BELGRADE COURT HEARS VUKOVAR TROIKA IN PRESENCE OF ICTY

BELGRADE, Dec 17 (Hina)- Three former JNA officers, Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic, who have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) were heard on Thursday at a military court in Belgrade. The troika, which was summoned to testify about war crimes perpetrated in Vukovar in 1991, was heard in the presence of ICTY's representatives. The three were sumoned by Belgrade's military prosecutor, who "instigated certain investigative procedures against unidentified perpetrators of war crimes against POWs, pursuant to Article 144 of the FRY's criminal code", reads a statement by the military court quoted by media in Belgrade. Sljivancanin, Mrksic and Radic answered all the questions and testified about "all the facts and circumstances they have been charged with by ICTY's prosecutor", says the statement. "During the next stage of the investigation the court will hear other witnesses and carry out certain investigative procedures in order to clarify the facts in this criminally-legal case", says the statement next. Today's hearing was monitored by ICTY's representatives Dennis Milner and James Luko, who declined to comment on it. Next round will be held on 21 and 22 December, court president Radomir Gojovic said. The three former JNA officers were indicted by ICTY in 1995 for liquidating about 260 persons that had been taken on 20 November 1991 from the Vukovar hospital to the nearby Ovcara farm. (Hina) mm mr