VASILJEVIC TESTIFIES ABOUT CRIMES IN CROATIA, PURGING OF JNA

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 12 (Hina) - The head of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Security Administration, Aleksandar Vasiljevic, on Wednesday testified in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic about crimes in Ovcara, Lovas and Skabrnja, Milosevic's purging of the JNA in 1992 and Serbian operations in Kosovo in 1999. #L# A retired general and chief of JNA's counter-intelligence service in 1991 and 1992, Vasiljevic spoke before the U.N. war crimes tribunal about the involvement of JNA, police and Territorial Defence (TO) troops from Serbia in attack on Vukovar, identifying units and their commanders. He also spoke about the subordination of all Serbian and local TO units and volunteers to JNA forces on the Vukovar battlefield. Vasiljevic said he had learnt about the crime at Ovcara farm in 1993 from a special police unit commander and other witnesses. According to their information, patients from Vukovar Hospital were transported to Ovcara, outside of the town, where some 160 civilians were shot dead by members of the Vukovar TO. The "Leva Sudoperica" TO unit, under the command of Miodrag Lancuzanin Kameni, participated in the liquidation, said the witness, confirming that the unit was considered to be made up of "Chetniks and run by Seselj". General Mile Mrksic, who commanded the occupation of Vukovar, confessed to Vasiljevic in 1998 that "had he knew what they were going to do to them, he would have never turned them in" and that later they were "sworn to secrecy". Two hundred bodies were found at Ovcara, but the number of people executed there is estimated at 260. Vasiljevic also testified about the crime in Lovas on October 23, 1991, when a volunteer squad dubbed "Dusan Silni" forced 30 local Croats into a mine field as a live shield. Fourteen of them and three members of the squad were killed then. The previous day the squad liquidated four Croat villagers. Vasiljevic also spoke about a military police report about the discovery of 23 massacred civilians at Lovas farm near Dalj on November 9, 1991. The general confirmed the authenticity of several documents regarding the killing and abuse of Croat civilians and the looting of their property by Serb volunteers and TO members. The witness repeatedly stated that the reason for his early retirement in May 1992 was his opposition to the volunteers' conduct. Vasiljevic also authenticated an official note by a military intelligence agent about the crime in Skabrnja in December 1991, which mentions the killing of women, children and the elderly and the using of civilians as a live shield. Vasiljevic said "Chetnik volunteers" and TO members who were "a gang, not an army" were responsible for this as well. The witness spoke about an increase in Milosevic's influence on the JNA in the second half of 1991 and the beginning of 1992, and the retirement of some 60 JNA generals outside of regular procedure in the spring of 1992. After the federal defence minister, General Veljko Kadijevic, was sent into retirement on January 9, 1992, Milosevic's influence on JNA personnel grew significantly, said the witness. Vasiljevic said that already in February he had received information from a friend that "Milosevic is announcing a purge among JNA generals, in which all unreliable generals will be removed". The general also spoke about his meeting with Milosevic on March 5, 1992, at which the defendant had requested information about the state of affairs in the military leadership. Vasiljevic also took questions from the prosecutor regarding the decision-making and information structure pertaining to events in Kosovo in 1999, which he will continue to do tomorrow. Vasiljevic is also expected to be cross-examined by Milosevic tomorrow. (hina) lml sb