-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 18, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

Croatian soldier confesses to mass murder

A stunning confession has been made by an ex-soldier in Croatia. The Croatian weekly Feral Tribune carried the story on Sept. 1.

"My name is Miro Bajramovic and I am directly responsible for the death of 86 people. _ By my own hand, I killed 72 people, including nine women," the story began.

The murders were carried out as part of a systematic policy of the anticommunist, neofascist regime that took power in Croatia in 1991. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Serbs or Croats who opposed the new regime were killed.

The confession indicated that all the executions were ordered by top officials. Particularly, Bajramovic said he gave detailed reports of the atrocities to Tomislav Mercep, a member of the ruling HDZ party and the interior minister at the time.

Bajramovic's unit, which was essentially a death squad that roamed Croatia in unmarked vehicles and wore unmarked uniforms, had been cleared of any wrongdoing by investigators for the "war crimes tribunal" in The Hague, according to a report in the New York Times.

The tribunal, which is mostly run by U.S. government employees, has handed down more than 70 indictments. Almost 60 of those indicted are Serbs in Bosnia. No one has been indicted for killing Serbs in Croatia.

It is another indication that the tribunal has nothing to do with crimes. It has served mostly to bolster U.S. political goals in the Balkans.

--G.W.

- END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)

Copyright © 1997 workers.org