Nazi hunter criticizes Serbia for not seeking extradition of war crimes suspects

IHT ^ | 2007-01-24

[DTA]

A Nazi hunter criticized Serbian authorities on Wednesday for failing to seek the extradition of three men suspected of responsibility in atrocities committed against Jews, Serbs and Gypsies during World War II.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center's office in Israel, said Serbian authorities have done little to bring to justice Croats Ivo Rojnica and Milivoj Asner, and Hungarian Sandor Kepiro.

"Sadly, we have heard a lot of nice words, but there was no concrete action" by Serb authorities to start the extradition procedure, Zuroff said after attending a commemoration for some 1,400 victims of the Nazi occupation in 1942 in Novi Sad, northern Serbia.

Zuroff believes Serbia should request their extradition and bring them to trial here because some of their alleged crimes were committed in Serbia and the victims included Serbs.

Kepiro, 93, was identified last year by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as having been convicted twice in Hungarian courts, in 1944 and 1946, but never punished for his role in killings committed by Hungarian forces in Novi Sad after they entered the region in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia.

The Wiesenthal Center also said Kepiro, who lives in Hungary, participated in the deportation of Jews in northern Serbia to the Auschwitz death camp.

Zuroff accused the Hungarian authorities of "minimizing" Nazi WWII crimes, while "maximizing" communist-era crimes.

Rojnica, 92, is believed to be hiding in Argentina, and Asner, 91, is thought to be living in Austria. Both men served in Croatia's World War II Nazi puppet regime and allegedly took part in the prosecution and death camp deportations of hundreds of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies, Zuroff said.

[Parley Baer]

Hmmmm. 92 and 93 years old. Why at this point in time?

[Seruzawa]

Why? You have to ask?

We pursue them and catch them and hang them even if they are 2 minutes away from dying on their own.

[Al Simmons]

"We pursue them and catch them and hang them even if they are 2 minutes away from dying on their own."

Amen. That b*stard in Hungary in particular might have been one of the very scum who murdered Serb families in my grandfather's hometown of Sremski Karlovci in 1942 (many were his neighbors who foolishly didn't flee South to Belgrade in time).

I wouldn't mind dispatching him personally....

[DTA]

>>>>>Hmmmm. 92 and 93 years old. Why at this point in time?<<<<

They should not be allowed to die as a free men, otherwise the message is "crime does pay". Sadly, many Nazi war criminals were never punished for their crimes. And their crimes are horrible, like the one described, pushing 1400 people under the ice of frozen river. Denazification in Germany and Austria was a well orchestrated bluff that many people fell for. Having in mind how many top Nazis even ones convicted in Nuremberg were pardoned by Mc Cloy , you may have a point to some extent. Why other Nazi war criminals were allowed to die as a free men, laughing at us? Many of them as 'quiet neighbors" living undisturbed in U.S.

[SJackson]

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[M. Espinola]

Nazis are never too old for justice. Their millions of tortured victims would agree.