Victims' Families Slam Ovcara Verdict
They say Belgrade court’s sentences for massacre were too lenient.
Victims' Families Slam Ovcara Verdict
They say Belgrade court’s sentences for massacre were too lenient.
The sentences handed down by a Serbian war crimes court this week to 13 Serbs convicted in connection with the 1991 Ovcara massacre are too short, said a Croatian war veterans’ group.
On March 12, a war crimes court in Belgrade sentenced the Serb former paramilitaries to prison terms ranging from 5 to 20 years, after they were convicted in a retrial of involvement in the massacre of more than 200 Croats in Vukovar, a river port town on Croatia’s eastern border with Serbia.
Another five defendants were cleared of any responsibility for the killings.
“The sentences are too [lenient] for crimes committed against prisoners, wounded people and soldiers at Ovcara,” Josip Djakic, president of HVIDRA, the association of disabled war veterans, told the Croatian media.
The defence lawyers of the 13 convicted men have said they will appeal the verdicts, while Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor’s office has said it will appeal the five acquittals.
Former militia commander Miroljub Vujovic and six other accused were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment while another seven received between five and 15 years.
Vujo Zlatar, Predrag Madjarac, Marko Ljuboja, Slobodan Katic and Milorad Pejic were acquitted, while Milan Lancuzanin`s sentence was reduced to six years from a previous 20 years. Predrag Dragovic’s sentence was reduced to 5 years from 20 years.
The original trial of the accused was annulled by Serbia’s supreme court in late 2006 on the grounds of procedural errors. The retrial began in March 2007.
The massacre is seen as one of the most brutal episodes of the Balkans conflicts of the early Nineties.
Vukovar fell to Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, JNA, forces after a relentless three-month siege that left most of the town in ruins.
More than 200 people, mainly ethnic Croat residents of the town, sought shelter in the local hospital believing they would be evacuated.
But Serb paramilitaries seized them and took them to a pig farm in nearby Ovcara, where they beat them for several hours.
The captives were then transported in small groups of 10 to 20 to a nearby site where they were shot with machine guns and pistols, their bodies bulldozed into mass grave.
The case was seen a test for the Serbian legal system and its readiness to prosecute and convict Serbs, forcing the nation to face up to crimes committed in its name during the 1990s.
Commenting on the verdict, Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader told local media, “[Although] one can always argue about whether the punishment could have been different or higher, it is good that the Belgrade trial has shown that in Serbia, too, there is a judiciary willing and capable of holding such trials and that if countries cooperate, such trials do not always have to take place in the country in which the crimes were committed.”
Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained reporter in Zagreb.
On March 12, a war crimes court in Belgrade sentenced the Serb former paramilitaries to prison terms ranging from 5 to 20 years, after they were convicted in a retrial of involvement in the massacre of more than 200 Croats in Vukovar, a river port town on Croatia’s eastern border with Serbia.
Another five defendants were cleared of any responsibility for the killings.
“The sentences are too [lenient] for crimes committed against prisoners, wounded people and soldiers at Ovcara,” Josip Djakic, president of HVIDRA, the association of disabled war veterans, told the Croatian media.
The defence lawyers of the 13 convicted men have said they will appeal the verdicts, while Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor’s office has said it will appeal the five acquittals.
Former militia commander Miroljub Vujovic and six other accused were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment while another seven received between five and 15 years.
Vujo Zlatar, Predrag Madjarac, Marko Ljuboja, Slobodan Katic and Milorad Pejic were acquitted, while Milan Lancuzanin`s sentence was reduced to six years from a previous 20 years. Predrag Dragovic’s sentence was reduced to 5 years from 20 years.
The original trial of the accused was annulled by Serbia’s supreme court in late 2006 on the grounds of procedural errors. The retrial began in March 2007.
The massacre is seen as one of the most brutal episodes of the Balkans conflicts of the early Nineties.
Vukovar fell to Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, JNA, forces after a relentless three-month siege that left most of the town in ruins.
More than 200 people, mainly ethnic Croat residents of the town, sought shelter in the local hospital believing they would be evacuated.
But Serb paramilitaries seized them and took them to a pig farm in nearby Ovcara, where they beat them for several hours.
The captives were then transported in small groups of 10 to 20 to a nearby site where they were shot with machine guns and pistols, their bodies bulldozed into mass grave.
The case was seen a test for the Serbian legal system and its readiness to prosecute and convict Serbs, forcing the nation to face up to crimes committed in its name during the 1990s.
Commenting on the verdict, Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader told local media, “[Although] one can always argue about whether the punishment could have been different or higher, it is good that the Belgrade trial has shown that in Serbia, too, there is a judiciary willing and capable of holding such trials and that if countries cooperate, such trials do not always have to take place in the country in which the crimes were committed.”
Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained reporter in Zagreb.
