BELGRADE, JERUSALEM, ZAGREB -- Vecernje Novosti writes that WW2 Croatian war criminal Ivo Rojnica may soon be extradited to Serbia.

The former commander of the Ustasha forces in Dubrovnik is now 90 years old, and resides in Argentina. The initiative for his extradition was initiated by Dr. Ephraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem. Several months ago Zuroff visited Serbia and had a meeting on the subject with Serbian president Boris Tadic, who backed the idea to at long last bring Rojnica to justice.

In the next couple of weeks, Serbian ministry of justice will decide whether to seek Rojnica’s extradition from Argentina, Zuroff told a Croatian daily. Croatia failed to request extradition for the past two years. Argentina, for its part, expressed readiness to extradite Rojnica to any country that files a demand for extradition.

Ephraim Zuroff says he would prefer it if Rojnica were to be tried in Dubrovnik, the town from which he deported Serbs and Jews during WW2, but that he will be satisfied if the trial takes place in Serbia.

Ivo Rojnica has spent the past half century in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is now almost blind and in a wheel chair. He was designated a war criminal in 1946. Dubrovnik’s chief Ustasha commander was the main organizer of the mass crimes that included murder, torture and deportation to concentration camps of the local Serbs, Jews, but also some Croats.

It was reported last week that Ivo Rojnica was arrested in Argentina. Croatian justice ministry neither confirmed nor denied reports. Croatian state prosecution is conducting an investigation into the case, but it is currently “in the evidence-collecting” phase. This is the reason why Croatia has not yet sought Rojnica’s extradition, authorities say.

b92.net