THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - Testifying at the trial of ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday, prosecutorial witness Stipan Kraljevic spoke of the
October 1991 expulsion of 8,000 Croats from Ilok in easternmost Croatia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - Testifying at the trial of ex-
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes
tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday, prosecutorial
witness Stipan Kraljevic spoke of the October 1991 expulsion of
8,000 Croats from Ilok in easternmost Croatia. #L#
In October 1991 Kraljevic was at the head of a commission which
negotiated with the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) as Ilok was
surrounded. The previous month, the residents of several nearby
villages in which Serb paramilitary units had committed crimes
under JNA protection had taken refuge in Ilok.
Replying to questions from the prosecution, the 66-year-old
Kraljevic described the negotiations with the JNA and its ultimatum
that Ilok would be wiped off the face of the earth in two hours
unless it surrendered weapons.
On October 13 town authorities organised a referendum at which 73
percent of Ilok residents opted for a collective exodus rather than
to give up their weapons and let the JNA enter the town.
The witness said that an agreement was signed in the presence of
European observers, and on October 17 a convoy of about 8,000
people, mainly Croats, was escorted by the JNA out of Ilok to
Croatian territory which was not occupied by Serb rebels. He added
that another 1,500 Croats who had stayed in the town were expelled
by 1995.
Kraljevic said there had been no inter-ethnic incidents in Ilok
prior to the exodus and that the law was successfully enforced by
Croatian police.
He also described an incident on a bridge across the Danube, when
the JNA destroyed a Croatian police car and killed one policeman,
after which another officer fired a hand-held rocket launcher,
demolishing a JNA tank. The next day JNA aircraft shelled Ilok.
Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic insisted the exodus
occurred at the demand of Ilok's residents, but Kraljevic was very
convincing in explaining that the exodus was the result of JNA
pressure and fear of the crimes that were being committed by Serbian
units.
Preceding Kraljevic at the witness stand was Col. Colm Doyle, an
Irishman who headed the European Community Monitoring Mission
(ECMM) in 1991/2 and was later European peace mediator Peter
Carrington's envoy in Croatia.
During the cross-examination, Milosevic countered Doyle's
testimony about Serb attacks on Sarajevo with reports by UNPROFOR
commanders in an effort to prove that both sides were equally
responsible.
Doyle mostly refused to comment, while Judge Richard May accused
the defendant of having established nothing and of arguing with the
witness in order to state his own views.
Milosevic inquired if the ECMM had known about the presence of
Croatian troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which Doyle replied
that there had been cases of soldiers entering western Herzegovina
and that the Mission was concerned.
(hina) ha