INVESTIGATION INITIATED INTO VUKOVAR POLICEMAN FOR WAR CRIMES

VUKOVAR, April 21 (Hina) - Vukovar County Court investigative judge Nikola Besenski on Wednesday initiated proceedings against Dragisa Cancarevic for justified suspicions of having committed war crimes against civilians and war prisoners in 1991. Besenski set detention for Cancarevic. Dragisa Cancarevic, born 1961, is a police precinct commissioner in Vukovar's suburb of Borovo Naselje. He was apprehended on Monday in the eastern Croatian town of Vinkovci. The Vukovar County State Attorney's Office filed a request for investigation proceedings, in which Cancarevic is said to have organised a prison centre in the former local community centre in Borovo Naselje, after the former Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary troops occupied the town in June 1991. From July 1 to September 15 the same year, Cancarevic was commander of the centre in which civilians and war prisoners had been brought. Violating provisions of international law regarding armed conflicts, Dragisa Cancarevic gave orders for civilians and war prisoners to be tortured, and some were even tortured by himself. The Vukovar County State Attorney's Office named eight civilians and five war prisoners Cancarevic had interrogated and whose torture he had ordered. It also named two men Cancarevic had beaten himself during interrogation. (hina) lml jn