SARAJEVO, Feb 7 (Hina) - The head of the Military Medical Academy (VMA) in Belgrade, has denied that this institution is treating and protecting persons wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
SARAJEVO, Feb 7 (Hina) - The head of the Military Medical Academy
(VMA) in Belgrade, has denied that this institution is treating and
protecting persons wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The
Hague. #L#
In an interview with the Sarajevo daily Slobodna Bosna of Friday,
Gen. Zoran Stankovic dismissed an entirely groundless chief
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's claims that the former commander of
the Bosnian Serb army was a frequent patient at VMA even today.
"In the past year that I have been at the helm of VMA, General Ratko
Mladic has not stepped into our hospital," said Stankovic.
He confirmed he had seen Mladic a dozen times, the last in 1999, on
the eve of NATO air raids on Yugoslavia. He said those meetings were
the result of a "special relationship" which started when Stankovic
autopsied Mladic's daughter, who had committed suicide.
"After (ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic) was transferred
to The Hague, Mladic definitely left here," said Stankovic.
He added that VMA did, however, treat people linked to the Hague
tribunal. Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic underwent
surgery there, as did Mile Mrksic, one of the accused for crimes
committed in eastern Croatia's Vukovar.
"Lt. Col. Veselin Sljivancanin (another one indicted for the
Vukovar crimes) was treated at VMA until last year. I told him,
however, not to come and cause us problems."
(hina) ha sb