ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - The president of the "Vukovar Mothers" association, which gathers the parents and families of imprisoned and abducted Croatian soldiers, has said that the Ovcara war crimes trial in Belgrade is "a farce"
because witnesses were defending the accused, which points to the possibility of an unfair trial.
ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - The president of the "Vukovar Mothers"
association, which gathers the parents and families of imprisoned and
abducted Croatian soldiers, has said that the Ovcara war crimes trial
in Belgrade is "a farce" because witnesses were defending the accused,
which points to the possibility of an unfair trial.#L#
Ivan Psenica believes that the trial will not result in the accused
getting the punishment they deserve. The trial should have been held
in Croatia where the crime was committed, he added.
"Apart from the 280 victims from the Vukovar hospital we also want
light to be shed on the fate of another 1,214 people. Documents on
this exist, but we do not have access to them, so during our next
visit to Belgrade in June, when the trial resumes, we will ask the
Belgrade Military Court to grant us access to the protocols which may
help us in that process," Psenica said.
He said that the Serb side had admitted that some 300 unidentified
bodies had been found on the territory of Serbia, adding that the
number was probably much higher. The association said it believed that
their exhumation could start soon.
The president of the Varazdin County Association of Missing and
Imprisoned Persons, Blazenka Djurdjek, said that Lord David Owen
(co-chairman of the International Conference for the former
Yugoslavia) was among those responsible for allowing the abduction of
the wounded from the Vukovar hospital and violations of the Geneva
Conventions.
Representatives of the families of missing and imprisoned Croatian
soldiers visited Belgrade from 27 to 29 April.
The visit was organised by the "Vukovar Mothers" association and the
Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade, whose executive director Natasa
Kandic initiated participation of the association's representatives in
the trial of people accused of the Ovcara war crime which is being
held before Belgrade's Special War Crimes Court.
(Hina) rml sb