TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATORS REPORT ON BEGINNING OF OVCARA EXHUMATION

VUKOVAR, Sept 5 (Hina) - Representatives of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, Clint Williamson and Bill Haglund, held a press conference at the UN headquarters in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Thursday where they spoke about the beginning of exhumation of bodies from the Ovcara mass grave. Haglund said that the mass grave, believed to be containing between 170 and 260 bodies, had not been disturbed since 1993 when local Serb authorities stopped an international investigation. The exhumation may take about six weeks, depending on the condition of the bodies buried there, he said, adding that it would be possible to differentiate wounds inflicted before a victim's death from those which had actually caused the death. Haglund said that some bodies were buried only 30 centimetres under the ground and that the bodies most likely would not be removed until the end of next week. The purpose of the exhumation is to determine the causes of death of the buried victims and gather evidence for the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Haglund said that both the Croatian government and local Serb authorities had authorized their representatives to monitor the process. Pathological examinations will be conducted in Zagreb in the presence of human rights experts. Recalling that the exhumation was part of the tribunal's investigation into events that happened in the Vukovar hospital and Ovcara on 20 November 1991, Williamson said that the tribunal still expected the arrest of Yugoslav Army officers suspected of committing war crimes, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin. The three men were charged with ordering and participating in the mass execution of the wounded in the Vukovar hospital upon the Yugoslav Army's capture of the town. In response to a question on the possibility of expanding the indictment for crimes in Vukovar, Williamson said that after the exhumation the tribunal would re-examine all the evidence but that it would not make statements on persons against whom an investigation may be lauched until indictments had been made public. Williamson said that there were indications of other mass graves in the area but that the Hague-based tribunal could start exhumations only if they were part of an investigation or an indictment. (hina) vm jn 051728 MET sep 96