SERB PRISONERS IN OSIJEK PRISON ON HUNGER STRIKE?

OSIJEK, June 19 (Hina) - Out of 20 Serb prisoners in the Osijek County Penitentiary, convicted of war crimes in Baranja and Vukovar, sixteen of them have been refusing prison food for two weeks now, while four have begun eating, assistant justice minister Josip Begovic reported today. The convicts who are refusing their meals are buying fruit and vitamins in the prison canteen, he added. The prisoners of several months are under constant medical supervision, and two of them have ended up in the emergency room after complaints about their health. After a thorough medical check-up which established their health was satisfactory, they were taken back to prison, Begovic told Hina, adding any person who requested to visit the Serbs in prison were allowed by the Justice Ministry to do so "if they were also granted to do so by the courts in Vukovar-Srijem and Osijek-Baranja counties". President of the Joint Council of (mainly Serb-populated) Municipalities (ZVO), Milos Vojnovic, commented on a statement by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica that the Serbs' hunger strike in the Osijek prison "shows Croatia does not respect the basic human rights", stressing "finally the Yugoslav government shown care for its compatriots in Croatia". Vojnovic said Serbs "who are on strike in the Osijek County prison do not have objections to the prison conditions, but to the lengthy court proceedings, unfounded accusations and lack of evidence". He added this was the case in the majority of proceedings against Serbs. (hina) lml sb