OSIJEK, June 10 (Hina) - Four witnesses were questioned at the Osijek County Court Tuesday in the trial of two former Croatian Army members, accused of killing 19 Serb civilians from Paulin Dvor on 11 December, 1991.
OSIJEK, June 10 (Hina) - Four witnesses were questioned at the
Osijek County Court Tuesday in the trial of two former Croatian Army
members, accused of killing 19 Serb civilians from Paulin Dvor on 11
December, 1991. #L#
A total of 56 witnesses will be questioned during the trial.
Enes Viteskic, 34, and Nikola Ivankovic, 44, who in 1991 were
defending Paulin Dvor and its surroundings near Osijek as members
of a Croatian Army brigade, are charged with the revenge killing of
19 Serb civilians from Paulin Dvor, which they committed with
several other unknown persons.
The decision to kill Serb villagers was made in a bar in the village
of Vladislavci after the two had learned of the death of their
wounded fellow fighter Ilija Ravnjak.
Accompanied by several unknown persons, Viteskic and Ivankovic
came to the house of Andrija Bukvic, aware that a number of Serb
civilians were in the house. By opening barrage fire and throwing in
hand grenades they killed 19 civilians aged from 41 to 85, reads the
indictment.
Both indictees, who were arrested last September 14 and have been in
the Osijek County prison since, pleaded not guilty at the start of
the trial yesterday.
The questioning of witnesses resumes tomorrow.
The bodies of the killed civilians were buried on the premises of an
army warehouse in the nearby village of Lug. In 1997 they were dug
up, put into plastic barrels and transferred to a location in the
area of Lika, 500 km away, where they were discovered and exhumed
last spring.
(hina) rml sb