Shou described how on 18 October 1991, he and three other ECMM members were supervising the evacuation of 109 wounded soldiers from Vukovar's hospital in the organisation of Doctors Without Borders, when he personally saw the disastrous conditions in the demolished hospital, with patients hiding in basements and a chronic shortage of medicines.
Shou said the convoy ran into problems with Major Veselin Sljivancanin, one of the three defendants, because he banned them from returning to Vinkovci by a previously agreed route. The convoy had to take an alternative route, where the truck came upon a mine, but the evacuation was nevertheless successfully completed, he added.
A month later, when the eastern town of Vukovar fell into the hands of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the observers went back to Vukovar to supervise the evacuation of wounded soldiers which the Croatian government had arranged with the JNA.
Shou said that on November 19, the observers arrived at the command of Colonel Mile Mrksic, another defendant, in Negoslavci, where they were told that the JNA had taken control of the Vukovar hospital and already taken part of the staff and other people found there because they were criminals.
The witness said the observers telephoned the hospital manager, Vesna Bosanac, who asked them to come at once because horrible things were happening. He added Sljivancanin told them they could not go to the hospital because fighting was under way.
Shou said Sljivancanin prevented further contacts with Bosanac, claiming that she too had been arrested because she was a criminal.
The witness said that on November 20 the observers headed for the hospital, but that Sljivancanin stopped them at a bridge claiming they could not proceed further because of the danger of snipers.
Shou said they were kept for about two hours as about 300 wounded soldiers and civilians from the hospital were boarded on buses and taken to nearby Ovcara farm.
The witness said the observers were eventually let into the hospital, finding only women, children and a few men there, as well as many drunk Chetniks who were mistreating the remaining patients.
According to the witness, when Sljivancanin was asked about the men from the hospital, he replied they had been arrested and taken to prison because they were criminals.
Prior to Shou, the prosecution called Czech diplomat Petar Kypr, who was a member of the same team as Shou in 1991.
Tomorrow, Shou will be cross-examined by the defence.
Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic were charged with crimes against humanity over the slaughter of at least 264 wounded Croatian soldiers and civilians taken from the Vukovar hospital and executed at Ovcara on 20 November 2001.