Josip Boljkovac, former head of the OZNA secret service, said on Friday he did not know any details about a concentration camp in the Karlovac area in which Ustasha and Croatian Home Guardsmen were killed after World War Two, adding that investigations of him were aimed at diverting attention from more important problems in Croatia.
"Who they sent and who was killed where, I have no idea," Boljkovac told Croatian Television commenting on Police Director Oliver Grbic's statement earlier today that an investigation of Boljkovac was nearing completion.
Boljkovac said thousands of people had passed through that camp but that he had not counted them. "One couldn't even ask, it wasn't wise. Such were the times."
He said the investigations of him ahead of a parliamentary election were aimed at diverting attention from much more important problems.
"This team which has destroyed and looted Croatia has to win the election to continue covering up its looting and its responsibility. That's the key," Boljkovac said, asking where the factories and the money were and who looted them.
"That's the goal, to cover up what they have been doing for 20 years."
Grbic said today the Karlovac County Police and the Police Directorate were completing an investigation into Boljkovac and that final consultations with the prosecutor in Karlovac would be held in the next few days.
The State Prosecutor's Office said in March 2009 the police were completing its job following a report filed against Boljkovac, who headed the Karlovac Squad for the Protection of the People (OZNA) towards the end of WW2.
Two years ago, Boljkovac said he had been in charge of civilian issues and denied any responsibility for the murder of civilians in the Karlovac area, particularly any authority in the Dubovac camp near Karlovac, whose victims ended up in pits in the Kozjaca forest.
The 89-year-old Boljkovac was a Partisan in WW2 and Croatia's first interior minister after it gained independence. He is retired.
