Responds Forcefully During Two Hours of Questioning in War Crimes Hearing : Despite Senility Plea, Artukovic Alert, Vigorous at Trial

Attorneys for Andrija Artukovic have pleaded that he is too old, too frail and senile to face the ordeal of a war crimes trial, but he seemed remarkably strong and alert Tuesday as his trial went into its second day in the gray stone Palace of Justice here.

Court observers and some Yugoslav legal officials expressed astonishment at the ease with which Artukovic, 86, who was said to be sick, blind and nearly deaf, held up under more than two hours of intense questioning by the chief judge and his associate.

On Monday, Artukovic had sat impassive and almost slack-jawed in his bulletproof glass booth. He even appeared to doze off while the indictment was read. But, on Tuesday, the former police boss of the Nazi puppet government of Croatia gestured forcefully and displayed considerable emotion. He fielded questions smoothly, sometimes with brisk denials and occasionally with extended but generally evasive replies.

Artukovic was extradited to Zagreb in February from a comfortable life in Seal Beach, Calif., after avoiding trial for 40 years, 38 of them as the highest-ranking war crimes suspect ever to find refuge in the United States, which he entered illegally under a false name in 1948.

230,000 Deaths Charged

Yugoslavia has charged him with crimes against humanity, including responsibility for at least 230,000 concentration camp killings of Serbians, Jews, Gypsies and others during the four years of the Independent State of Croatia, which he served as interior minister. He was responsible for more than 20 concentration camps in which 700,000 to 900,000 people died, according to Yugoslav historian Bogdan Krizman.

Specifically, Artukovic is accused of issuing four orders that led to the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children. The prosecution must prove only one of the four in order to get a conviction and possible sentence of death by firing squad.

The 38-page indictment says that in early 1942 he directly ordered the killing of the entire population of a town called Vrgin Most and its surrounding villages. An unspecified number of men, women and children were allegedly herded into a glen near the town and cut down by machine guns.

Shortly before that, in late 1941, the indictment says, Artukovic ordered the executions of about 450 people, again including women and children, simply because there was no room for them in a concentration camp near Zagreb.

Crushed Under Treads

In early 1943, according to the indictment, Artukovic ordered the execution of “several hundred” partisans at the castle of Samobor near Zagreb. The prisoners are alleged to have been driven into an open field, machine-gunned and then crushed under the treads of armored vehicles. The indictment said it was Artukovic’s “specialty . . . to crush the victims to death by the use of armored vehicles.”

The fourth incident, which the prosecution said it can “prove indisputably,” took place in May of 1941. Artukovic allegedly ordered Dr. Jeso Vidic, a lawyer and former member of Parliament, sent to a concentration camp. Vidic’s wife, Olga, went to Artukovic and offered him half of the couple’s 300 acres of land if he would let her husband go, and Artukovic is said to have replied, “I’ll kill him and take not 150 acres but the whole 300 acres.” According to the charges, Vidic was then killed on Artukovic’s orders and the land confiscated.

At Tuesday’s session in the crowded courtroom, the accused denied taking part in any of the crimes of the puppet regime. He blamed a late subordinate named Eugen-Biba Kvaternik, who headed the UNS, the Croatian police.

Gesturing firmly with his right hand to express indignation, and occasionally smiling with a look of innocence, Artukovic complained that “this is the first I have heard” of the massacre at Vrgin Most.

Denies Ordering Killings

He called the charge that he ordered executions of prisoners because of lack of space in a concentration camp “a complete lie.” He said he had never heard of Dr. Vidic and the 300 acres.

Chief Judge Milko Gajski and his associate judge, Bozidar Rumenjak, did not ask about the crushing of the victims at Castle Samobor.

Yugoslavia formally complained in the indictment that “there is no trace of remorse” in Artukovic, and he gave the impression, in his testimony Tuesday, that he is still proud of his wartime role.

At one point in the questioning by the two judges, Artukovic proudly traced in the air with his finger, as if on a military map, an airplane trip he made during the war to solve the problems of some contentious villagers, some of whom the state charges him with killing.

Preferred German Discipline

During a colloquy with the judges comparing Adolf Hitler’s Nazis to Benito Mussolini’s Italian fascists, he smilingly expressed a clear preference for the “disciplined, more developed form of order of Nazism.” The Italians, Artukovic said, “are undisciplined in everything they do.”

He spoke warmly of some of his colleagues in the puppet government, a few of whom escaped as he did at war’s end and went into hiding abroad. All of them have since died or been assassinated.

Although Artukovic did not appear tired from the questioning, the court twice called a 30-minute recess. Each time, he left and reentered the courtroom without help, although with a slightly shuffling gait. Dressed in a dark suit and open-necked shirt, he looked almost benign as he sat with hands clasped across his waist, knees crossed and his right ear cocked alertly to hear the proceedings.

At times he seemed proud to demonstrate how responsive he could be. And, for the most part, he took the questioning patiently, frequently referring to “my humble self” in his replies. But at one point he became testy, growling, “I have already answered” the question.

The trial is expected to continue until at least April 30 before final arguments are presented to the two judges and three jurors, one of them a woman, for a decision. Two appeals, if filed, could take several more months, court officials said.