THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 26 (Hina) - The prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday forwarded to the Croatian State Prosecution investigation documents regarding war crimes at Paulin Dvor
near the eastern town of Osijek, the ICTY prosecution's spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 26 (Hina) - The prosecution of the
International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on
Monday forwarded to the Croatian State Prosecution investigation
documents regarding war crimes at Paulin Dvor near the eastern town
of Osijek, the ICTY prosecution's spokeswoman Florence Hartmann
said. #L#
The State Prosecution has been forwarded the evidence material in
the Paulin Dvor case through the ICTY Office in Zagreb, said
Hartmann. She also stated that the case had been investigated by the
tribunal's prosecution, but it had not been completed to result in
the issuing of an indictment.
The material was handed over at the initiative of the Croatian side,
Hartmann said, adding the ICTY prosecution encouraged and
supported such conduct.
In line with its "completion strategy", the ICTY prosecution
intends to issue around 30 more indictments against persons from
the entire ex-Yugoslav territory by 2004 and most indictments will
refer to persons from the top of the chain of command, she said.
Direct executors of crimes will not be processed by the ICTY,
however, national courts will have to initiate proceedings against
them and other violators of humanitarian law, Hartmann said.
The ICTY prosecution last week handed over eight boxes with
material on the Ovcara crime to the authorities in Belgrade, where
preparations for the trial of alleged direct executors of the
Ovcara crime are underway.
On March 13 this year, the State Prosecution filed an indictment
with the Osijek County Court against Nikola Ivankovic, 44, and Enes
Viteskic, 34, for the Paulin Dvor war crime.
The indictment charges the two with having killed, in revenge for
the death of a fellow soldier, 19 Serb residents of Paulin Dvor on 11
December 1991. At the time, the two were members of the Croatian
Army's 130th Brigade.
The bodies of 18 of the 19 killed residents were discovered by ICTY
investigators in a mass grave near Gospic in central Croatia in May
2002.
(hina) rml sb