THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Protected witness C-006 said in his testimony at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday that on the day of the massacre of 200 Croats at Ovcara outside Vukovar he had
seen Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Major Veselin Sljivancanin on several locations where the imprisoned had been detained, including Ovcara.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Protected witness C-006 said in
his testimony at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic on Wednesday that on the day of the massacre of 200 Croats
at Ovcara outside Vukovar he had seen Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
Major Veselin Sljivancanin on several locations where the
imprisoned had been detained, including Ovcara. #L#
The witness, a former member of Vukovar's Territorial Defence (TO),
said that on 20 November 1991 he had seen Sljivancanin in front of a
hangar at a farm where prisoners from the Vukovar hospital had been
detained. Previously on the same day, the witness saw Sljivancanin
in a JNA barracks in the city where prisoners were kept before they
were transferred to Ovcara by buses, as well as near the buses.
He said that the buses had been escorted by military police and JNA
armoured vehicles. As they were getting out of the buses, on the way
to the hangar, the prisoners had to run the gauntlet of soldiers
with batons.
Late on Tuesday night Sljivancanin was secretly transferred to the
detention centre of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is
indicted, together with Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic, for the
massacre of more than 200 Croat prisoners at Ovcara on 20 November
1991.
The witness said that while at the hangar, on 20 November he had seen
TO commanders Miroljub Vujovic and Stanko Vujovic, with whom
Sljivancanin that day had got into an argument, however, the
witness could not hear what they were arguing about. The witness
said he had not heard Sljivancanin issue any orders that day.
He confirmed that JNA troops were more numerous than TO and had
armoured carriers and tanks.
The witness saw Sljivancanin on 19 November 1991, in front of the
Vukovar hospital, as the prisoners were being transferred from the
hospital to the Velepromet warehouse, where they were told that
they would be executed.
The witness said that he left Ovcara on 20 November in the afternoon
and that the following day he heard that all Croats who remained at
Ovcara had been killed.
The witness, who spoke in fluent English, lived in Vukovar until the
beginning of the war, when he fled to Belgrade. He later returned to
Vukovar, where he continued to live for another six years. A child
from a mixed marriage, the witness said his family had received
anonymous threats before the war because his mother was a Serb, as
did other people who had Serb relatives.
The tribunal today stated that one of the three amici curiae in the
Milosevic trial, Belgrade attorney Branislav Tapuskovic, would no
longer hold that post after the prosecution completed presenting
evidence in the case. The tribunal offered no explanation for this
decision and Tapuskovic will be replaced by a British lawyer.
The trial resumed with the closed-door testimony of another witness
for the prosecution.
(hina) rml