Interpol searches for war suspect

Dragan Vasiljkovic, the Australian citizen suspected of war crimes in the former
Yugoslavia is now the subject of an international dragnet after global police agency
Interpol issued an alert for him.
Vasiljkovic, also known as Daniel Snedden, has been missing since March 30 when the
High Court ruled he should be extradited to Croatia to face prosecution over charges
of torture and murder.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have so far failed to find "Captain Dragan", a
former Serbian paramilitary commander, at his Coffs Harbour home on the NSW north
coast or elsewhere.
The 55-year-old Belgrade-born man was present at the High Court, in Canberra, the
day before Croatia's extradition request was upheld.
But he was absent on the day of the verdict.
Two weeks on, Interpol has issued an alert.
The 188-member nation police force has appealed for information as the AFP continues
to hunt for Mr Vasiljkovic, who first moved to Australia as a teenager.
The federal Attorney-Generals Department - charged with organising the extradition -
told AAP authorities had no new leads on Mr Vasiljkovic's whereabouts.
Croatia accuses the former golfing teacher of killing Croatian citizens and forcing
others to commit murder when he was a paramilitary commander with the Krajina Serbs,
against Croatia, from 1991 to 1995.
He was a paramilitary commander with a Serbian rebel group opposed to Croatian
independence from Yugoslavia.
Mr Vasiljkovic has denied committing crimes in Srpska Krajina, a Serbian-dominated
part of Croatia, during the Yugoslav Wars.
But Interpol says he has told media he trained recruits, killed in combat and
interrogated enemy troops.
The war crimes suspect is supposed to be imprisoned until Home Affairs Minister
Brendan O'Connor decides if and how the extradition should proceed.
The AFP arrested Mr Vasiljkovic in 2006 after Croatia had made an extradition request.
He spent three years in Sydney's Parklea prison but was released in September 2009
after the Federal Court gave him leave to appeal a magistrate's court ruling
upholding Croatia's extradition order.
The High Court ordered him, in February, to hand over his passports and stay away
from Australian international ports and airports.
The Croatian embassy to Australia has expressed concern that an alleged war criminal
was on the run in Australia and had not been committed to prison.
But it said it was confident Australian authorities were doing all they could to
find him.



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