The Ovcara war crimes trial continues on Monday at Belgrade's War Crimes Court, and until Friday more witnesses for the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office will be heard. Representatives for the families of the Ovcara victims already agree that considering the evidence presented so far, it is completely clear what happened in the days after the town fell into the hands of Serb forces in November 1991.
"All main counts from the indictment have been supported with evidence with regard to all indictees," an attorney representing the victims' families, Rajko Danilovic, told Hina.
The indictment charges the former commander of Vukovar's Territorial Defence (TO) and his deputy, Miroljub Vujovic and Stanko Vujanovic respectively, as well as former TO members Jovica Peric, Ivan Atanasijevic, Predrag Madzarac and Milan Vojnovic.
The indictment against the six was later combined with an indictment against members of the "Leva Supoderica" paramilitary unit, set up by the Serb Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj. Those indictees are the unit's commander, Milan Lancuzanin aka Kameni, and members Marko Ljuboja, Vujo Zlatar, Goran Mugosa, Djordje Sosic, Miroslav Djankovic, Slobodan Katic, Nada Kalaba, and Milan Bulic.
They are charged with killing, causing bodily injury and treating inhumanely POWs from the Vukovar hospital in the period between the afternoon of 20 November and the early morning of 21 November 1991.
Most indictees said that they were not guilty, and those who at the time of the crimes were at Ovcara, claimed to have gone there by accident, out of curiosity or to locate their acquaintances. They all claimed that they had learned of the crime subsequently, but none could say from whom they had heard it.
Witnesses, former members of the JNA who were questioned between 22 and 29 October, confirmed that the JNA could have prevented the crimes against the POWs.
According to unofficial sources, two indicted JNA members, who testified for the prosecution, repeated at the trial everything with which they charged the indictees during the pre-trial investigation.
"The most important thing that has been established is that the JNA is definitely and finally responsible for that crime," said Dragoljub Todorovic, who represents the victims' families, adding that former JNA officers questioned so far confirmed that the army had left the POWs to the TO and paramilitary units. Todorovic expects that this conclusion will be confirmed in the continuation of the trial.
"It is obvious that the JNA has had special treatment in this trial," said Todorovic. He said that although the trial was conducted in an exceptionally fair manner, all testimonies given so far proved that the JNA could have prevented the Ovcara crime.
His claim was supported by another representative for the victims' families, Natasa Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade.
"It is obvious that nobody wants to go into the role of the former JNA, but the continuation of the trial, which will see the testimonies of those who ordered the army to hand the POWs over to TO units, will definitely show that the former JNA is responsible," she said.