Dragan Vasiljkovic denies claims of torture

ACCUSED war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic has denied raping, torturing and beating non-Serbs during his time as a military leader in the Balkans, and insisted that he did not tolerate any violent misconduct towards prisoners of war from the dozens of soldiers under his command.

ACCUSED war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic has denied raping, torturing and beating non-Serbs during his time as a military leader in the Balkans, and insisted that he did not tolerate any violent misconduct towards prisoners of war from the dozens of soldiers under his command.

Mr Vasiljkovic, an ex-Australian army reservist who returned to his homeland of Serbia to lead a paramilitary unit in the Balkans in the early 1990s, told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday he was "disgusted" by the allegations that he was a rapist who had condoned the torture of prisoners.

The 54-year-old, who was known as "Captain Dragan" while in the Balkans, said such was his "legendary status" among the Serbian community during the war that he would have been immediately informed had any of his soldiers mistreated Croatian prisoners.

"Nothing could have happened without me knowing about it," Mr Vasiljkovic said.

Mr Vasiljkovic is suing Nationwide News for defamation over an article published in The Australian in September 2005, which detailed his alleged activities while he was a paramilitary commander in Serbia.

Nationwide News is defending the truth of its article.

Last week, several Croatian prisoners of war told of being abused by Mr Vasiljkovic at a fortress in Knin - which in 1991 was the capital of a breakaway Serb province of Croatia - and of being beaten by guards while "Captain Dragan" looked on.

One woman, known to the court only as Source A, gave evidence that she was raped "five or six times" by Mr Vasiljkovic in a hotel room in Zvornik, Bosnia, where she was held captive for about three months in 1992.

The Muslim woman also claimed that she was once gang raped by several Serbian soldiers in the presence of "Captain Dragan", and said that he once force-fed her pork and made her drink alcohol, which is strictly forbidden by her religion. Yesterday, Mr Vasiljkovic spent four hours in the witness box. He became angry when the allegations of rape and torture were put to him. He said he had never met, let alone raped, the woman. Asked about the pork and alcohol, he raised his voice. "This is about the most disgusting and ridiculous allegation I have ever heard against me," he said.

Counsel for Nationwide News, Tom Blackburn SC, questioned the plaintiff over comments he reportedly made to an English journalist who had interviewed him in Knin, where Mr Vasiljkovic led Serbian troops in 1991.

In an article dated July 15, 1991, published in The Times, Mr Vasiljkovic was quoted as saying: "When the Croatian side uses hospitals or police stations and the villages as fortified positions, I'm sorry, I just have to massacre them."

He denied making the comments. "That doesn't sound like me. Do I look like an idiot," he said, before adding that he may have said "something similar".

He smiled when asked about his "legendary status" among the Serbian community following a "minor" victory which returned the town of Ljubovo to the Serbs after it had been occupied by Croatian forces.

"They (Serbs) heard about Captain Dragan, and you know there was this story about this mysterious man that came from Australia and that he is doing all this, you know, he can fly, walk on the water, do all those things," Mr Vasiljkovic said. "In the time of the war ... legends were created that were very minor successes."

The hearing continues.