THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Former Croatian maritime affairs minister and government negotiator Davorin Rudolf completed his testimony before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday in the trial of retired Yugoslav army
general Pavle Strugar charged with shelling Dubrovnik in late 1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Former Croatian maritime affairs
minister and government negotiator Davorin Rudolf completed his
testimony before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday in
the trial of retired Yugoslav army general Pavle Strugar charged with
shelling Dubrovnik in late 1991.#L#
In the first part of the session, prosecutor Susan Somers completed
the examination-in-chief of the witness, which has lasted, with
breaks, since last Tuesday, after which the witness answered questions
put by defence attorney Gordan Rodic.
Strugar is charged with violations of the laws and customs of war
committed during the shelling of the old part of Dubrovnik on 6
December 1991 by a unit under his command.
On Monday, Rudolf commented on Belgrade television footage of the
attack on Dubrovnik in which a Yugoslav army general claimed that the
fires and the smoke in the town were staged and that they were
"burning tyres". Rudolf said that it was the same kind of propaganda
the Yugoslav army had also used in its previous attacks.
The witness said he had seen from the Hotel Argentina shells falling
all over Dubrovnik, including the Old Town, which is listed by UNESCO
as a world cultural heritage site. "It was awful to watch burning
buildings in the Old Town at night," he said.
Asked by the prosecutor if he got an impression that Admiral Miodrag
Jokic apologised "with full conviction" for the attack when they met
on 6 December 1991 to negotiate a cease-fire, the witness answered in
the affirmative.
During the cross-examination, Rodic insisted on details of the
cease-fire negotiations of 5 and 7 December and the communications
between Rudolf and the Dubrovnik Crisis Staff on the one side and
Jokic and Strugar on the other during the attack on 6 December.
Rodic blamed the whole Yugoslav army campaign against Dubrovnik on the
arming of the Croatian National Guard and police, saying that the 6
December attack was provoked by Croatian forces firing from the Old
Town, Srdj and Lapad. The witness rejected these allegations.
"The Croatian side did not provoke any attack. We tried to avoid a
conflict with the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), which was considered
the fifth strongest armed force in Europe," Rudolf said.
Rudolf described in detail his negotiations with Jokic in Cavtat,
which resulted in the JNA withdrawal from the area in May 1992.
Rudolf said that both Jokic and Strugar explained at the time that the
6 December attack was launched by a battalion from the JNA Trebinje
Brigade acting on its own initiative.
Admiral Jokic had admitted his guilt for the shelling of Dubrovnik and
was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in March this year.
(Hina) vm