BRITISH REPORTER TESTIFIES IN STRUGAR TRIAL

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - British journalist Paul Davies, who reported from the besieged southern Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik in October and November 1991, appeared before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday as a witness in the trial of retired Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Pavle Strugar.#L# Davies, who reported for the British television network ITN, gave his main testimony on January 16, while today he was cross-examined by Strugar's defence attorney, Goran Rodic. In his main testimony, the witness said that during his three-week stay in Dubrovnik had had seen no defence positions, particularly not in the Old Town. He said he had seen the city being shelled by the JNA, particularly from November 9 to 12, when he said the city centre had been targeted for the first time. Rodic invested a lot of effort in a failed attempt to get the witness to confirm that Croatian forces defending the city had been active from within the city walls, the assumption used by the defence to justify the opening of fire by the JNA. If we had seen military positions within the walls of the Old Town, we would have reported that, but we did not see any, Davies said. The witness went on to say that UNESCO flags had been displayed on buildings in the Old Town, but that they had not deterred the JNA artillery from attacking. The reporter also said that JNA had targeted hotels that were full of refugees and the city hospital that was full of wounded people. Strugar, 70, is charged with war crimes committed by the JNA Second Operations Group under his command. The prosecutors have been presenting their evidence for ten weeks now. (Hina) vm sb