THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - A retired Yugoslav Navy admiral, Miodrag Jokic, on Wednesday pleaded guilty before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague to war crimes committed in the attacks of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
on Dubrovnik in the autumn of 1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - A retired Yugoslav Navy admiral,
Miodrag Jokic, on Wednesday pleaded guilty before the U.N. war
crimes tribunal in The Hague to war crimes committed in the attacks
of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) on Dubrovnik in the autumn of
1991. #L#
Following a plea bargain with the prosecution, Jokic pleaded guilty
to the shelling of the old part of Dubrovnik on 6 December 1991 as a
breach of the law and customs of war.
"Honourable court, I plead guilty," Jokic said after judge Alphonse
Orie read him each of the six charges in a second, amended
indictment which charges him with killings, cruel treatment,
attacks on civilians, wanton destruction of facilities, unlawful
attacks on civilians and the destruction of cultural, historical
and religious buildings.
The prosecution will request that Jokic be sentenced to 10 years in
prison, and the defendant and his counsel have the right to ask for a
lighter punishment.
Jokic surrendered to the ICTY on 12 November 2001 and at his initial
appearance before the court pleaded not guilty to all nine charges
from the initial indictment. In February 2002, he was released
pending trial, and returned to the ICTY's detention centre last
Sunday.
Jokic was indicted together with a former JNA general, Pavle
Strugar, and Captain Vladimir Kovacevic. Following his plea of
guilty, the trial of Jokic will be conducted separately. At the time
of the attacks on Dubrovnik in autumn 1991, Jokic, then a vice-
admiral, commanded the Navy's 9th maritime sector based in Boka
Kotorska, Montenegro.
(hina) rml