MILOSEVIC TRIAL: FORMER POLICE OFFICIALS ON ATTACKS IN SLATINA

THE HAGUE, Oct 7 (Hina) - A former police official from Podravska Slatina, Djuro Matovina, told the UN war crimes tribunal on Monday that the Serb Democratic Party of Slatina (western Slavonia) had, since its establishment in June 1990, been encouraging intolerance towards Croatians and advocating the annexing (of the Slatina region) to the so-called Krajina. The witness also said the SDS leader of the party's branch in Knin, Jovan Raskovic, had sent a message to Serbs that there was "no luck in the Ustashi state". #L# "Did anybody speak about the coexistence of Serbs and Croatians in the future?" asked prosecutor Hildegard Uertz Retzlaff in relation to the SDS policy. "There was talk about Serbs not being able to live with Croatians in the independent Croatian state," Matovina said at the Croatian part of the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted for war crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina. Matovina is the third witness of the prosecution. The former police official described the attack on a police station in Slatina which took place on October 2, 1990, along with other Serb attacks on police stations along the Virovitica-Karlovac- Karlobag line. According to Matovina, between 800 and 1,300 armed civilians led by local SDS heads, participated in the attack which aimed at taking over the power in the town. Matovina also said the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991, was providing rebel Serbs with arms. He also said Serbs from JNA reserve forces had been trained in JNA barracks. Those Serbs, fully armed, were then leaving to areas controlled by rebels. Milosevic is indicted for crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and the violation of laws and customs of war in Croatia between August 1991 and June 1992. The trial started eight months ago when the prosecution began proving Milosevic's responsibility for crimes in Kosovo. (hina) it