THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 16 (Hina) - Two former Yugoslav army (JNA) commanders Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic pleaded not guilty at The Hague tribunal on Monday to four counts from the consolidated amended indictment which
charges them, along with Mile Mrksic, with the execution of at least 264 Croats and other non-Serbs at eastern Croatia's Ovcara farm.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 16 (Hina) - Two former Yugoslav army (JNA)
commanders Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic pleaded not guilty
at The Hague tribunal on Monday to four counts from the consolidated
amended indictment which charges them, along with Mile Mrksic, with
the execution of at least 264 Croats and other non-Serbs at eastern
Croatia's Ovcara farm.#L#
The original indictment against the so-called Vukovar Three was issued
on 2 December 1997, when all three were unavailable to the tribunal.
Following Mrksic's surrender in May 2002, the case against him was
separated, but the spring 2003 arrests of Radic and Sljivancanin
resulted in the tribunal deciding to try them together, so the Office
of the Prosecutor's filed a consolidated amended indictment on
February 9 this year.
The new indictment charges them with participation in the "joint
criminal enterprise" whose objective was the persecution of Croats and
other non-Serbs staying at the Vukovar Hospital following the eastern
city's fall on 19 November 1991, specifically with the "extermination
or murder of at least two hundred sixty-four Croats and other
non-Serbs, including women and elderly persons".
JNA soldiers loaded about 300 Croats and other non-Serbs on buses and
took them to a JNA barracks in the south of Vukovar, where about 15
were selected and returned to the hospital because they were part of
the medical staff. After two hours the rest were taken to the Ovcara
farm, where they were forced to run between two lines of soldiers who
beat the men as they passed. These Serb forces continued to beat and
assault the detainees inside the farm building.
About seven detainees were selected and returned to Vukovar after
Serbs, who were present, intervened on their behalf. Members of the
JNA listed the rest. Afterwards, Serb forces comprised of JNA,
Territorial Defence and volunteers divided the detainees into groups
of 10 to twenty, which were then individually loaded into a truck and
taken in the direction of Grabovo to a wooden ravine approximately one
kilometre south-east of Ovcara where these Serb forces removed the
detainees from the truck.
At this spot, these Serb forces then killed at least 264 Croats and
other non-Serbs and used a bulldozer to bury the bodies in a mass
grave.
Two-hundred bodies were discovered when the grave was exhumed while at
least 50 more of those removed from the Vukovar hospital are listed as
missing.
The Vukovar Three are charged with eight counts -- persecution on
political, religious and racial grounds and extermination and murder
as crimes against humanity, and torture, cruel or inhumane treatment
as violations of the laws and customs of war.
Retired JNA general Mrksic who was the chief commander of the
so-called Republika Srpska Krajina in 1995, surrendered on 15 May
2002. He pleaded not guilty at his initial hearing .Lt. Sljivancanin
was arrested in a Serb police raid on 13 June 2003, while Captain
Radic was arrested in Serbia on 21 April 2003.
(Hina) it sb