THE HAGUE, May 16 (Hina) - A former commander of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), retired Lieutenant General Mile Mrksic, pleaded not guilty at the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday to charges that his troops executed captured
soldiers and civilians from the Vukovar hospital 11 years ago.
THE HAGUE, May 16 (Hina) - A former commander of the Yugoslav
People's Army (JNA), retired Lieutenant General Mile Mrksic,
pleaded not guilty at the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday to
charges that his troops executed captured soldiers and civilians
from the Vukovar hospital 11 years ago. #L#
"Not guilty", an expressionless-faced Mrksic kept repeating to all
six charges from his indictment which charges him, along with two
other JNA commanders, Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic, of
crimes against humanity, violations of the law and customs of war,
and grave violations of the Geneva Conventions, by torturing
prisoners and executing 200 Croat soldiers and civilians at Ovcara
outside Vukovar.
After the fall of Vukovar, on November 20 the JNA transferred 261
persons from the Vukovar hospital to a hangar at the Ovcara farm
several kilometres from the city, where it executed 200 prisoners
and buried them in a mass grave.
Mrksic, born in 1947, said that his condition after two heart
operations was "jeopardised". His Belgrade attorney Miroslav Vasic
said that next Monday he would submit a request that Mrksic be
released temporarily because he surrendered voluntarily to the
tribunal instead of undergoing post-operative rehabilitation.
The chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, Carla del Ponte, who
attended the hearing, said that the prosecution would state its
decision on the request once Mrksic underwent a medical check-up.
The Hague tribunal has so far granted requests for a temporary
release to seriously ill indictees once they underwent examination
in the Netherlands.
Del Ponte's spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said after the arrival of
Mrksic and Milan Martic in The Hague the prosecution expected
Belgrade to hand over Sljivancanin and Radic as soon as possible so
that they could be tried together.
Former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic, accused of the 1995
shelling of Zagreb, who surrendered voluntarily on Wednesday with
Mrksic, will enter his plea on Tuesday. His indictment will be
amended to include other crimes committed during the war in
Croatia.
(hina) rml sb