THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 16 (Hina) - At the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN tribunal in The Hague, the prosecution on Wednesday introduced a witness who spoke of the plight of prisoners from the
Vukovar hospital and a protected witness who testified about relations between the Bosnian Serb forces and the Yugoslav army in the 1990s.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 16 (Hina) - At the trial of former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN tribunal in The Hague,
the prosecution on Wednesday introduced a witness who spoke of the
plight of prisoners from the Vukovar hospital and a protected
witness who testified about relations between the Bosnian Serb
forces and the Yugoslav army in the 1990s. #L#
Emil Cakalic said he had spent the last three days before the fall of
Vukovar on 19 November 1991 in the town's hospital, where he was
taken prisoner along with more than 250 wounded people and hospital
staff on the orders of JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) Major Veselin
Sljivancanin. He added that he had seen JNA Captain Miroslav Radic
in the company of Sljivancanin in the hospital.
The prisoners were bussed to the JNA barracks in Vukovar and from
there to the Ovcara farm where they were maltreated and killed. The
witness said he had seen JNA Colonel Mile Mrksic and two lieutenant
colonels with prisoners outside a hangar on the farm.
Sljivancanin, Radic and Mrksic are awaiting trial at the tribunal
for the massacre of more than 200 Croatian prisoners at Ovcara on 20
November 1991. The Ovcara massacre is the most serious charge on
Milosevic's indictment for war crimes in Croatia.
Cakalic said he had survived thanks to a member of the Territorial
Defence. After that, he was taken to a JNA-run camp at Srijemska
Mitrovica, where he was beaten and where he saw prisoners being
killed.
During the cross-examination, Milosevic asked the witness to
confirm that the prisoners had been treated properly by JNA
officers and soldiers, trying to shift the blame onto paramilitary
forces, but Cakalic said that this could only be said of some
individuals.
Milosevic said it was impossible for the witness to have seen Mrksic
at Ovcara, to which Cakalic said he was certain to have seen him.
Prosecutor Marc McEean told the Trial Chamber that the prosecution
had shown the witness a number of Mrksic's photographs before the
hearing but he did not recognise him as the JNA officer he had seen
at Ovcara.
The protected witness known as B-127, a former officer of the JNA
and the VRS (Republika Srpska Army) from Banja Luka, spoke of the
personnel, financial and logistical dependence of the VRS on
Belgrade after the formal withdrawal of the JNA from Bosnia-
Herzegovina in the spring of 1992.
B-127 will continue his testimony on Tuesday because the trial will
be adjourned until then for a plenary session of tribunal judges.
(hina) vm sb