JNA OFFICER PLEADS NOT GUILTY BEFORE INT. WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

THE HAGUE, Oct 25 (Hina) - Yugoslav General Pavle Strugar on Thursday pleaded not guilty to crimes in Dubrovnik for which he has been indicted by the prosecution of the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal. The tribunal has issued an indictment against the 68-year-old general, along with three other officers of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), for the siege and shelling of the southern Croatian seaport of Dubrovnik, during which many civilians were killed or wounded, and the town's cultural heritage destroyed. General Strugar turned himself over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia voluntarily. Indicted alongside him are also Vice-Admiral Miodrag Jokic, Vice- Admiral Milan Zec and Captain First-Class Vladimir Kovacevic Rambo, who are still at large. The four have been indicted for violations of the Geneva conventions and the customs and rules of war in the period between October 1 to December 31, 1991. The prosecution will try to prove that the four JNA commanding officers had participated in the planning of annexing the Dubrovnik region to Serbia and Montenegro. They have also been charged on individual and command responsibility. The prosecution has included in the indictment the names of 43 civilians killed during the shelling of Dubrovnik. According to findings of the UNESCO, almost 70 percent of buildings, 563 of the total of 824, in the historic centre were hit with mortars, and nine were razed to the ground by fire. Before leaving for The Hague, Strugar spent some time in hospital in Podgorica for kidney problems. He complained to the Portuguese judge on Thursday that he did not feel very well, and his attorney requested adequate medical assistance for his client. (hina) lml sb