3 WITNESSES TESTIFY ABOUT ABDUCTION OF MEN FROM VUKOVAR HOSPITAL

( Editorial: --> 9111 ) THE HAGUE, 3 Feb (Hina) - Three protected witnesses, two of them former employees of the Vukovar hospital, on Tuesday testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the trial of former Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic. Dokmanovic is charged with active participation in the November 1991 events following the seizure of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar by the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). The witnesses spoke about the abduction of men from the Vukovar hospital, in buses, on 20 November 1991, after the JNA and Serb paramilitary forces had occupied Vukovar. "Witness N", an ambulance driver, said that by 20 November many Vukovar residents had gathered in front of the hospital because they believed that someone from the international community would help them. The witness said he stood in front of the hospital among other men who had been separated from women. There were patients with them as well. The witness was taken into a bus but was later taken off it because he worked at the hospital. He was returned to the hospital, which he left later that day, hiding between seats in a bus which carried women. The witness was taken to Srijemska Mitrovica and exchanged shortly after that. "Witness N" said in a written statement to the ICTY that on 18 November he had seen Serb paramilitaries take away journalist Sinisa Glavasevic and several other persons. "Witness E", a former member of Vukovar's civil defence, who spent the last months of the siege in a shelter near the hospital, told the Tribunal that the departure of a large number of Serbs from Vukovar after the killing of Croat police officers in Borovo Selo indicated that something would happen in the town, but no one thought that things which were to follow would happen. "Witness E" said that negotiations had been held with the JNA on the surrender of the town, on condition that all people, including Croatian soldiers and police, were free to go wherever they wanted. "We left the shelter for the hospital because it seemed that (our) chances of survival were better where there were more people," said witness E, adding they were not afraid of the JNA but of Chetniks - members of Serb paramilitary units. JNA soldiers and major Veselin Sljivancanin arrived at the hospital on 19 November at 5pm and the transport of people to local factories began shortly after that, witness E said. Members of local paramilitary forces would then line the prisoners up against a wall and beat them, the witness said. He added that his acquaintance Boro Zuanovic took him to a room that night saying he (Zuanovic) would take him to a safe place because "there will be trouble here tonight". After a bearded guard took away his documents, money and coat, saying he "won't need them any more", the witness was led into a room where other captured Vukovar residents were held. A drunken soldier, who was in the room, threatened to shoot them. That group of prisoners were saved by a JNA officer, who secured their transport to Srijemska Mitrovica, Serbia, the witness said. The witness was released in a prisoner exchange in March 1992. The witness's son, who participated in the defence of the town, went missing on 20 November. Witness E confirmed that he had recognised things - a silver chain and a statuette of St Anthony - which belonged to his son, at the identification of exhumed bodies. During the examination by the defence, "Witness E", said he believed that none of the people abducted on 18 or 19 November had been killed in Ovcara. There were Serbs among those who were maltreated in a local factory Vupik, the witness said, adding that paramilitary forces which entered Vukovar included Vukovar Serbs who helped JNA members find places they wanted to find. The third witness, "Witness O", who ran the supply department in the Vukovar hospital, said that on 20 November he had been taken away from work and put onto one of five old army buses with men who were selected from in front of the hospital. "Witness O" was transported on the bus to the Vukovar barracks, where there were "Arkanovci, Seseljevci (members of paramilitary units from Serbia) and local Chetniks", who were in an euphoric state, threatening prisoners with their knives. Five or six men, whose names were called, were taken from each bus and had to go through a corridor made of the members of the paramilitaries, who beat them with iron poles, the witness said. "Witness O" was one of those whose names had been called since his name was on a list made by the hospital employees in order to get their husbands and relatives released. Asked by the presiding Judge Antonio Cassese whether the JNA controlled the paramilitaries or vice versa, the witness said the "JNA pretended not to see what the paramilitaries were doing". The men whose names were called were transported from the barracks back to the hospital, but two of them who did not have anyone to give guarantees for them were not released. "Jozo Adzaga and Jozo Zeljko remained in the bus crying," the witness said, adding there were many vehicles in front of the hospital, including those of the European Commission Monitoring Mission. Sljivancanin told us that they too would be released if they were innocent, the witness said, adding one of the men was later identified among the bodies exhumed from the Ovcara mass grave. "Witness O" was transported from Vukovar to Srijemska Mitrovica and later exchanged. The defence asked "Witness O" to identify people he knew from a video footage taken on 20 November in Vukovar. The footage shows people waiting in a bus. The witness identified his acquaintances, but added he could not say when the footage had been taken because it was made from several different shots. (hina) jn rm . 031922 MET feb 98