THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - During his initial appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday, former Yugoslav army colonel Veselin Sljivancanin pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - During his initial appearance
before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday, former
Yugoslav army colonel Veselin Sljivancanin pleaded not guilty to
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the
eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991. #L#
Sljivancanin presented his defence on his own because his attorneys
Goran Petronijevic and Momcilo Bulatovic have not yet received
authorisation for representation from the tribunal. The session
was chaired by pretrial judge Varmel Agius, while the prosecution
was represented by Jan Wubben.
The tribunal indicted Sljivancanin, along with two other former
Yugoslav army officers Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic, in November
1995 for the massacre of more than 200 civilians who were taken away
from the Vukovar hospital in November 1991.
Sljivancanin is charged with crimes against humanity, grave
breaches of the Geneva conventions and violations of the laws and
customs of war. He was arrested on the night between June 12 and 13
this year in his apartment in Belgrade following a police raid that
lasted ten hours. He was transferred to The Hague on July 1.
(hina) vm sb