THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 29 (Hina) - Former Croatian government minister Davorin Rudolf appeared before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of retired Yugoslav army general
Pavle Strugar who is charged with shelling the Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik on December 6, 1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 29 (Hina) - Former Croatian government minister
Davorin Rudolf appeared before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague
on Thursday as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of retired
Yugoslav army general Pavle Strugar who is charged with shelling the
Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik on December 6, 1991.#L#
In his testimony Rudolf, who at the time represented the Croatian
Government in negotiations with the Yugoslav army, described the
situation in Dubrovnik in the autumn and winter of 1991 when the city
was under siege by more than 20,000 Yugoslav army troops under
Strugar's command.
Rudolf said that his government had made great efforts to prevent the
war and destruction of major Croatian cities and towns.
"We previously concluded an agreement on a cease-fire and the
withdrawal of the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) from the area
stretching from Rijeka to Ploce, and by December 1 Dubrovnik remained
the only city under blockade," he said.
Rudolf said that he had arrived in Dubrovnik on December 3, 1991 under
instructions from Prime Minister Franjo Greguric to negotiate a
cease-fire and withdrawal of JNA forces from the area.
A cease-fire agreement was reached on December 5, 1991 in Cavtat, the
witness said, adding that the chief JNA negotiator was Admiral Miodrag
Jokic.
The agreement should have been signed the following day, but "the
brutal shelling" of Dubrovnik's historical part ensued.
Rudolf said that the unexpected attack was in violation of the
agreement reached, and that it prompted him to seek an explanation
from the opposite side. Strugar told him at the time that the attack
had been provoked by Croatian forces positioned in the city, while
Jokic expressed his regrets and said that no order for attack had been
issued and the Yugoslav Defence Ministry had launched an
investigation.
"That message was very important to us and I read it to the public on
the radio," Rudolf said.
Responding to a question by Prosecutor Susan Sommers, the witness
denied the allegation that the attack had been provoked by the
Croatian forces firing from inside the Old Town. He described the
shelling as "brutal", and said that he was in the Hotel Argentina
watching shells landing within the walls of the Old Town.
Rudolf said that the next day he received a letter from Strugar in
which he confirmed that the attack had been carried out by a JNA unit
acting on its own initiative.
On December 7, 1991, the day after the attack which left 19 people
killed, including three soldiers, Rudolf and Jokic signed a cessation
of hostilities agreement in Cavtat.
Jokic had admitted his guilt for the shelling of Dubrovnik and was
sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in March this year. He
testified in the trial of Strugar, who was his superior in 1991,
providing crucial evidence of Strugar's responsibility for war crimes
with which he is charged.
The third accused from the same indictment, former JNA captain
Vladimir Kovacevic aka Rambo, who commanded the unit that shelled
Dubrovnik on December 6, is in the tribunal's custody awaiting to be
transferred to a mental institution for treatment.
(Hina) vm