The judgment in the case against three former high-ranking Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, officers charged with the 1991 killings in Vukovar will be delivered on September 27, the tribunal’s officials announced this week.
Former JNA commanders Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić and Veselin Šljivančanin were indicted for crimes committed after the fall of the Croatian city of Vukovar in November 1991.
According to the indictment, when Vukovar fell to the JNA and Serb paramilitary forces on November 18, 1991, the units under the command or supervision of the three accused removed about 400 non-Serbs from the town’s main hospital where they sought refuge believing they would be evacuated in the presence of international observers.
Some 300 people, including wounded, were transported to a farm building in Ovčara, where they were beaten and otherwise mistreated.
The indictment further alleges that on or about November 20, 1991, the Serb soldiers transported their captives in groups of about 10 to 20 to a site between the Ovčara farm and Grabovo, where they killed at least 264 of them.
After the killings, the bodies of the victims were buried in a mass grave at the same location.
All three accused are charged with persecution, extermination, murder, torture, inhumane acts and cruel treatment.
Their trial began in October 2005 and concluded in March this year. During that time, a total of 88 witnesses were heard.
Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s tribunal programme manager.
Former JNA commanders Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić and Veselin Šljivančanin were indicted for crimes committed after the fall of the Croatian city of Vukovar in November 1991.
According to the indictment, when Vukovar fell to the JNA and Serb paramilitary forces on November 18, 1991, the units under the command or supervision of the three accused removed about 400 non-Serbs from the town’s main hospital where they sought refuge believing they would be evacuated in the presence of international observers.
Some 300 people, including wounded, were transported to a farm building in Ovčara, where they were beaten and otherwise mistreated.
The indictment further alleges that on or about November 20, 1991, the Serb soldiers transported their captives in groups of about 10 to 20 to a site between the Ovčara farm and Grabovo, where they killed at least 264 of them.
After the killings, the bodies of the victims were buried in a mass grave at the same location.
All three accused are charged with persecution, extermination, murder, torture, inhumane acts and cruel treatment.
Their trial began in October 2005 and concluded in March this year. During that time, a total of 88 witnesses were heard.
Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s tribunal programme manager.
