The Oz’s journos are Dragan slayers: war criminal jailed after scoops

Front-page story by Natasha Robinson and Paige Taylor in The Australian, September 8, 2005:

An ex-Australian Army reservist who headed ruthless Serbian paramilitary units implicated in the wartime rape, torture and slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia has returned to Australia and is living in Perth.

A dozen years later, after many, many reports in this newspaper … The Australian, yesterday:

Former Australian Army reservist Dragan Vasiljkovic was found guilty last night of war crimes.

Captain Dragan tried to get away. The Australian, September 17, 2005:

Dragan Vasiljkovic said he was flying out of Perth last night bound for Serbia, as Australian Federal Police discussed with The Hague war crimes tribunal his activities …

But he could never escape his victims. The Australian, April 29, 2009:

Mr (Velibor) Bracic, who was held as a prisoner of war by Serb forces for two months, said he was assaulted by Mr Vasiljkovic just after the paramilitary commander had watched two junior guards attack him.

This newspaper spoke to a lot of Vasiljkovic’s victims.The Australian, July 15, 2015:

Ms (Dzemila) Subasic claims she was raped by Mr Vasiljkovic “five or six times” …

Dragan fought hard. He tried to fight us, for example. The Australian, May 16, 2015:

Mr Vasiljkovic continued to pursue The Australian but in 2011 the NSW Court of Appeal threw out his defamation appeal, ordering him to pay costs.

He even escaped the Australian Federal Police for a wee bit. The Australian, April 1, 2010:

The disappearance of Dragan Vasiljkovic is a major embarrassment for the AFP, which is understood to have had officers monitoring him while he sat in the High Court on Monday.
Once again, Dragan was caught. The Australian, October 5, 2010:

Dragan Vasiljkovic was captured by federal police after a secret meeting between his lover and lawyer was tracked by police in Amsterdam.

But his victims still had to wait. The Australian, September 24 last year:

Barica Kesic … is focused on one thing: the man she says subjected her and her family to pain and misery — Australian-Serbian paramilitary lead­er Dragan Vasiljkovic.

The Australian did not stop fighting for them. November 11, 2014:

Australia’s extradition system is under heavy scrutiny as the case of accused war criminal “Captain Dragan” Vasiljkovic drags on into its eighth year …

But Dragan finally got on that plane. The Australian, July 8, 2015:

Captain Dragan will be escorted by ­Croatian police on to a plane at Sydney airport for the long journey to face his accusers.

Now, justice is served. The Australian online, yesterday:

(Serbian judge Damir Romac) sentenced Vasiljkovic to a total of 10 years for his control of the Knin fortress which resulted in the torture and beating of civilians and Croatian policemen. He was given another eight years for his actions in and around Glina in June 1991 …

We couldn’t be prouder of our present and past Oz colleagues who pursued this butcher. Natasha Robinson on Twitter, yesterday:

What journalism can do. An investigation, a paper that backed the story, now 15 years in a Croatian prison.