THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - A witness whose Dubrovnik house was burnt down during the heaviest attack on the southern Croatian resort on 6 December 1991 testified against retired Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) General Pavle
Strugar before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - A witness whose Dubrovnik house was
burnt down during the heaviest attack on the southern Croatian resort
on 6 December 1991 testified against retired Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA) General Pavle Strugar before the war crimes tribunal in The
Hague on Wednesday.#L#
Zineta Ogresta described how shells and rockets coming from JNA
positions around the town had been falling on Dubrovnik's protected
historic centre since the early morning of that day.
"The day after the attack we entered the house and saw that only four
walls were left standing, while the interior was completely burnt
down," she said.
Footage of the burnt house was shown in the courtroom from a film shot
on 7 December 1991 by the previous witness, Dubrovnik composer Djelo
Jusic. Ogresta confirmed the house in the footage had been hers.
She said that numerous other buildings in Dubrovnik's Old Town had
been set on fire that December 6, including the Sponza palace, St.
Blaise's Church, the monastery of Friars Minor, and the Rupe museum.
Strugar's attorney Vladimir Petrovic tried to confuse the witness by
pointing to some inconsistencies in her testimony and a statement she
made to the Hague tribunal's investigators in 2000.
Nevertheless, he failed to diminish the gravity of her testimony about
the destruction of Dubrovnik's Old Town and her personal tragedy.
Strugar is charged with the December 1991 shelling of Dubrovnik's Old
Town from positions held by the JNA Second Operations Group, which was
under his command.
(Hina) ha sb