TRIAL OF YUGOSLAV ARMY GENERAL STRUGAR TO START ON TUESDAY

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Dec 15 (Hina) - The trial of retired Yugoslav army general Pavle Strugar for his role in the 1991 attack on the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik will begin before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Tuesday, the tribunal decided at a pretrial conference on Monday. #L# Following a four-hour debate which mainly dealt with the health of the 70-year-old general, pretrial judge Alphonse Orie said that based on the medical results and his immediate observation he could not find any reason to delay the trial, and ruled that it commence at 1200 hours on Tuesday. At the same time Orie recommended that the new trial chamber that will conduct the proceedings should obtain additional information on Strugar's health, granting a request by defence counsel for a full medical examination of the accused, including a psychiatric checkup. Serbian authorities sent Strugar to The Hague last Friday after a two-week delay which they said was due to a worsening of the accused's health and his hospitalisation. The prosecutors, represented by Phillip Winear, said they would present 44 witnesses, which they said would take about eight weeks. As a prime witness, the prosecutors announced Admiral Miodrag Jokic, who had pleaded guilty to shelling Dubrovnik, and said they expected his testimony to last five or six days. In the autumn of 1991 Strugar commanded the Yugoslav army 2nd operations group that had been formed to attack Dubrovnik. He is charged with nine counts of violations of the laws and customs of war, cruel treatment, attacks on civilians, and the destruction of religious, cultural and historical sites. The original indictment co-accused him with Admiral Jokic, Vladimir Kovacevic aka Rambo and Admiral Milan Zec. Kovacevic is in the tribunal's custody and will be tried separately, while charges against Zec were dropped. (hina) vm it