BELGRADE, Oct 10 (Hina) - The first reactions to the issuing of an indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia have confirmed the validity of parts of the indictment. Zivota Panic, a former Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA) general who commanded some operations in Vukovar in 1991, and who is mentioned in the Hague tribunal's indictment against Milosevic, told the independent TV station 'Net' on Wednesday the JNA "did not kill prisoners of war in Croatia, but deported them to Sremska Mitrovica." Panic said that the paramilitary formation, the Serb Volunteers' Guard (SDG), commanded by the late Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, had been under the command of the Serbian police. Dragan Vasiljkovic, better known as "Captain Dragan", whose units operated in the Knin area, where he commanded a military training range for rebel Serbs, openly said in the same programme he had worked under the command of the Serbian S
BELGRADE, Oct 10 (Hina) - The first reactions to the issuing of an
indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia
have confirmed the validity of parts of the indictment.
Zivota Panic, a former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general who
commanded some operations in Vukovar in 1991, and who is mentioned
in the Hague tribunal's indictment against Milosevic, told the
independent TV station 'Net' on Wednesday the JNA "did not kill
prisoners of war in Croatia, but deported them to Sremska
Mitrovica."
Panic said that the paramilitary formation, the Serb Volunteers'
Guard (SDG), commanded by the late Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, had
been under the command of the Serbian police.
Dragan Vasiljkovic, better known as "Captain Dragan", whose units
operated in the Knin area, where he commanded a military training
range for rebel Serbs, openly said in the same programme he had
worked under the command of the Serbian State Security service.
"The president of the Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina", Milan
Babic, said he had appealed on several occasions to the Serbian
leadership to make Captain Dragan and another man mentioned in the
Milosevic indictment, Franko Simatovic, head of a State Security
unit for special operations, leave 'Krajina' due to "nasty doings",
but he did not say what the two men did.
The chairwoman of the Yugoslav Commission of Human Rights
Attorneys, Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, told the Belgrade agency Beta
today the expansion of the Milosevic indictment to include his
abuse of the media "is an indication of proceedings against
participants in a decade-long devastating media policy."
"I hope the expanded Milosevic indictment will include the
accountability of Serbia's 'small Goebelses', i.e. the organisers
of the state media campaign and those who were in charge of the media
policy," she said.
Dusan Bajatovic, a senior official of Milosevic's Socialist Party
of Serbia (SPS), believes his party leader "is not responsible for
the crimes he is charged with."
(hina) sb rml