Bill Informed Government About Murders Two Years Ago

In the submission from year 2000, he discussed murders of "Medjugorac, Repusic, Sabic, Reihl Kir and series of others who were supposedly victims of Serb snipers, which was a lie"

by B. PAVELIC

Novi List, Rijeka, Croatia, July 5, 2003

Former National Guard member Vjenceslav Bill informed the government about murders that took place in Osijek in 1991 and were allegedly ordered by well known residents of the city, such as Branimir Glavas and former president of the County Court in Osijek, Petar Kljajic, as early as 2000, so that the most recent statement by the governor Ladislav Bognar is, actually, nothing new. Let us remind the readers: on Thursday, at a press conference, former Osijek-Baranja county governor Ladislav Bognar accused Glavas of being involved in the murder of the defender of Croatia Mate Sabic, who was in charge of the defense of the Osijek district Jug II in 1991. Bognar's charges are based on the letter written by Vjenceslav Bill, which Glas Slavonije has recently refused to publish (Glas Slavonije immediately denied this). In the letter Bill charges that Glavas is responsible for the murder of Mate Sabic. Glavas rejected the charges the very same day, accusing Bognar of trying to set a stage for his arrest.

Bill's, rather than Bognar's accusations are, however, very serious. His most recent letter repeats his earlier claims, from the submission he sent the government three years ago, which was thoroughly covered by Feral Tribune in May 2000.

The submission, and the letter mentioned by Bognar, bythe former Croatian soldier who in 1991 guarded the building of the Osijek city government, claimed that he knew who had killed Mate Sabic, known as Saban, as well as that he personally refused to carry out a murder. "Current secretary of the Osijek county Darko Tolic gave me the task to murder legendary commander of the defense of Jug II, Mato Sabic, but I refused to carry out that murder, and immediately informed Sabic about the conspiracy," Bill starts his submission. "Tolic told me that Branimir Glavas was very angry and that Sabic was in his way," Bill wrote, claiming that "in his way" was a codeword for liquidation. Tolic rejected Bill's charges, including the claim that Bill knew who had killed Sabic and was prepared to testify about that in court, provided he got Police protection. Bill also mentioned other murders that, according to him, were also initiated in Osijek. "Some of them are murders of Medjugorac, Repusic, Sabic, Reihl Kir and a series of others. They said that they had been killed by Serb snipers, but that is a lie".

Bill also claimed that he was a target of an attempted murder because he refused to kill Sabic and because he "knew too much". He accused the then Osijek judge Radoslav Arambasic of a murder attempt. He gave a detailed description of the alleged and failed murder attempt, which took place in the cellar of the Osijek city government building on October 14, 1991.

Bill also claimed that, because of his past, spent in prisons, he was selected together with persons with similar background for "special tasks", such as the abovementioned liquidations. In the most recent letter, forwarded to Bognar, he claimed that the bodies of murdered defenders of Croatia were driven to the front line, so that it could be claimed that they had been killed by enemy snipers.

Police: Bill has no evidence; Bill: Police did not investigate

Inspectors of the Osijek-Baranja police talked with Bill on several occasions, but he was unable to offer evidence or anything more specific than his generalized accusations that would make it possible to identify perpetrators of the mentioned murders, Zinka Bardic, Police spokesperson, told our journalist yesterday.

Vjenceslav Bill responded immediately to our request to comment on the Police statement by saying: "That's rubbish. Police did not conduct a decent investigation. I am not a policeman. My submission is very specific, everything is in it. The police is lying."

Yesterday, Bardic continued, the Police received a letter from Ladislav Bognar and will investigate those charges together with a competent state prosecutor. However, the murder of Sabic, Bardic added, is "still an open case" - Police has no evidence. Former Minister of Defense Jozo Rados, who also received the submission from Bill, could not recall that document yesterday, while at the government they told us that it was too late and asked us to call back on Monday.

Seks: Attacks on Glavas are attacks on HDZ

Attacks on Glavas are attacks on the HDZ. Consequently he enjoys full support of the leadership of the party. This was stated by the HDZ parliamentary whip Vladimir Seks at a press conference at which he discussed charges of the former Osijek county governor Ladislav Bognar. Bognar claimed that Glavas was responsible for murders of defenders of Croatia, whose bodies were taken to the frontline so that their death could be blamed on the enemy.

Seks was in 1991 the chief of the crisis headquarters for Slavonia and claims that such murders did not take place. According to Seks, these are perfidious and baseless accusations whose goal is to "divert attention from the violence against law taking place in the legislature of the Osijek County".

Translated on February 12, 2004