CROATIA: DINKO SAKIC SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN JAIL (2)
TAPE_NUMBER: EF99/1108
IN_TIME: 15:05:50 // 17:07:40 - 18:40:17 - 19:09:30 - 19:51:
LENGTH: 03:11
SOURCES: HRT/APTN
RESTRICTIONS: HRT = No Access Croatia/Internet
FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY)
SCRIPT: Croat/Nat
The former commander of a Croatian World War Two concentration camp has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Dinko Sakic, 78, was charged with crimes against humanity in the death of about 2-thousand people that he either carried out or condoned while running Croatia's infamous Jasenovac concentration camp in 1944.
Jasenovac, described by Jewish groups as the "Auschwitz of Balkans" was the worst of more than 20 concentration camps run by the then pro-Nazi puppet state of Croatia.
Tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and antifascist Croats perished in Jasenovac between 1941-45.
Dinko Sakic is the last known living commander of a World War Two concentration camp.
On Monday he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to a maximum 20 years in prison.
Sakic, who is 78, escaped prosecution for over 50 years living in the peaceful Argentinian seaside town of Teresita.
He was on the run with his wife Nada who was a low ranking commander in the female division of the same camp.
Jasenovac, described by Jewish groups as the "Auschwitz of Balkans" was the worst of more than 20 concentration camps run by the then pro-Nazi puppet state of Croatia.
Tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and antifascist Croats perished in Jasenovac in 1941-45.
Unlike the more famous Auschwitz and Belsen camps there were no gas chambers in Jasenovac.
Instead inmates were slaughtered by hand, knife or simply shot.
During the six-month trial, more than 30 camp survivors recalled starvation, untreated diseases and killings of inmates deemed unfit to work.
The memories which still haunt them are of fearing for their lives, seeing others bleed to death and watching others die.
Chief Judge Drazen Tripalo said the seven-member court panel found Sakic guilty of all charges.
The judge went on to say that Sakic maltreated, tortured and killed inmates and did nothing to prevent his subordinates doing the same.
He also pointed out that Sakic was personally responsible for killing four inmates.
SHOTLIST: Zagreb and Jasenovac, Croatia 4 October and File XFA
Zagreb 4 October 1999 - HRT
1. Wide shot courtroom
2. Sakic entering courtroom escorted by the prison guards
3. Various shots of Sakic waving to family members and sympathisers
4. Wide shot of judges entering courtroom
5. Mid shot of judge Tripalo reading the sentence and the verdict
6. Close up Sakic listening
7. Close up judge
8. Mid shot Sakic ironically applauding
Jasenovac, April 4, 1998 - APTN
9. Wide shot of empty field which is where the Jasenovac Camp once stood, zoom in to monument
10. Old railway cars at former camp
11. Close up train door
12. Monument through barbed wire
Jasenovac - APTN File
13. World War II pictures of camp, soldiers in front
14. Prisoners arriving in Jasenovac
15. Prisoners being shot
16. Dead bodies
17. Body in river
Croatia - APTN File
18. Black and white film of Ante Pavelic, Head of Croatian Nazi puppet state, inspecting troops in Croatia
19. Pavelic giving fascist salute
June 1998 - APTN File
20. Close up Sakic's face?