WAR CRIMES TRIAL CONTINUES IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, May 27 (Hina) - The trial against 22 persons accused of war crimes began in Vukovar on Thursday. They have been indicted of war crimes against crimes of genocide and war crimes against civilians.- The trial continued with the testimony of Rudolf Graf and Fanol Gojanij. They were indicted of having actively participated in the attempt of ethnically cleansing the eastern part of Croatia and creating Greater Serbia as members of various enemy units. Only Stevan Curnic was present at the trial, while the rest are on the run. Graf and Gojani spoke about events in 1991, immediately prior and in the first days of the occupation of Vukovar. During the time of the defence of the town, Graf was commander of the Danube battalion. After his apprehension, members of the former Yugoslav People's army took them to a warehouse where they were separated to "Ustashi" and "good Croats". Graf, as an Ustashi, was taken to Stolarija and was taken behind the building of the warehouse. "His intention was probably to kill me because I heard prisoner had been killed behind Stolarija," he said. However, a soldier came along and told Pahulj to take me back to Stolarija, what he did," Graf said, adding Pahulj had taken away about DM5,000 and some Yugoslav dinars. Out of the 22 accused, he only saw Stevan Curnic and Nenad Zigic. He was not sure if he could recognise Pahulj today. Graf was taken from Vukovar by bus, together with some other prisoners, to Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia) where they were beaten. Gojani was imprisoned in the Vukovar hospital. He was also taken to the Velepromet warehouse where he was beaten by Sinisa Lancuzanin, Marko Kraguljac, a man called Kesega, and a person called Refrigerator, as well as others. Refrigerator and Lancuzanin took DM2,000 from him and personal documents. He saw Stipan Lucuc beaten, after which Curnic had taken out a gun and shot him. The main hearing will continue on June 2. (hina) lml jn