Speech #840094124

The third witness. Branko Milenovic. was unable to testify from his personal knowledge as to the acts or conduct of Artukovic. and was therefore excused by the Government. The Service. through interrogations of its examining officers in displaced person and deportation proceedings. using material provided by an unknown source. attempted to gain admissions from Artukovic as to wrongful acts or conduct and in more than 100 pages of testimony by Artukovic there is nothing which the Service could rely upon to sustain its position. This is reflected by the almost complete lack of quotations from the public record in the opinion of the Board. On pages 67 of the Service memorandum the Board charges that the new Croat State promulgated a "complete set of Nazitype laws providing for the establishment of concentration camps. imprisonment of Jews and Communists. summary execution. expropriation of property. and expatriation of any inhabitant who fell into disfavor with the regime." and further charges that Artukovic. as Minister of Interior. decided "who should be punished." But the record in deportation proceedings and that in displacedperson proceedings is entirely- barren of any evidence or exhibits setting forth the laws of Croatia or translations thereof. This is without considering how many of such laws as charged to the Croatians were in use in most of the countries at war. For example. in the United States during the: war we had concentration camps for the Japanese. our martial law may well cover the summary execution of spies. the property of our enemies was seized and blocked. and it is believed that our laws even now provide for the punishment of Communists. Thus. ignoring a record containing much testimony from persons then in Croatia approving Artukovics actions and conduct. ignoring the omission of his name from historical and critical accounts of Yugoslav affairs in the period 192945. and despite the lack of testimony derogatory to his character and conduct. the Board of Immigration Appeals has the effrontery to state in its opinion: However. it is difficult for us to think of any man. other than Pavelic. who could have been more responsible for the events occurring in Croatia during this period than was respondent (Artukovic). That the Service and the Board of Immigration Appeals have condemned Artukovic upon a theory of "guilt by association" appears from the following excerpts from the Boards opinion as quoted in the Service memorandum: . We have perused this rather complete record as carefully as possible and have concluded that this man was a not unimportant official of the independent state of Croatia. That administration was solely responsible for the conditions that existed in the concentration camps of Croatia. for massacres of Serbs.