FILTER
Prikaži samo sadržaje koji zadovoljavaju:
objavljeni u periodu:
na jeziku:
hrvatski engleski
sadrže pojam:

BELGRADE JOURNALIST TESTIFIES IN OVCARA MASSACRE TRIAL

ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - Belgrade journalist Jovan Dulovic appearedbefore the Special War Crimes Court on Friday as a witness in thetrial of 17 persons charged with committing war crimes on a farmoutside the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in late 1991.
ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - Belgrade journalist Jovan Dulovic appeared before the Special War Crimes Court on Friday as a witness in the trial of 17 persons charged with committing war crimes on a farm outside the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in late 1991.

Dulovic, who was in Vukovar in December 1991 covering the war for the Belgrade daily "Ekspres politika", said that members of Serb paramilitary forces bragged about killing people on the Ovcara farm.

The witness said he learned of the killing of civilians from Slavisa Pavlovic from Smederevo and a woman named Dragica, who was a member of Serb volunteer forces. He said Pavlovic recounted with delight details of executions of civilians, "who begged and cried, claiming they did not shoot". Pavlovic told the witness that the executions had taken place from 1900 hours on November 18 to 0100 hours on November 19.

Dulovic said he had heard the same story the following day from Dragica, who told him that the corpses had been buried by bulldozer.

"I do not know who ordered the killing of prisoners at Ovcara. There were many cases of revenge-seeking among residents of Vukovar, and there was also a broad spectrum of characters, quite a few of whom were mental cases. We reporters called them 'seseljevci'," the witness said, referring to followers of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj who is now in the custody of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The news of the massacre spread quickly, and reporters who were in Vukovar at the time learned of it the same day. There was also talk that killings continued the next day, but they were probably carried out at another location, Dulovic said.

Dulovic said that the second defendant Stanko Vujanovic, who was deputy commander of the Serb Territorial Defence, complained to him in Vukovar that he did not have enough volunteers and that he had to seek help from "dirty followers of Seselj, who will shout it from the rooftops".

During the hearing, Dulovic consulted the notes he had taken during the time he had spent in Vukovar, and recounted an episode that occurred in Vukovar in September 1991 when Seselj told his men, "mainly drunks and marauders", that "not one Ustasha (Croat) must get out of Vukovar alive."

The accused and their relatives followed Dulovic's testimony with sneers on their faces, and their attorneys tried to refute his allegations by asking him if he was working "for some services" and if he was a member of any political party.

Dulovic had previously appeared as a witness in the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague tribunal.

The trial was adjourned until the end of October when it will resume with the presentation of evidence.

VEZANE OBJAVE

An unhandled error has occurred. Reload 🗙