BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Hina) - Miodrag Jokic, a retired Yugoslav Army general whom the Hague war crimes tribunal indicted for crimes in Croatia's Dubrovnik in 1991, surrendered to the UN court and left for the Netherlands on Monday
morning, Belgrade's B-92 radio said. Jokic was accompanied by his wife, daughter, and Serbia's Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic. "I'm not ashamed of anything. As an admiral, I performed my duties professionally and conscientiously. I stand behind my actions. It was my responsibility as a soldier. I hope my country will stand behind me," Jokic said before departure. "All who surrender to the (Hague) tribunal will have the Serbian government's guarantees to defend themselves in freedom," said Minister Mihajlovic. In Monday's issue, Belgrade's Vecernje Novosti daily brings an interview with Jokic, who says that neither he nor the top officials of the JNA, ex-Yugoslavia's federal
BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Hina) - Miodrag Jokic, a retired Yugoslav Army
general whom the Hague war crimes tribunal indicted for crimes in
Croatia's Dubrovnik in 1991, surrendered to the UN court and left
for the Netherlands on Monday morning, Belgrade's B-92 radio said.
Jokic was accompanied by his wife, daughter, and Serbia's Interior
Minister Dusan Mihajlovic.
"I'm not ashamed of anything. As an admiral, I performed my duties
professionally and conscientiously. I stand behind my actions. It
was my responsibility as a soldier. I hope my country will stand
behind me," Jokic said before departure.
"All who surrender to the (Hague) tribunal will have the Serbian
government's guarantees to defend themselves in freedom," said
Minister Mihajlovic.
In Monday's issue, Belgrade's Vecernje Novosti daily brings an
interview with Jokic, who says that neither he nor the top officials
of the JNA, ex-Yugoslavia's federal army, "ever intended to destroy
and conquer Dubrovnik."
He decided to turn himself in confident in the fairness of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY),
but also because of "my family, myself and my country" so as not to
be "chased down streets and markets."
Asked about how he ended on the Dubrovnik front-line in
southernmost Croatia, Jokic says he was sent there "as a soldier, a
professional."
"As soon as I arrived on the... front-line I was shocked by the
'impact' - (everything) burned down, plundered, charred remnants.
I was depressed. When I said so at (a) meeting, Bozidar Vucurovic,
the president of Trebinje (nearby town in Bosnia), told me:
'Admiral, it never looked more beautiful'," Jokic is quoted in the
newspaper.
Besides Jokic, the ICTY indicted another three officials for crimes
in Dubrovnik and the surrounding area: Gen. Pavle Strugar, who
surrendered to the Tribunal last month, Vice Admiral Milan Zec, and
Vladimir Kovacevic, an active Yugoslav Army captain.
The four are charged with grave breaches of the Geneva conventions
and violations of the laws and customs of war, the killing of
civilians and brutal treatment thereof, attacks on civilian
facilities, the destruction of cultural and historical monuments,
and pillage.
On the same plane to The Hague as Jokic was Mira Markovic, the wife
of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is visiting
her husband at Scheveningen prison.
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