Captain Dragan set for extradition

AFTER a 15-month international tug-of-war, former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic is set to be extradited to Croatia to face charges over alleged war crimes he committed in the early 1990s.

AFTER a 15-month international tug-of-war, former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic is set to be extradited to Croatia to face charges over alleged war crimes he committed in the early 1990s.

The man known as "Captain Dragan" sat calmly in the dock of Sydney's Central Local Court yesterday as Deputy Chief Magistrate Paul Cloran told him he was wanted by the Republic of Croatia on charges of war crimes against the population of Croatia.

"(Mr Vasiljkovic) is eligible for surrender to the Republic of Croatia," Magistrate Cloran said.

Between 1991 and 1994, when he was commander of the Serbian paramilitary unit, the Kninjas, Mr Vasiljkovic is alleged to have ordered the torture of prisoners of war, participated in torture, and to have ordered his troops to attack an undefended police station and village - an ambush that killed civilians and German journalist Egon Scotland.

Yesterday's extradition order comes more than 18 months after The Australian first tracked down Mr Vasiljkovic to a Serbian cultural centre in Perth, where he was working under the name Daniel Snedden.

The accused war criminal had slipped back into Australia from his temporary base in Belgrade, two years after giving evidence at the International Criminal Court in The Hague during the trial of dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who has since died.

Mr Vasiljkovic had infuriated prosecutors at the tribunal when, in the witness box, he directly contradicted previously signed witness statements and became a hostile witness.

Under cross-examination from the unrepresented Milosevic, the former paramilitary commander referred to his former countryman as "Mr President".

Mr Vasiljkovic, 52, who migrated to Australia with his mother when he was 12, went to his homeland in 1991 and took command of a paramilitary unit in the self-proclaimed republic of Srpska Krajina.

A 1994 UN Commission of Experts report by US professor Cherif Bassiouni said "Kapetan Dragan" was described by locals interviewed during an investigation into ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina as "second in importance" to the brutal Serb warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, or "Arkan", who was indicted for war crimes before being gunned down in Belgrade in 2000.

In September 2005, when The Australian approached Mr Vasiljkovic while he was working as a golf instructor in suburban Perth, he denied committing war crimes and said he would welcome any investigation into his time as leader of the Kninjas.

"I would like to answer any war crime question ... I would really love to see anyone come up with an accusation," Mr Vasiljkovic said.

Three months later, the Croatian Government did just that, accusing Mr Vasiljkovic of war crimes against the Croatian people between 1991 and 1993.

Australian Federal Police arrested Mr Vasiljkovic in January last year in Sydney.

The accused war criminal's barrister, Brad Slowgrove, yesterday said that under Australia's Extradition Act, it was virtually impossible for Mr Vasiljkovic to succeed on his objection to the impending extradition.

Mr Slowgrove said his client intended to appeal against yesterday's decision.