Dragan Vasiljkovic case a bar to Predrag Japranin extradition, says Zagreb

CROATIA is blaming failure to ­secure extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic for its refusal to lodge a request to extradite another war crimes suspect.

CROATIA is blaming the failure of Australian authorities to ­secure the extradition of Balkans paramilitary ­commander Dragan Vasiljkovic for its refusal to lodge a formal request to extradite another war crimes suspect, Melbourne man Predrag Japranin.

The Croatian Justice Ministry confirmed that despite Mr Japranin appearing on Interpol’s most wanted list, Zagreb would not lodge a request for his extradition until the Vasiljkovic case was ­resolved.

“That decision will be a precedent that will see the final attitude of Australia to extradite their ­nationals,” a spokesman said.

“The decision of the competent judicial authorities of Australia to extradite Dragan Vasi­-l­jkovic will be a base for a request for extradition of Predrag Japranin to Croatia.”

International law experts said the statement held more diplomatic than legal significance, and that the progress or outcome of the Vasiljkovic case would have little impact on any attempt to ­extradite Mr Japranin.

“I interpret (that statement) in a diplomatic sense, that for whatever reason they are refusing to adhere to the requirements of Australia,” said Australian ­National University law professor Donald Rothwell.

Mr Japranin emigrated to Melbourne in 2000 and later ­obtained citizenship.

He has been indicted by a court in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, which has accused him of the murders of three people in the town of Petrinja in November 1991. It is alleged that Mr Japranin was serving in the early 1990s as a member of militia group in the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina. Mr Japranin has denied the charges and denies he ever joined a militia unit.

Krajina is the same region in which fellow Serb Vasiljkovic led a unit known as the Red Berets.

Mr Vasiljkovic, also an Australian citizen, was arrested in early 2006 in Sydney, but more than eight years later languishes in a Sydney jail.

Vasiljkovic has launched as many as 12 challenges to his extradition through the Australian courts, and his case has also been subject to lengthy delays at the hands of the federal government.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Michael Keenan said yesterday that the government was “concerned to ensure Australia does not become a safe haven for alleged perpetrators of war crimes”. “Australia takes its international crime co-operation obligations seriously, and will continue to play its role in bringing people to justice regardless of where the crime occurs,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Japranin’s father, Djuro, who also lives in Melbourne, told SBS his son had served in the ­Yugoslav National Army during the Balkans war, but that the charges against him were false. “I don’t know where the ­information that he has killed ­civilians has come from. I don’t believe it,” he told SBS.

Community spokeswoman Katarina Brozovic-Basic said war crimes had “fallen off the radar” under the ruling ­Social Democratic Party in Croatia.