INVESTIGATION INTO INDICTMENTS AGAINST JNA OFFICERS FOR COMMITTING

COMMITTING $ WAR CRIMES IN VUKOVAR ZAGREB, March 19 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Victimological Society, Zvonimir Separovic, told reporters at a news conference in Zagreb that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague would on Tuesday begin the process of investigation into indictments against three officers of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin. The three men have been charged with committing mass murder of about 260 war prisoners in Vukovar. #L# Separovic read reporters a part of the indictment which had been brought against the three men by the Tribunal's prosecutor, Richard J. Goldstone. The three men had commanded the JNA and paramilitary Serb forces which had taken about 260 people from a hospital in Vukovar around 20 November 1991. They then took them to a farm near Ovcara and beat them for several hours. In groups of 10 to 20, the 260 men were taken to a place between Ovcara and Grabovo (near Vukovar), where they were shot and killed. Through their actions, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin were responsible for the beating and murder, the indictment said. "We are concerned with the fact that the Croatian authorities are negotiating with the aggressor when the whereabouts of the missing and detained Croatian people has not yet been resolved," Separovic said. He was supported at the conference by a number of parents from Vukovar whose children are on lists of those killed in Ovcara. (hina) lm jn 191532 MET mar 96