“More than a year ago, our center submitted allegations against Milivoj Ašner, the chief of police in Slavonska Požega during WWII, but until today he has neither been indicted nor has his extradition been requested despite the fact that his address in Klagenfurt is well-known,” said disappointedly Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, during his visit yesterday to Požega and and his meeting with Požega Mayor Zdravko Ronko.
Alen Buday, who researched the Ašner for seven years, is also not satisfied with the rule of law. It is unreasonable, he says, that Ašner, who fled to Austria in 1945, was allowed to escape Croatia on June 30 th last year, after allegations against him were submitted. It can be seen from the case of Ašner, as emphasized by director Zuroff, that Croatia does not do enough to prosecute those who committed crimes against Jews during Nazi times. Thus Croatia received a D[in the Wiesenthal Center Annual Status Report on the investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals-EZ], as compared to Hungary which received a B, because the latter was able within in three months to complete an investigation and request the extradition of a Hungarian citizen living in Australia. However, a hope was expressed that in the case of Ašner as well, extradition will be requested soon, but there is also concern that extradition may be refused by Austria which has not successfully prosecuted a Nazi war criminal in the last thirty years. Usually, all individuals who are about to be extradited “get ill”.
Zuroff also asked the municipality to do something with regard to the Jewish cemetery that ? has been turned into a garbage dump, with many graves and monuments destroyed. Mayor Ronko, who for this occasion apologized for the Jewish victims from Požega, promised to place a fence around the cemetery as well as memorial plaques on buildings that served as synagogues.
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