The very same night Dragan's son, Dragoljub Rajsic, tried to find out about his father's whereabouts and why he had been arrested, both in the Police and National Guard Command. However, he was unable to obtain any information. He next tried the County Prison and the Investigation Center of the District Court in Sisak, with the same results. From his mother's description and other indications, he concluded that Dragan Rajsic had been taken away by the National Guard members. The following day he contacted the Information Center in Sisak, the County president, the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Central National Guard Staff, the Parliament's Committee for Protection of Human Rights and finally the office of the at the time president of the Yugoslav Presidency, Stjepan Mesic. After all that he still had no information about his father's destiny.
Murdered: Family Vila (father Dusan, mother Evica, sons Marko and Zeljko), Nedeljko Kusic and his son Petar (worked for Refinery Sisak), Branko Oljaca (Sisak Police Command employee), Milenko Dapa (worked for Refinery Sisak), Grdoljub Nikolic (worked for Refinery Sisak), Dragan Sundac (lawyer in the Medical Center), Vaso Jelic (retired), Stevan Borojevic (worked for Tiskara), Jovo Crnobrnja (retired policeman), Damijan Zilic (technical director in Refinery Sisak), Vatroslav Vargas (solder in the Croatian Army), Vlado Bozic (driver in Slavijatrans from Petrinja), Ilija Martic, Stana Zivkovic, Staka Cadi (retired), Kuzman Kovacevic (worked for Zeljezara [steel works]).
Missing: Dragan Rajsic (retired), Branko Dabic (worked for Refinery Sisak), Petar Pajagic (economist in Refinery Sisak), Duro Lukac (retired).
Two weeks later he sent a letter to the Sisak Police Force Chief, Duro Brodarac, pleading for help in search for his father. He also sent copies of the letter to the National Guard Commander, the President of the Crisis Staff for Banija, Posavina and Moslavina, Ivan Bobetko, the local government representatives Miroslav Matic and Andrija Preloscan, the President of the District Court and the District Public Prosecutor and to Ivan Vjekic, who was the Minister for Internal affairs in the Croatian Government. However, none of them wanted or could explain to the Rajsic family what had happened to Dragan. The situation is still unchanged, almost four years after Dragan failed to return from his afternoon walk through Sisak.
Four years ago Dragan Rajsic was retired, after many years of work in INA-Refinery Sisak, in bad health and politically and socially inactive; the family saw the only reason for his arrest in the text which appeared on 6/19/91 in the 66th issue of Slobodni Tjednik and which had a list of 14 Sisak inhabitants who were allegedly agents for KOS [Yugoslav Counter Intelligence Service]. Dragan Rajsic's name was on the list. In the period between the publication of the list and his disappearance, Rajsic and his whole family had been through all sorts of unpleasant experiences. Everything finished two months later when Dragan Rajsic disappeared like a speck of dust in the emptiness of the universe.
14 KOS [Yugoslav Counter Intelligence Service] agents from Sisak:
1.Rajko Mandic, retired policeman, used to live next to military base in Zazina, now living in Sisak.
2.Jovo Crnobrnja, retired policeman, living in Sisak, 3 Trakoscanska St. phone 41-932. His special assignment was to shadow the Brajkovic family from Odra, whose member Josip is the president of the county CDU committee in Sisak.
3. Mile Dukic ``Grbe", died two weeks ago. He participated in the war, and wrote an indictment against the Bobetko family, together with KOS major Zdravko Kerber. It is interesting that general Janko Bobetko saved Dukic's life during the war in eastern Bosnia, which can be confirmed by the Sisak brigade fighters. Later Dukic took charge of Janko Bobetko's persecution.
4. Dragan Rajsic, retired employee of State Security Service, also worked as a security chief in Sisak Refinery where he exclusively employed Serbs. Lives in Sisak, 4 Marshal Tito St., phone 22-957.
5. Branko Pejic, lives in Tisina Kapitolska village. Used to work for KOS pretending to be a great believer and going on pilgrimages to Medugorje, Marija Bistrica etc.
