THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 14 (Hina) - Dr Davor Strinovic, a forensic pathologist at the Zagreb Forensics Institute, on Friday took the witness stand in the trial against Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague. He spoke about the unearthing of
mass graves in Croatia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 14 (Hina) - Dr Davor Strinovic, a forensic
pathologist at the Zagreb Forensics Institute, on Friday took the
witness stand in the trial against Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague.
He spoke about the unearthing of mass graves in Croatia. #L#
Along with a deposition which he gave as an expert witness,
Strinovic also submitted a forensic report about war victims in
Croatia with data on their number, exhumations and the cause of
death.
A total of 11,834 people were killed during the 1991-1995 war in
Croatia, and 1,283 are still considered missing. Forensic experts
have to date established the cause of death of 5,140 persons at
post-mortems and exhumations, while 3,373 bodies have been exhumed
from mass and individual graves since 1995, he said.
Speaking about the Ovcara mass grave, outside Vukovar, Strinovic
said that 200 bodies had been found in the grave, of which 189 had
bullet wounds and six had injuries caused by blows with blunt
objects. The cause of death of five victims could not be
ascertained. It was established that 86 victims were Vukovar
hospital patients and the average age of the killed was 32.
The victims included two women. According to hundreds of recovered
bullet casings, this was a "classic execution", said Strinovic.
"This has nothing to do with Serbia or me," said Milosevic.
The defendant tried to prove that the submitted forensic report was
not fully valid because Strinovic had only co-ordinated the work of
coroners, without having himself conducted the exhumations and
identification of victims.
Strinovic replied that "the job was done by qualified experts" and
that he himself had identified some 1,000 persons.
The defendant said that Serb victims in Croatia were not being
exhumed, to which the witness responded by citing data on 481 bodies
having been exhumed in the Knin area and the nearby areas of Gracac
and Korenica in 1995. He also said that Serb bodies had been exhumed
at other locations as well.
(hina) lml sb