MESIC TESTIFIES AT DOKMANOVIC TRIAL

( Editorial: --> 1117 ) THE HAGUE, March 20 (Hina) - Stjepan Mesic, the last president of the former Yugoslavia and former president of the Croatian parliament, Friday testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague at the trial against former Vukovar mayor Slavko Dokmanovic. Dokmanovic is accused of assisting the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian paramilitary formations responsible for the killing of at least 200 people in Ovcara, near the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, on November 20, 1991. Mesic spoke about the circumstances surrounding the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, in particular the role Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had in the process, about the JNA's turning into the Serbian army and its performance in Croatia in 1991. Mesic said that as first the deputy chairman and then chairman of the Yugoslav federal presidency, he had contacts with high defence officials, and that as the chairman he was even the supreme commander of the JNA. But the JNA took orders from Milosevic, he pointed out. The defence at the trial tried to prove that as a representative of Croatia in the then collective presidency, Mesic had not represented federal but Croatia's interests. Mesic answered that he had only accepted the new reality, that Yugoslavia was falling apart, established by Milosevic. The cross-examination will continue in the afternoon. Mesic is the last witness for the prosecution and the last witness in this round of the Dokmanovic trial. (Hina) ha mm /mb 201556 MET mar 98