Members of the JNA told me that Serbian TO members would not allow a convoy with prisoners to pass if it included a single Croatian soldier, said Peter Kiper, a monitor for the European Community in Croatia in 1991.
"If they knew that there were Ustasha in the convoy, they would execute all, both you and us," Kiper quoted a JNA officer attending a meeting in Negoslavci near Vukovar on 19 November 1991 as saying.
Kiper said the meeting discussed the evacuation of people captured in the Vukovar hospital, a local company and other shelters to Croatia's free territory.
Retired General Mile Mrksic, Colonel Veselin Sljivancanin and Captain Miroslav Radic are standing trial for the murder of at least 264 Croatian civilians and wounded people from the Vukovar hospital on the Ovcara farm outside the town.
Kiper today spoke about the war events in eastern Slavonia, particularly in Ilok and nearby villages, from where most non-Serb residents were expelled in August 1991.
The Czech diplomat will continue testifying on Monday, when he will be cross-examined by the prosecution.