THE HAGUE, Oct 7 (Hina) - A former western Slavonia police inspector told the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Monday that an investigation he led after a massacre of the residents of Vocin showed that the crime had been
committed by the most extreme units of the Territorial Defence (TO) together with members of the White Eagles volunteers from Serbia.
THE HAGUE, Oct 7 (Hina) - A former western Slavonia police inspector
told the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Monday that an
investigation he led after a massacre of the residents of Vocin
showed that the crime had been committed by the most extreme units
of the Territorial Defence (TO) together with members of the White
Eagles volunteers from Serbia. #L#
Prosecution witness Djuro Matovina of Podravska Slatina testified
at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who
is charged with war crimes committed in Kosovo, Croatia, and
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"While retreating, a special platoon of TO's most extreme units and
60-80 members of the White Eagles massacred the civilian
population, virtually destroying the village," said Matovina.
The prosecution maintains that Milosevic, besides being
responsible for the persecution of western Slavonia's population,
was also responsible for the massacre of 32 residents of the village
of Vocin, which took place on 13 December 1991.
Matovina said the investigation he led showed that 45 people were
killed in Vocin and four nearby locations in the night between 12
and 13 December, a day before the Serb troops had retreated. Quoting
refugees' statements, he said that prior to that, Vocin's Croats
had been exposed to various forms of violence, including torture at
a nearby detention camp in Sekulinci, whence some had even gone
missing.
The prosecution has introduced a series of documents about TO's
Serb units and other volunteers discovered after their retreat from
a headquarters in Zvecevo, including data on local TO commanders
and Serb Democratic Party (SDS) leaders Veljko Vukelic, Borivoj
Lukic, and Bora Radosavljevic, who the prosecution claims
cooperated with volunteer units known for their cruelty.
Witness Matovina said that according to Croat refugees from Vocin,
a JNA (former federal army) Lt. Col. from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia,
Jovan Trbojevic, had been in the area to fortify the defence. The
prosecution claims that Trbojevic commanded the Serb paramilitary
units in Vocin.
According to Croat refugees, 300-400 White Eagles, members of
Vojislav Seselj's radicals, were in Vocin, Matovina said. The
prosecution claims their arrival had been okayed by Trbojevic.
The witness said the December crimes had been preceded by the
killing of 24 Croats from the Cetekovac area in September. This
crime is not in the Milosevic indictment, but prosecutor Hildegard
Uertz Retzlaff said she was presenting it as evidence to show that
violence in western Slavonia had been widespread.
Matovina placed the persecution of Croats in the context of the June
1990 establishment of an SDS branch in Slatina which he said
encouraged intolerance towards Croats and advocated annexation to
the self-proclaimed Krajina region.
The first major incident occurred on 2 October 1990, when the SDS
leadership led some 1,000 Serbs in an assault on the Slatina police
station, with the intention of overtaking authority in the area,
the witness said.
That assault coincided with similar ones on the Virovitica-
Karlovac-Karlobag line, which the rebel Croatian Serbs saw as the
border of their territory, said Matovina.
After the assault on the Slatina police station, Serb policemen
from that town started going to areas held by rebels, while the JNA
started training and arming them in April 1991, which led to
barricades, the witness said.
Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic tried to impute that
Matovina had harassed hundreds of Serbs in the Podravska Slatina
area, which the witness refuted by saying that hundreds of Serbs
could testify as to his tolerance.
Milosevic then presented his evidence on crimes committed against
Serbs from the area from WWII onwards.
Matovina is the third prosecution witness. Milosevic will continue
cross-examining him tomorrow morning.
The next witness should be former Montenegrin Foreign Minister
Nikola Samardzic, who was unable to testify today due to illness.
(hina) ha