Dragan Vasiljković

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Dragan Vasiljković
Born: December 12, 1954
Nickname	Kapetan Dragan (Captain Dragan) Daniel Snedden
Place of birth	Belgrade, Serbia
Allegiance	Serbia
Rank	Captain
Commands	Knindže
Battles/wars	Krajina war
Awards	Hero Of Serbia
Other work	Golf instructor Pilot

Dragan Vasiljković, nicknamed Kapetan Dragan, was a founder and captain of the Serbian paramilitary unit called Knindže, and was a golf instructor in Australia. He is accused of war crimes by the Republic of Croatia, and is currently being held in an Australian prison while extradition is being considered.

1 Biography
2 Alleged war crimes
3 Alleged victims
4 Trial
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Dragan Vasiljković was born December 12, 1954 in a Serbian Orthodox family in Belgrade. His father Zivorad died in a motorcycle accident while Dragan was still young. At the age of 3, he was placed in foster home Dragutin Filipović Jusa because his mother could not raise three children. In 1967 he went to Australia with his mother and two siblings under the name Daniel Snedden. After he finished high school in Melbourne he worked in a photo shop. He spent 4 years in the Australian Army's reserve unit 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse. After his military service, he served as a weapons instructor in Africa and South America. In 1991 he returned during the Croatian war of independence to Krajina as a volunteer where he founded the special forces under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (Republika Srpska Krajina). These special unit were called Knindže after the Krajina's capital of Knin and the famous Ninja fighters, because the forces were highly disciplined and scored a number of successful commando actions against the Croatian paramilitaries. During the war he founded the Largest NGO Fond Kapetan Dragan - helping victims of war. In 1995 "Krajina" ceased to exist when Croatian forces retook the occupied area during Operation Storm. After the defeat, Vasiljković returned to Perth, Western Australia. He was also a presidential candidate of Serbia in 1991, flew a single engine aircraft PA32 (N3507W) across the Atlantic in 1990, sailed around the world (SY THYNDERCHILD - cutter rig) and is a golfer single figure handicap. Dragan also helped with securing the Radio station Studio B and B92 in Belgrade during popular uprising against Slobodan Milošević.

[edit] Alleged war crimes

He is accused by the Republic of Croatia for torturing, beating and killing captured members of Croatian Army and Police between June and July 1991 in a prison on the fortress in Knin, and also for making plans to attack and take over the Glina Police station, a near city village Jukince and the villages Gornji i Donji Viduševac in February 1993 at Benkovac (in agreement with the commander of the tank unit JNA). During that attack, against the orders of the Geneva convention, civil buildings were damaged and ruined, Croatian citizens were forced to escape, their property was robbed and civilians (among them was a foreign journalist) were wounded and killed in an act of ethnic cleansing. Those accusations were made public after the journal The Australian reported a story about him. He is considered a hero by the Serbs for his actions in Croatia.

[edit] Alleged victims

This is a statement from Darko Kaurić, a 41-year old Croatian ex policeman who, in the middle of 1991, after Glina fell in the hands of the Serbian paramilitary, has suffered beating from members of the squad that was under Kapetan Dragan's command: Of course I remember him. Last time I saw him I was beaten unconscious in front of him, so he should remember me too. My jaw was broken the first day of imprisonment and despite that, Dragan's men threw me on the floor and beated my head. Our bodies were completely blue and full of bruises, and they especially liked beating our earlier broken bones. Kaurić said that Kapetan Dragan did not personally beat any prisoners, but that he encouraged his subordinates to do so. He also says that during his 50-day imprisonment an officer nicknamed Kapetan Dragan visited him 3 times. His policeman colleague Milan Špoljarić, who was also imprisoned in Glina, said that in everyday beating they regularly beated his broken ribs. The journal states that after 15 years both policemen are not capable of normal work, and that they suffer from severe psychological disturbances. Both Croatian policemen say that Kapetan Dragan bragged how he led the attack on the village in which they were born, in which after it fell was discovered 20 murdered civilians.

A plaque honoring the Croatian defenders who were beaten, tortured and killed by Captain Dragan was put in Knin on the spot of the concentration camp, dedicated to "the victims of Serb forces in Knin."

[edit] Trial

In December 2006, Vasiljković's bid to prevent his extradition hearing from going ahead was crushed by the Sydney magistrate's court. He claims that he will be murdered if he is sent to Croatia, saying he is a "sworn political enemy of the HDZ." Already in June 2006, the High Court dismissed an appeal in which he had claimed that his arrest had been illegal. The hearing is set to continue. Vasiljković has been in custody since January 2006.