ICTY DEMANDS VOLUNTARY SURRENDER OF FORMER J.N.A. OFFICERS

( Editorial: --> 3305 ) THE HAGUE, Jan 9 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday said it had demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) ensure the voluntary surrender of three persons on the same bill of indictment as Slavko Dokmanovic. This should happen before a trial against Dokmanovic begins, the Tribunal said. In Friday's announcement the ICTY revealed that on 31 December it had demanded the surrender of Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin, former officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). On 7 November, 1995 they were charged with the mass murder of 200 Croats and non-Serbs forced out of Vukovar hospital and killed in Ovcara on 20 November, 1991. The ICTY said neither the first arrest warrant, forwarded to the FRY on 8 November, 1995, nor the second international one, of 3 April, 1996, had been executed. The Tribunal forwarded two orders to the Yugoslav Embassy in The Hague on 31 December, to inform Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Radic it is in their interest to voluntarily surrender and be tried together with Dokmanovic, whose trial begins 19 January. The first order demands the FRY deliver copies of the bill of indictment and the rights of the accused to the three former JNA officers, as well as ICTY's note that, if they fail to surrender by 19 January, the prosecutor may demand that testimonies from the Dokmanovic trial be used as evidence at the trial against the three accused from the same bill, without calling witnesses to the stand one more time. The second order demands that the Yugoslav charge d'affaires make sure that the ICTY's note be printed in large-circulation papers across the FRY. These orders were issued by the tribunal's Trial Chamber II, with Antonio Cassese, Richard May and Florence Mumba as judges. Dokmanovic's defence did not object to the issuing of the orders, but objected to the use of testimonies from Dokmanovic's trial in a possible future trial against the other three accused. The prosecutor's office said the decision on the use of those testimonies would be reached by the trial chamber in charge of a possible future trial against the other three. (hina) ha mm 091559 MET jan 98