ICTY: WAR-TIME DUBROVNIK MAYOR ENDS TESTIFYING

ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 18 (Hina) - Dubrovnik's war-time mayor Petar Poljanic said on Wednesday at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague-based war crimes tribunal that the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) fired shots towards Montenegrin villages immediately before the attack on Dubrovnik in Sept. 1991 in order to justify aggression and strengthen an anti-Croatian atmosphere in Montenegro. #L# The Croatian part of the trial of the former Yugoslav president resumed with Poljanic's testimony after being adjourned for a week. The war-time mayor ended his testimony today. "The JNA is September 1991 shot at Montenegrin villages and then released news reports that Croatian troops were trying to conquer Boka Kotorska," he said. "Radio Herceg Novi broadcast news almost daily that 30,000 Ustasha were on their way to conquer Boka Kotorska. It was claimed that Croatian shells were falling on Igal. You can ask Igal's residents whether this is true or not," Poljanic said. During his testimony, former Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nikola Samardzic had in the same way described the attack on Dubrovnik and the creation of an anti-Croatian atmosphere. Citing the war-time newspaper Dubrovacki vjesnik, Milosevic attempted to deny Poljanic's claims that the JNA had attacked the "almost undefended" Dubrovnik region. Milosevic cited the newspaper's issues dated October 1 through 5, 1992, according to which "450 JNA members were killed, two aircraft were brought down, three tanks, two armoured personnel carriers and about a dozen trucks were destroyed". "How were the unarmed Dubrovnik residents able to do that?" Milosevic wondered. "This is the first time I see this. I don't know who published this, I have never seen that," Poljanic said. Milosevic wondered how was it possible that 158 Montenegrin JNA members were killed if Dubrovnik had only "a handful of soldiers". "The fact is that none of them were killed in Montenegro or Serbia, but in Croatia as members of the aggressor army," Poljanic said. During the cross-examination, Milosevic played two video recordings with to prove that there had been no shelling of Dubrovnik's old town. "This recording is of a poor quality, the picture is not clear. The town was cleaned by March, but it is known that 1,056 shells were dropped on the old town, while over 56 shells were dropped on the main Stradun street and 53 on the Franciscan monastery," Poljanic said. The roof of almost every house was damaged so it had to be reconstructed, Poljanic said. The former Dubrovnik mayor once again refuted claims that members of the Croatian defence burned tires in the town to create the impression that the town was being demolished. "This is a hideous lie, I swear that this is not true," Poljanic said. On the first day of his testimony, December 11th, Poljanic described in detail the beginning of the JNA attack on the Dubrovnik region in early October 1991 and the atmosphere in the town prior to the attack. (hina) it sb