THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - In the autumn of 1991 European diplomats called in vain on the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to stop the shelling and siege of the historic Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik, the former Dutch
ambassador to Belgrade, Johanes Fitelars, said on Tuesday at the trial of former JNA general Pavle Strugar before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - In the autumn of 1991 European
diplomats called in vain on the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to stop
the shelling and siege of the historic Croatian Adriatic city of
Dubrovnik, the former Dutch ambassador to Belgrade, Johanes Fitelars,
said on Tuesday at the trial of former JNA general Pavle Strugar
before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.#L#
Fitelars said that he had contacted top JNA officers several times at
the end of October 1991 to convey the concern of the presidency of the
then European Community over the unjustified shelling of Dubrovnik,
which is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO.
Yugoslav Defence Minister Veljko Kadijevic and his deputy Stane Brovet
told me that I should not worry so much about Dubrovnik because they
said that that operation was finished for the JNA, the witness said.
They claimed that the JNA was not shelling Dubrovnik, but only
responding to acts of provocation by irregular Croatian forces, he
added.
Fitelars said that when European ambassadors visited Dubrovnik on
October 29, 1991, they heard a similar explanation from Admiral
Miodrag Jokic, at the time the commander of the JNA 9th Naval District
based in Boka Kotorska, Montenegro.
On March 18 this year Jokic was sentenced by the tribunal to seven
years in prison after he admitted guilt for shelling Dubrovnik. He has
appeared as a witness in the trial of Strugar who commanded all JNA
forces involved in the Dubrovnik operation.
During our visit to Dubrovnik, we saw three damaged buildings in the
Old Town. The damage was not great, but the hits were a good indicator
of the precision with which the JNA could target protected buildings,
Fitelars said.
The damage was considerably greater outside the city walls, and the
ambassadors also saw several completely destroyed hotels, he added.
The witness pointed out that he had told Jokic and Strugar in the
Montenegrin coastal town of Tivat that it was unacceptable to keep the
population of Dubrovnik in such danger and deny them water and
electricity. He also told them that Dubrovnik did not have any
military significance and that the small number of city defenders were
not a threat to the JNA, and called on the JNA to withdraw its heavy
artillery from the high ground around the city.
Fitelars proceeded to say that the JNA commanders had told him that
Dubrovnik was reinforced with artillery, that there were thousands of
Croatian soldiers in the city and that they would not withdraw their
troops until the city was disarmed.
"When you were in Dubrovnik, did you see thousands of Croatian
soldiers?" prosecutor Susan Sommers asked, and the witness replied:
"No, I did not."
The Dutch diplomat also spoke of the rigorous measures the JNA imposed
on December 13, 1991 to exercise control of all the troops in the area
it held. The measures were aimed at preventing the further shelling of
Dubrovnik's Old Town and the looting and burning of houses in the
city's hinterland.
(Hina) vm