Okun testified for the prosecution in the trial of former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officers Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin, charged with the murder of at least 264 wounded Croatian soldiers and civilians taken from a hospital in Vukovar, eastern Croatia, and executed at nearby Ovcara farm on November 20, 1991.
In 1991-2 Okun was a deputy to United Nations special envoy Cyrus Vance.
Asked by Radic's attorney Mira Tapuskovic if it was correct that in 1991 the UN secretary-general called on the countries of the European Community to refrain from an early recognition of four former Yugoslav republics which wanted independence, Okun answered in the affirmative.
He said such a recommendation had also come from the Badinter commission and that it referred also to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, whereas for Slovenia it was evaluated that it deserved recognition.
Cyrus Vance and I, too, strongly opposed an early, selective and chaotic recognition, Okun said. We thought it was better to apply a coordinated policy of recognising the four republics which sought independence rather than a selective recognition, he added.