SIX SERBS IMPRISONED FOR WAR CRIMES CONTINUE SIX-DAY HUNGER STRIKE

( Editorial: --> 0153 ) SPLIT, Feb 7 (Hina) - Sixteen prisoners of Serb nationality, who were sentenced by the Split County Court to periods between five and 15 years in prison for war crimes, have been on hunger strike for six days in a row. According to a Saturday statement given by defence counsel Mirko Franceschi, they have been on strike to expedite the processing of their appeals to the ruling of the Split County Court given in May 1997 after several months of court proceedings. The 16 people were arrested during the Storm liberation operation in the summer of 1995 in the village of Otisic near Knin, 60 km north of Split, where they had operated as part of Serb paramilitary forces. After numerous testimonies and submitted evidence, the group were sentenced for killing and maltreating civilians, torturing and killing captured Croatian policemen, and shelling Croatian villages in 1991, which resulted in the death of many civilians. Some were also sentenced for planting high quantities of explosives on the Peruca dam on the Cetina river, also in 1991, thus endangering the lives of 50,000 people living in the area. Franceschi said the convicts believed they had been part of Serb paramilitary forces "by coincidence of war" on which they had no influence. They do not want to bear the stigma of war criminals, Franceschi said. They have contacted the Croatian Ministry of Justice and international human rights organisations in an attempt to step up the processing of their appeals, the counsel said. He added the decision to go on hunger strike had been made in the hope it would urge the Croatian Supreme Court to discuss their appeals. (hina) ha 071501 MET feb 98