Kt26 Kills 18 Civilians

Criminal charges were brought on July 5, 1992 against Dusan Boljevic, 47, and his wife Jagoda, 45, for being involved in war crimes against the civilian population in the village of Bilje. It remains to be seen whether the charges were a hasty move by the District Prosecutor's Office in Beli Manastir (UNPA zone) or a decision by the Republim of Serb Krajina justice ministry to send the couple before the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Dusan, alias Rambo, and his wife Jagoda have been waiting to face charges for two years, while their lawyer Milan Vujin is still unable to find out the reasons of this unprecedented delay. Some believe that the Krajina authorities want to keep international attention away from this case. The prosecutor Pero Stupar has charged the Boljevic couple with the killing of 18 persons, most of them respectable heads of families in Bilje, between October 23 and December 16, 1991. The brief indictment bill doesn't reveal the motive, but says the victims were Croats and ethnic Hungarians.

``Dusan Boljevic, a member of the Bilje territorial defence (TO) headquarters, and his wife Jagoda, a member of the same headquarters and a clerk at the local administration office, were involved in the premeditated murder of civilians in Bilje during armed conflicts in the area. After Jagoda provided the addresses of the people selected by Dusan, they would raid their housesJagoda would take a ``Thomson'' gun and Dusan an automatic rifle and bombs. Jagoda would cover Dusan who would shoot at the occupants of the house and kill them,'' according to the indictment.

Dusan and Jagoda denied the indictment during interrogation. Four months later, Jagoda was released and the police have not been able to trace her.

A witness, Stevan Maljkovic who commanded the Bilje TO unit during the fighting, says Dusan was a frequent visitor to the TO headquarters after what he called the ``liberation of the village,'' asking if ceratin Croat and Hungarian villagers were Ustashi. ``Most of them were old people, and I told Dusan that it was none of his business,'' said Maljkovic.

When the number of nonSerb murders grew rapidly in late 1991, the TO leaders decided to start an unofficial investigation. ``We suspected Boljevic after the liquidation of the Urbanovic couple,'' relates Maljkovic. ``I remembered that Dusan had asked me the previous day if Ljudevit Urbanovic's son was a fanatic Ustashi. I told him that wasn't true.''

Balistic analyses confirmed Maljkovic's suspicions and he went to the police. ``I almost gave up after I saw the public prosecutor wasn't very enthusiastic about my report. He told me that what I had was only 50% of the evidence needed to prove that Boljevic really had killed those people. He asked me who I thought would bring charges against a Serb while the war was still going on.''

Another witness, Franja Bosnjak, a pensioner from Bilje, said that Dusan and Jagoda broke into his house on December 5, 1991, and that they were armed. ``I was sitting with my neighbours Savo Lazarevic, his wife and Mijo Pecek. Dusan asked Pecek what weapons he had in his house and then they went to the Pecek's place. Five minutes later we heard shooting. Dusan came back, saying Pecek had suffered a heart attack. But the next day, we were told that Pecek was killed'' said the witness.

Village official Branko Ceprnic said: ``We, natives of Bilje, did not know Boljevic well. He was a stranger, and tried to join us in the fighting. We did not have enough men, and we welcomed Dusan

especially after he said that he had served in special units and even fought in several wars with the Foreign Legion.'' Ceprnic remembered that Dusan once came to the headquarters, threw a bundle of keys on the table and said that there was no need to loot the house on 75, Petefi Sandor Street. ``We didn't believe that Boljevic had killed that man. But the next day, we heard that Eduard Doric and his wife Marija, who lived at that address, had been murdered. Doric was the director of a tannery in Osijek.''

Boljevic was born in Kosovo, in the village of Belo Polje. He was registered with the military unit in Podgorica, and came to Bilje late in 1991. Of his role in the latest war, Boljevic writes from prison: ``All charges against my wife Jagoda and myself are pure lies and fabrications. We have fought in the first ranks, and before the war we were members of the movement, and carried the struggle underground for a time. In the war, I fought in all the battles for the liberation of Baranja from the Ustashi terror. I distinguished myself in battles for Bilje where I took a number of machinegun nests in direct assaults. That's why other fighters called me Rambo.''

(No one in Bilje knows that Boljevic was called Rambo).

About the 18 victims, he says: ``Those extremists were liquidated because they fought against us before and during the war. Many of them were spies. They were equipped with radio stations and signal pistols, giving information to the Ustashi in Osijek where to fire mortar shells and other missiles. They were giving away information on our combat positions.''

The investigation did not confirm any of Boljevic's allegations. While in prison, Dusan refused to receive the rulings on his further detention, claiming that his trial was constantly delayed because of political changes in Bilje. ``Witnesses Maljkovic and Ceprnic were removed from office because on charges of stealing one million DEM worth of cattle. What about all the other things they stole? I feel sorry for Bilje, I wanted to preserve it from thieves, but I failed. Jagoda and I were on the trail of the real thieves and that's why we were put in jail. I claim that this a plunderers' war, and I'm sorry that I was part of it. I thought I was fighting for Serbia, and here I see that some Serbs have gone to war in order to plunder. My only mistake is that I did not liquidate those looters. I had the power and I could have done it, but I believed the Serbs are a nation which has suffered much, and that plunder must be prevented by the police and courts. But the police and judges sit at the same cafe tables with the thieves... I was told that they are keeping me in detention because some one could kill me. They are all bastards and didn't have the balls to kill the enemy, let alone hit against me.''

Boljevic thinks that no one understands him. All his letters end with the words: ``Everything Jagoda and I did, we did for the Serbs' sake. But we've lived to see ourselves in prison and our apartment looted and demolished. Liquidation and expulsion of the Ustashi bastards, because of whom I've been held in prison, is still underway here. All the other suspects have been released. Only I, one of the greatest fighters, am held in jail without trial for years. The traitors, war and postwar looters are walking the streets freely. There is not a court in Serbia or in Krajina that would find me guilty. When all this is over, I'll go abroad and I'll never come back. Serbia will have one more enemy.''

On October 29, 1993 Krajina's justice ministry in Knin asked the District Court in Beli Manastir for an explanation on why case KT 26\92 was deadlocked and why Dusan Boljevic trial was being delayed. The ministry may have received an answer, but Boljevic and his lawyer have not yet been informed when and if, the process will be held.