6. Josip Orijevic, retired chief of State Security Service, living in Sisak, Marshal Tito St. Co-owner of restaurant ``Quatro" in Ribar St. next to Sisak market.
7. Ilija Zoric, retired policeman, left state owned apartment in Sisak, 11 Brace Culig St., to son Milan. Zoric occasionally comes to Sisak, lives somewhere in Lika.
8. Stevo Grubor, retired policeman, living in Zagreb, 19 Leningradska St. Used to work in the Croatian Secretariat for Internal Affairs, commander in Federal Militia [police].
9. Milorad Indic, used to work in ``Zeljezara," now living in Zagreb. Rewarded by a place in the Parliament where he was the President of a Committee until the first democratic elections. Always had pro-chetnik orientation.
10. Drago Harmadi, chronic alcocholic, living in Sisak, 16 Dure Dakovica St., phone 31-885. Used to work in ``Zeljezara" as an economist, secretary of the Communist party Committee, first one to demand sacking of the Croatian leaders. During his career (he even reached the parliament) his wife and one of daughters committed suicide.
11. Rajko Radisic, put in position of the security chief at ``Zeljezara" by Stevo Koncar at KOS initiative. Distinguished himself by employing Serbs, retired, living in Sisak, Milanka Kljajic St.
12. Nikola Grabundzija, retired policeman, used to work as a commander of Federal Police for traffic control in Sisak. Lives in Sisak, 1 Seljo Ogulinac St., phone 23-013.
13. Rajko Miocinovic, retired functionary in State Security Service, living in Sisak, August Cesarec St. Rewarded with an apartment in Sisak, house in Petrinja and a shop in Sisak, on First International Square.
14. Slavko Ovuka, retired policeman. Because of his cooperation with KOS, he was let off without charges after killing a person in a traffic accident in Sisak in Ive Mirkovic St. Living in Sisak, 2 Brace Culig St., phone 40-309.
Dragan Rajsic is only one in the procession of inhabitants of Sisak who disappeared in a similar fashion; however, the bodies of some of them were later found , mostly floating down the rivers Sava or Kupa. The president of the Croatian Supreme Court in 1991, Vjekoslav Vidovic testified in the previous issue [number 498] of Feral Tribune, about the destiny which befell the inhabitants of Sisak whose names were on the (already mentioned) list which appeared in Slobodni Tjednik. In order to describe the circumstances in which the judges and courts worked in those days, he briefly told the Sisak story. The story deserves to be repeated in more detail. According to Vidovic, two judges from Sisak phoned him and asked for a meeting. Although he had other engagements, Vidovic decided to see them, judging that it was an important matter, since judges rarely request urgent meetings with the Supreme Court. Since, when the judges came to the Courthouse, he had been at the meeting in his office, Vidovic asked the secretary to take the Sisak judges to a different room and ask them to wait for a few minutes. When he later joined them, he did not hear anything extraordinary, which left him wondering about their intentions. He concluded that the judges changed their minds in the last moment and decided to hide the real reason for their trip to Zagreb.
Later Vidovic set up a meeting with the presidents of the Supreme Court departments where he ,among other things, told the story about Sisak judges and repeated his suspicions. They agreed that one of the Supreme Court judges should go to Sisak the very same day to find out what exactly was going on there. In Sisak he found out that the city was living in fear, even panic, because some of its inhabitants, from the list which had been published in Slobodni Tjednik, had been murdered and their corpses had been found in the river Kupa.
Since one of the local judges had been at the investigation and identification of the corpses, a documentation on the cases existed in the court files, but the authorities in charge had not done anything to start the investigation. Sisak judges, being scared themselves, decided to contact the Supreme Court and try to have something done about the cases. After returning from Sisak, the Supreme Court judge prepared a report, which Vidovic presented to the Prime Minister, Franjo Greguric. After being told about the situation in Sisak, Greguric asked curtly whether Vidovic had anything on paper. In the end Vidovic passed on the report to Greguric.
