BelgradeBELGRADE, Feb 9 (Hina) - The trial of Mile Mrksic, Veselin Sljivancaninand Miroslav Radic should be referred to Serbia, because a trial forthe war crimes committed on the Ovcara farm outside the easternCroatian town of Vukovar
in late 1991 is already in progress beforethe Special War Crimes Court in Belgrade and because the three formerYugoslav army officers were handed over to a United Nations body andnot to another country, Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for the Special WarCrimes Prosecutor in Belgrade, said on Wednesday.
BELGRADE, Feb 9 (Hina) - The trial of Mile Mrksic, Veselin
Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic should be referred to Serbia, because a trial
for the war crimes committed on the Ovcara farm outside the eastern Croatian
town of Vukovar in late 1991 is already in progress before the Special War
Crimes Court in Belgrade and because the three former Yugoslav army officers
were handed over to a United Nations body and not to another country, Bruno
Vekaric, a spokesman for the Special War Crimes Prosecutor in Belgrade, said on
Wednesday.International law expert Branislav Ristivojevic told Radio B92 that the
possible transfer of the case, known as the Vukovar Three, to a court in Serbia
and Montenegro would be "an excellent test for the Serbian judiciary".
"I think that this other possibility, that the Vukovar Three are tried
in Zagreb, would make no sense and would be totally wrong, because it is almost
impossible to hold a trial in a society that is highly emotional about a war
that happened in its territory. How can they get an unbiassed, objective and
fair trial there? I think that Belgrade would be the right place (for the
trial)," Ristivojevic said.
Vojin Dimitrijevic, a professor of international law, warned that the
transfer of the case to Croatia would be indirectly in violation of the Serbian
constitution which bans the extradition of Serbian citizens to another
state.