THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 11 (Hina) - Mile Mrksic, a former commander of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), on Monday pleaded not guilty before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague to charges from an amended indictment which accuses him
of the persecution of Croats and other non-Serbs in Vukovar in 1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 11 (Hina) - Mile Mrksic, a former commander of
the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), on Monday pleaded not guilty
before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague to charges from an
amended indictment which accuses him of the persecution of Croats
and other non-Serbs in Vukovar in 1991. #L#
"Not guilty", Mrksic kept repeating while judge Carmel Agius
enumerated counts from the amended indictment which charges him
with persecution, extermination, imprisonment and torture
committed in the area of Vukovar in 1991.
The indictment charges the 1991 commander of the JNA's First
Motorised Brigade with crimes against humanity and violations of
the law and customs of war committed through the imprisonment and
torture of around 300 Croats and other non-Serbs from the Vukovar
hospital, and the subsequent execution of 255 of them at the Ovcara
farm outside the town.
The amended indictment against Mrksic notes that other
participants in the criminal enterprise in Vukovar were former
Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic, former JNA commanders Miroslav
Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin, and Serb Territorial Defence
commanders Miroljub Vujovic and Stanko Vujanovic, who were all
Mrksic's subordinates.
Mrksic has been indicted together with JNA commanders Sljivancanin
and Radic with crimes against humanity, violation of the law and
customs of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions,
committed through the torture of prisoners and execution of
Croatian soldiers and civilians at Ovcara on November 20, 1991.
Under the amended indictment, Mrksic will be tried separately from
Sljivancanin and Radic.
(hina) rml sb