FORENSIC EXPERT CLYDE SNOW TAKES STAND IN DOKMANOVIC TRIAL

( Editorial: --> 0317 ) THE HAGUE, March 17 (Hina) - American forensic expert Clyde Snow, who located a mass grave at the Ovcara farm near Vukovar in 1992, took the stand in the trial of former Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic. Snow testified about the exhumation of victims who had been taken out of Vukovar hospital on 20 November 1991. Dokmanovic has been charged with assisting in the execution of people who were taken out of Vukovar hospital by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitary units on 20 November 1991. Out of at least 300 persons who were taken from the hospital, at least 200 were killed at Ovcara, read the indictment. Clyde Snow, 70, is an internationally renown forensic expert who has so far conducted more than 3,000 exhumations, including casualties in the crash of a DC-10 plane in 1979, victims of Joseph Mengele in Brazil and many victims in Argentina, Chile and Kurdistan. In 1992 Snow was called to investigate allegations about a secret grave near Vukovar. Based on a testimony of a runaway detain, Snow determined a possible location of the grave. On 18 October 1992 Snow visited the location in presence of UN members and found evidence (a skull with a bullet hole and bones) of a mass grave 10 by 7 metres, which was dug out by a giant excavator. A test digging found not only remains of human bodies but also objects that made it possible for the experts to determine the victims' nationality. Amongst the objects was a chain with a pendant reading "God and the Croats" and a sculpture of a Roman Catholic saint. Snow added that his team found a T-shirt reading "Canadian". Later on he learned that during the siege Vukovar hospital had received a shipment of clothes from Canada. Snow said that by November 1996, when he left Zagreb, he had provisionally identified 51 out of the 200 exhumed bodes. A lot of evidence, e.g. remains of bandages, indicated that most victims had been hospitalised before death, he said. During cross examination by the defence Snow confirmed that the exhumation had been attended by a pathologist from Belgrade. However, Snow warned both the Croatian and the Serbian side that they could monitor investigation but that its course could be decided only by independent experts. He also said that he did not find traces of plaster on sound bodies, which indicates that after the capture of the town the troops were not disguised as patients at the hospital. William Fenrick from the Office of ICTY Prosecutor, who was a member of a UN expert commission that investigated war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in 1992, also testified on Tuesday. Fenrick said that in 1993 his team was briefly detained in Vukovar for photographing a road between Vukovar and Ovcara. He said that local Serb authorities dragged their feet about issuing exhumation permits and frustrated exhumation efforts in different ways. In eastern Slavonia the Serbs were more powerful than the UN, he said. Local Serb authorities ignored even an exhumation request by the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) in August 1994, so that the grave had not been exhumed until the arrival of UNTAES, he said. (Hina) jn mr /mb 172027 MET mar 98