A wartime commander of the Serb-run prisoner of war camp at Manjaca near Banja Luka, Dane Lukajic, who was arrested by Croatian police at the village of Licko Petrovo Selo in central Croatia this past weekend, is suspected of having ordered severe abuse of two members of the Croatian Defence Force (HOS) paramilitary unit.

Lukajic is suspected of taking part in the torture of them, and other unidentified persons, in his capacity as a Bosnian Serb army officer in charge of obtaining intelligence from captured Croatian soldiers during the 1991-95 war.

“He is suspected of having ordered his subordinates in the Republika Srpska Army, on several occasions, during interrogations of two captured HOS members and other as yet unidentified prisoners, to abuse the prisoners and inflict injuries on them, which they did by kicking the prisoners, beating them with bats and other objects, including on their genitals, as well as by leaving them to hang from the ceiling,” the Office of the Chief Prosecutor (DORH) said on its website, noting, among other things, that one of the captured HOS members was raped with a bat, and that Lukajic himself took part in the torture.

The 62-year-old Lukajic was arrested on Saturday on the Bosnian-Croatian border while travelling to attend a commemoration to victims of the World War II death camp at Jadovno.

After he was interviewed, he was ordered to remain in pre-trial detention for one month.

The commemoration for the Jadovno victims on Saturday started two hours late as the organisers had to wait for the arrival of 150 participants who were held up at the Izacic-Licko Petrovo Selo border crossing.

Dusan Bastasic, head of the Banja Luka-based association Jadovno 1941, which organised the commemoration, said that the police check of the passengers was “long and thorough” and that “an honorable man, Dane Lukajic, had been detained” and could not continue the journey.

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