who is suspected of involvement in war crimes committed by the Yugoslav Partisan forces in the area of Duga Resa, Croatia, in May 1945.
The 91-year-old Boljkovac, who was questioned by a judge on Wednesday afternoon after he was arrested in the morning in his home in Vukova Gorica, south of Zagreb, is charged with command responsibility for the execution of 21 civilians at the Vidanka-Curak location in May 1945.
Boljkovac denied any responsibility for the crime.
