VUKOVAR DEFENDER TESTIFIES 2 MEN WERE BEATEN TO DEATH IN OVCARA

( Editorial: --> 9387 ) THE HAGUE, Feb 4 (Hina) - A former Vukovar defender testified on Wednesday before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague at the trial against former Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic. The witness on 20 November 1991 was taken from the Vukovar general hospital to a hangar in nearby Ovcara, where he saw two men beaten to death. Dokmanovic is charged with being in the hangar when detainees were being abused. A 25-year-old from the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, witness "P" on 19 November 1991 went to the hospital after leaving his shelter. He was then boarded onto a bus with other men, taken to a barracks and eventually to Ovcara. "We wore plain clothes and had no weapons, and there were many wounded and hospital staff among us," "P" told the court. "In the barracks yard, the Chetniks raged, breaking some sort of studded tree stump, taking pictures with knives in their mouths, sharpening knives, and even though they weren't allowed by a JNA (former Yugoslav People's Army) guard to get on the bus, one of them did and told us not to be scared as he was only cutting ears and noses," said witness "P", adding he "was scared of so many savages". In the Ovcara hangar, "P" said, "local Chetniks were pointing to some people, saying they had killed Serb children or been snipers, so these were beaten separately." "One Montenegrin asked for Albanians, and when one detainee answered, he beat him to death", the witness said, adding another man near him was beaten to death as well. In the hangar were "local and foreign Chetniks", as well as members of the JNA, "P" said. He defined Chetniks as "Serb extremists, but certainly not all Serbs". The witness identified a dozen people in video footage put forward by the prosecution recorded at the Vukovar general hospital on the night between 19 and 20 November 1991. "P" said he saw these people again in Ovcara on 20 November, and among them was Damjan Samardzic, beaten to death in the hangar. "P" said he knew the accused Dokmanovic was at the time mayor of Vukovar. The witness "probably saw him in the hangar, but I didn't recognise him", "P" said, as he didn't know him personally. After some 40 minutes in the hangar, "P" was approached by a local Serb who asked him if he had been in the army. The witness answered he had been in the shelter, after which the Serb positioned him by a door where he was guarded by a JNA soldier. "P" was returned to Vukovar, whence he left for Serbia. He came back to Croatia in January 1992, via Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) ha jn 041753 MET feb 98