PROSECUTION IN DOKMANOVIC CASE PRESENTS CLOSING ARGUMENT

( Editorial: --> 3662 ) THE HAGUE, June 25 (Hina) - In its closing argument on Thursday in the trial of the former Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic, the prosecution called on the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to contribute to shedding more light on the events which occurred in Vukovar in 1991. It also asked The Hague tribunal to confirm Dokmanovic's responsibility for the execution of 200 prisoners from Vukovar Hospital on November 20 the same year. Anyone participating in a decision to execute prisoners is an accessory to murder, Prosecutor Clint Williamson said. He recalled that Dokmanovic, whilst a member of the then self- proclaimed government of the "Serb Region of Slavonija, Baranja and western Srijem", had attended a government session following the fall of Vukovar on November 20. The session was held at the building of the Vukovar company "Velepromet". A former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) major Veselin Sljivancanin came to the session to ask for its blessing for the sadistic torture and murder of imprisoned Croats, Williamson said. It is a sad truth that Dokmanovic, a respectable family man, chose the path of violence, the Prosecutor said. Dokmanovic might have been "moderate" in his nationalist views, but it is not how Croats or representatives of the international community saw him because he was a member of a government established only for Serbs and because he failed to use his political authority to positively influence other people, Williamson said. Dokmanovic had to show that he was a good Serb, that he was "one of his own kin" and this was easy - on November 20 he visited Ovcara where prisoners from the hospital were being beaten up in a hangar and where it was easy to affirm oneself in such a way because Dokmanovic knew that those people were going to be killed, Williamson concluded. The Prosecutor also gave a brief summary of testimonies, concluding that defence witnesses had lied to protect themselves or their friends. It was established that videotapes which the defence presented, in order to show that Dokmanovic did not visit Ovcara on the day of his departure from Vukovar on November 20, were not authentic. The revisionist history the defence is using is not acceptable because it is a fact that terrible things happened in Vukovar and they happened to Croats, Williamson said. (hina) jn rml /mbr 251824 MET jun 98