THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - British journalist Paul Davies, who reported from the besieged southern Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik in October and November 1991, appeared before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on
Thursday as a witness in the trial of retired Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Pavle Strugar.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - British journalist Paul Davies, who
reported from the besieged southern Croatian Adriatic city of
Dubrovnik in October and November 1991, appeared before the UN war
crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday as a witness in the trial of
retired Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Pavle Strugar.#L#
Davies, who reported for the British television network ITN, gave his
main testimony on January 16, while today he was cross-examined by
Strugar's defence attorney, Goran Rodic.
In his main testimony, the witness said that during his three-week
stay in Dubrovnik had had seen no defence positions, particularly not
in the Old Town. He said he had seen the city being shelled by the
JNA, particularly from November 9 to 12, when he said the city centre
had been targeted for the first time.
Rodic invested a lot of effort in a failed attempt to get the witness
to confirm that Croatian forces defending the city had been active
from within the city walls, the assumption used by the defence to
justify the opening of fire by the JNA.
If we had seen military positions within the walls of the Old Town, we
would have reported that, but we did not see any, Davies said.
The witness went on to say that UNESCO flags had been displayed on
buildings in the Old Town, but that they had not deterred the JNA
artillery from attacking.
The reporter also said that JNA had targeted hotels that were full of
refugees and the city hospital that was full of wounded people.
Strugar, 70, is charged with war crimes committed by the JNA Second
Operations Group under his command. The prosecutors have been
presenting their evidence for ten weeks now.
(Hina) vm sb