Artukovic Prosecutors Assert He Signed Orders for Genocide

The prosecutors of alleged war criminal Andrija Artukovic read copies of official newspapers and laws of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia on Monday to show that he signed genocide orders during World War II.

Artukovic, 86, formerly of Seal Beach, Calif., is on trial in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, for alleged mass murders when he was interior minister from 1941 to 1945. He denies the charges.

He was “personally signing laws on the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies and on the murder of freedom-loving Croats in the ‘independent state of Croatia’ during the war,” the official Tanjug news agency summarized prosecution evidence as saying.

The Croatian fascist or “Ustasha” regime collaborated with the Nazis and is blamed for the death of more than 900,000 civilians and prisoners of war.

Tanjug Report

“As interior minister of the puppet state established by the Ustasha quislings, Artukovic set up and administered the concentration camps,” Tanjug reported the evidence as showing.

Artukovic, known as the “Butcher of the Balkans,” has denied any knowledge of the torture and killings that took place in the Croatian camps.

Tanjug said official Ustasha newspapers and laws presented in evidence today showed Artukovic’s involvement.

Artukovic sat silently in his bulletproof glass booth Monday and made no comment, the agency said.

Half-blind, senile and emaciated from heart disease, Artukovic, the highest-ranking war-crimes suspect in the United States, was flown to Yugoslavia on Feb. 12 after fighting extradition for 33 years.