Zagreb - The decision of Australia not to extradite former Serb warlord Dragan Vasiljkovic for a war crimes trial in Croatia was a "slap in the face," a human rights activist wrote in a column in a Croatian newspaper Thursday.

"This decision is unjust, unfounded, dishonorable, outrageous and a dangerous precedent," wrote Ivan Zvonimir Cicak of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog.

Vasiljkovic, an Australian citizen who changed his name to Daniel Snedden, gained notoriety as "Captain Dragan" early in the Yugoslav conflict, when he helped organize a Serb paramilitary force for an insurgency in Croatia.

Vasiljkovic was arrested on warrants issued by Zagreb and Interpol in January 2006 and has since been fighting extradition to Croatia. He has been accused as serving as the commander of a unit responsible for atrocities during the conflict in Croatia.

After a series of lower court rulings in favour of extradition, an Australian federal court on Tuesday decided on Tuesday that Vasiljkovic could not be guaranteed a fair trial in Zagreb.

With the encouragement and military aid of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Belgrade, Serbs in Croatia launched the rebellion after Zagreb declared its secession from Yugoslavia in 1991. The war ended four years later with a massive defeat for the Serbs.

Vasiljkovic's commando unit, based in the Serb stronghold of Knin, has been accused of torture, beatings and killings of captured Croatian soldiers and police.

He subsequently left Croatia, leaving behind his "Kninja" unit, to launch the "Captain Dragan" veterans fund in Belgrade after UN peacekeepers were deployed in Serb-controlled parts of Croatia in 1992.

The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) named him as one of the participants in the "joint criminal enterprise" in the Croatian war but never indicted him. Vasiljkovic testified for the prosecution against Milosevic at ICTY.

He returned to Australia in 1997, after the last of the self- proclaimed Serb republic in Croatia returned to Zagreb's authority. (dpa)