After he was removed from the position of the Supreme Court President, Vidovic asked for a copy of the Sisak report which had been placed in the Supreme Court Archive; however he was told that the report had disappeared. That was the end of the story. Franjo Greguric was not the only person to be informed about the events in Sisak. U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee recorded the murders of 13 Sisak inhabitants, as well as the Dragan Rajsic's disappearance and informed president Tudjman about them. At the beginning of '92 Croatian public prosecutor, Zeljko Olujic, visited the Helsinki Watch head office in New York where he was given the detailed information about the murders.
Later the Union of Serbs in Republic of Croatia in one of its letters to president Tudjman, also addressed the events in Sisak, stating that ``the total number of murdered [persons] cannot be known without a thorough and objective investigation (it is estimated, based on the number of disappeared, that at least 400 persons were murdered)." The Union suggested to president Tudjman to personally order `` an investigation into all cases" and to ``personally follow the results of investigations." They also added:`` taking into account informations from the territory of the Sisak Zupanija we also believe it is unacceptable that Duro Brodarac or any other individual who compromised himself with his passive attitude with respect to the events in Sisak, be elected for a Sisak Zupan [Governor]."
In spite of everything, despite the documentation in Sisak Court about the discovered corpses and even the documentation about approximately 40 Sisak inhabitants murdered by the unknown perpetrators at the Sisak Hospital pathology department, thorough investigation never occured. At one point a rumor that the investigation had been started and some suspects arrested spread through Sisak; however, ever if it were correct, nothing has ever been heard about the results of the investigation.
In the meantime, the present President of the Supreme Court, Milan Vukovic, became notorious because of his remark that Croats in this war could not have committed crimes. This has reserved a place for him in the reports of the international human rights organizations.
Supreme Court judges in the case of Sisak murders demanded respect of laws in the work of all state and judicial authorities and stated that, despite defensive character of the war, war crimes occured also on the Croatian side; probably because of that, they failed to pass through the CDU orchestrated selection process in nominations for the judges of the new Supreme Court (the process has been annulled by the Constitutional Court). The destiny of the Sisak judges who initiated demands for solution of the problem of the Sisak ``black hole" which swallows people, will become clearer when they take their turn for the nomination to permanent judicial positions. We will see whether they will be, as ``masochists", banished from the Court, or will, afraid, stay silent as if nothing ever happened in order to keep their positions, personal peace and safety.
Of all murders in Sisak, the public only knows about the details of the murder of Damijan Zilic, who was a chemical engineer and the production director in Sisak Refinery. He was murdered on 11/23/91 in Jakusevac, Zagreb. Four guardsmen from Sisak were suspects in this case, but were released without charges. A driver in Petrinja company ``Slavijatrans," Vlado Bozic, died from injuries suffered due to physical mistreatment after his arrest by the Ministry of Internal Affairs reservists. Sisak Police Chief, Duro Brodarac, confirmed at a press conference that the reservists over-stepped their authority in that case, but they were not charged with anything. Ilija Martic was killed in Sisak while leaving a restaurant. Staka Cadi and Kuzman Kovacevic were killed in 1993 in their respective homes. The circumstances under which the others were murdered remain unknown and their bodies were found mostly in the rivers Sava and Kupa or in a forest in Brezovica. The corpse of Stana Zivkovic from Mokosica was washed out of Sava at Zupanja [some 200 miles down the river from Sisak]. Duro Brodarac, Sisak Police Chief, confirmed in February of '92 that 12 suspects in the murders of the persons of Serb nationality had been arrested. However, the suspects have never been brought to trial.
Dear Feralers!
First, receive my earnest congratulations for your courage and persistence. You are winners after all, and that gives hope.
It makes me happy that you write about Sisak cases, which could have been solved if the city rulers wanted so. Incredibly easily, it was possible to find out in Sisak restaurants, market, even in the church, who murdered who and, even worse, who was next.
Regards,
T.D., Sisak