BELGRADE -- The leading Nazi hunter has called on Serbia to take a more active part in searching for the WW2 war criminals.

One of the directors of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Efraim Zuroff says that Belgrade is entitled to seek extradition of Ustasha commanders Ivo Rojnica and Milivoj Ašner, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Romas, in order for them to be put on trial in Serbia, since Croatia refuses to start the proceedings against them.

Rojnica and Ašner, now in their eighties, live in Argentina and Austria respectively without even attempting to hide. Zuroff says he has requested from the Croatian prosecution to start the extradition proceedings and the trial but with no results to date. 

According to the Center's data, Ivo Rojnica, the former Dubrovnik Ustasha commander, is responsible for the crimes against hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Romas in Dubrovnik, while Milivoj Ašner's crimes include those committed in Slavonska Požega. He also said to have transported people to the Ustasha death camp of Jasenovac.

Since the victims were Serbs as well as Jews, Zuroff believes Serbia has the right to demand that the trial should take place in Belgrade. “When it comes to the Second World War cases, in our attempts to see justice done it has always been important to consider the victim's origins and identity. Perhaps this rule is not applicable to the crimes from recent wars, but when it comes to WW2 that is certainly a principle that we apply”.

Zuroff, who contributed the most to the arrest of another of Jasenovac commanders, Dinko Šakic, reminds that war crimes do not fall under the statute of limitation and that the search for the perpetrators should not stop simply because they are very old people today. “The passing of time does not diminish what those men did. If someone committed a war crime in 1941 or 1942 and if 60 years have passed and they were not brought to justice, it does not mean that person's responsibility is not the same today as it was then. If a time limitation were imposed on the processes it would mean that there is a way to avoid the genocide charges. Someone commits genocide, stays in hiding long enough and then reaches a certain age, and that's that – he got away!”

Efraim Zuroff has been heading The Last Chance project for the past four years. It is a campaign to find the WW2 criminals and includes over a thousand investigations in 17 countries. The campaign offers 10 000 dollars reward for any information that can lead to an arrest.

Serbian citizens can use the following phone number: 064 110 7249, while campaign information is available at operationlastchance.com .

B92, 9.08.06