ICTY INDICTMENT AGAINST VESELIN SLJIVANCANIN

ZAGREB, June 13 (Hina) - The prosecution of the Hague's international war crimes tribunal on November 7, 1995, indicted Lt. Col. Veselin Sljivancanin, General Mile Mrksic and Captain Miroslav Radic for crimes against humanity, violations of the law and customs of war and grave breaches of Geneva conventions, committed with the mass execution of at least 200 Croats at Ovcara, near Vukovar almost 12 years ago. #L# Sljivancanin was arrested early Friday morning in Belgrade. According to the indictment, responsibility for the attack and occupation of Vukovar lay with troops of the 1st motorised brigade of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), commended by Mrksic. His subordinate, then Major Sljivancanin, had direct operational command of JNA forces in the immediate area of the city, as well as a military police battalion. Radic commanded a special JNA infantry unit. Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Radic are accused of the death of people whom Serb troops took from Vukovar hospital to Ovcara farm and killed on November 20, 1991. During the last several days of Vukovar's occupation, several hundreds of people sought refuge in the city hospital, believing it would be evacuated. In addition to the sick and wounded, civilians, families of hospital staff, and soldiers who had been defending the city, some posing as patients or hospital staff, gathered on the hospital grounds. "On the afternoon of 19 November 1991, JNA units arrived at Vukovar Hospital and took control of it. Early the following morning, Major Sljivancanin ordered the nurses and doctors to assemble for a meeting. While the medical staff was attending this meeting, JNA and Serb paramilitary soldiers hurriedly removed about 400 men from the hospital," reads the indictment. The men taken from the hospital were held for some time at a JNA barracks in the city and then taken to Ovcara, where they were tortured and killed. Sljivancanin was retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Yugoslav Army. (hina) lml