PRIEST FROM DUBROVNIK TESTIFIES AT TRIAL OF JNA GENERAL

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Jan 22(Hina) - A Roman Catholic priest from Dubrovnik testified on Wednesday at the trial of retired Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Pavle Strugar at the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal about the shelling of the city on 6 December 1991. #L# General Strugar is accused of violations of the laws and customs of war committed by the JNA's 2nd Operative Group in the attacks on Dubrovnik in the autumn and winter of 1991. Slavko Grubisic, 65, who last year marked the 40th anniversary of his priesthood, said that he had lived in Dubrovnik's Old City at the time of the attack, and described the fierce shelling of that part of the town, which he said had lasted the whole day on 6 December 1991. He said that the roof of his house had been destroyed in the attack. The day after the attack the witness went to the Old City where he saw damaged buildings, of which many were under protection as part of the world cultural heritage list. He added that most churches were not hit directly. Grubisic also described the JNA's siege of Dubrovnik from the land, sea and air, which started in early October 1991, and occasional cannon attacks which left the city without power and water supply. At the time, there were about 16,000 people living in Dubrovnik, he said. The witness said that he had never seen any Croatian army member in the Old City nor had fire been opened from the Old City on JNA positions around Dubrovnik. Prosecution witness Nikola Samardzic, former Montenegrin foreign minister, was yesterday unable to answer questions from Strugar's defence due to health reasons. Samardzic previously accused Strugar of using lies "about the attack of 30,000 Ustashas on Boka Kotorska" to make the Montenegrin leadership approve the attack on Dubrovnik. (Hina) rml