THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - In the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the prosecution on Wednesday presented three witnesses to testify about war crimes
committed against Croats.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - In the trial of former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal in
The Hague, the prosecution on Wednesday presented three witnesses
to testify about war crimes committed against Croats. #L#
Marko Knezic described an attack by the Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA) on Slano near Dubrovnik on 3 and 4 October 1991, the
occupation, looting and burning of 90 percent of houses, and the
maltreatment to which he had been subjected during the 212 days he
had spent in Serb-run detention camps in Bileca in Bosnia-
Herzegovina and Morinje in Montenegro.
The witness said that after the occupation of Slano he had been
hiding for two months in the hills overlooking the town along with
his father and a neighbour. He was captured by members of the JNA
Uzice Corps, who beat him up and took him to prison in Bileca. He
said that the prisoners had been held in inhumane conditions in
overcrowded rooms, starved and maltreated.
In late May 1992 he was transferred along with about 200 inmates to
prison in Morinje in Montenegro, where he said conditions were even
worse. He was exchanged in Cavtat on July 2, 1992 after six failed
exchanges.
Asked by prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff if he had been accused
or put on trial, the witness replied in the negative.
During the cross-examination, Milosevic claimed that members of
the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) positioned around Slano fired on
JNA troops, which Knezic denied.
In response to the assertion by the accused that he was carrying a
rifle at the time he was taken prisoner, Knezic said that he had an
old hunting rifle that belonged to his grandfather, that he had not
fired a single shot and that he did not even know how to load it.
Protected witness C-1160, a citizen of Croatia who lived in Novi
Sad, said that he was arrested in November 1991 and questioned for
several days in police buildings in Novi Sad and Vrbas without any
charges being brought against him.
He was transferred to a military facility on Mount Fruska Gora,
where he was questioned by JNA officers. A few days later, he was
taken to a farm in Begejci near Zrenjanin, where he found more than
250 Croatian prisoners, mostly from Eastern Slavonia, held in a
stable.
The prisoners slept on the floor in inhumane conditions and were
regularly beaten and maltreated by members of the military police
who the witness heard were criminals released from prison.
C-1160 was exchanged on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina in
December 1991 following a visit to the camp by International Red
Cross officials.
During the cross-examination, Milosevic said that the witness had
not been arrested just because he was Croatian, but C-1160 claimed
this was the main reason because he had committed no criminal
offence.
Asked if most of the prisoners in the Begejci camp were ZNG troops,
the witness said that about 20 out of the 500 prisoners were members
of the ZNG.
Protected witness C-1174, from Borovo Naselje, described the time
she had spent with another six civilians in a basement during the
JNA shelling from July to September 1991. Afterwards she was held in
Serb-owned houses under JNA guard with ten other Croatian
civilians, who she said all had to wear white ribbons on their
sleeves.
In November 1991, she was held in the Velepromet building in
Vukovar, and after the fall of the town to the JNA, she spent time in
prisons and camps in Serbia, including those in Sid, Becej and
Srijemska Mitrovica. She was exchanged on the territory of Bosnia-
Herzegovina in December 1991.
Milosevic will continue cross-examining witness C-1174 on
Thursday.
(hina) vm