VUKOVAR: DEL PONTE ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF MARTIC INDICTMENT

VUKOVAR, May 7 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, announced in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Tuesday the indictment against Milan Martic, one of the leaders of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina, would be expanded. #L# "We have been working on the amendments, i.e. the expansion of the indictment for months. We hope it will be ready when he surrenders to The Hague," said del Ponte. She added she would meet Croatia's newly appointed state prosecutor in The Hague as soon as possible to achieve full cooperation between her office and the Croatian state prosecutor. Del Ponte confirmed that the Hague tribunal and the Croatian government were discussing the possibility of transferring part of the war crimes trials to Croatian courts. The Hague tribunal's mandate refers only to the prosecution of highly ranked perpetrators, said del Ponte. "We have a lot of information about low-level and middle-level perpetrators, and we will share our information and evidence with national judicial authorities so they can institute or resume proceedings against such indictees," she explained. Del Ponte held three-hour talks with Croatian government officials at Vukovar's Fatma villa. The Croatian delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic, Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic, and the head of the government's office for cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Orsat Miljenic. The chief prosecutor also met the leaders of Vukovar-Srijem County and Vukovar and representatives of Homeland War victims' associations. Del Ponte said that she particularly expected to see at The Hague Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic, and Miroslav Radic, the so- called Vukovar Three, accused back in 1997. She said that she was told one of them would surrender, and added she expected the other two would follow soon after so that the trial could start as soon as possible. The presentation of evidence against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic referring to Croatia will most probably begin this year, del Ponte announced. Deputy PM Granic said that he expected war crimes indictments would soon be filed against the other people mentioned in the Milosevic indictment. He expressed satisfaction that del Ponte had visited war crimes sites. A total of 15 persons is mentioned in the Milosevic indictment for crimes committed in Croatia, from the president of ex-Yugoslavia's presidency, Borislav Jovic, to the Croatian Serb rebels' leaders Milan Babic, Milan Martic, and Goran Hadzic. "We have agreed on a closer cooperation between the State Prosecutor's Office and the Hague tribunal, as well as cooperation in issuing indictments based on evidence collected by the Hague investigators, which will help the State Prosecutor's Office issue indictments against persons justifiably suspected of having committed war crimes in this region," said Granic. Del Ponte and Granic jointly called on all war crimes witnesses to testify. Del Ponte arrived in Vukovar after visiting Zeljko Raznatovic aka Arkan's former training centre for Serb paramilitary units in Erdut. In Dalj she saw the sites of mass and individual killings. The chief prosecutor also visited the mass grave site at the Lovas farm between Dalj and Vukovar, from which the remains of 24 persons were exhumed in May 2001. She briefly stopped in downtown Borovo, formerly Borovo Selo, to see a monument to 12 policemen from Vinkovci who were killed there in a Serb ambush on May 2, 1991. Later today del Ponte will visit the site of the Ovcara mass grave, where 200 wounded civilians and soldiers, and Vukovar General Hospital medical staff were executed on Nov. 19, 2001. She will then visit the villages of Lovas and Tovarnik and the town of Ilok, thus ending her visit to eastern Slavonia and Srijem. (hina) ha sb