Tuesday, October 11, 2005

U.N. prosecutors say 'Vukovar three' had advanced plan to kill non-Serbs

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - War crimes prosecutors accused three former Yugoslav army officers Tuesday of the premeditated massacre of at least 264 patients, refugees and medical staff at Vukovar hospital in Croatia in 1991, an atrocity that helped propel Yugoslavia into years of warfare that led to its breakup.

At the opening of their trial by the U.N. tribunal for Yugoslavia, two of the three stood before the judges and professed innocence, calling on them to uncover the truth behind the killing and punish the true perpetrators.

Gen. Mile Mrksic, Capt. Miroslav Radic and Col. Veselin Sljivancanin, all ethnic Serbs, are being tried on eight counts of war crimes, including persecution, extermination, murder, torture and inhumane acts.

Sljivancanin was indicted in 1995 for leading the siege of Vukovar, a town on the banks of the Danube River which forms the border with Serbia-Montenegro, formerly Yugoslavia.

The once elegant 14th century town was virtually flattened in a three-month onslaught that killed about 1,700 Croats.

"The city was subjected to a repeated, continuous and often indiscriminate intense artillery and air bombardment, forcing many inhabitants to live in underground shelters or basements," prosecutor Marks Moore said in an opening statement.

Around 1,000-2,000 people were sheltering at the hospital during the intense fighting between Croats and Serb forces that broke out just months after Croatia declared independence from the six-nation Yugoslav socialist federation.

In the last days of the assault, Serb soldiers evacuated around 400 people sheltering in the hospital and took them to a farm. The U.N. indictment says the patients and hospital staff were beaten for hours before being led in groups of 10 and 20 to a nearby field to be executed.

Moore described a hellish scene as the hospital was cleared. Serb soldiers took a pregnant woman and shot her in the vagina, killing her and her unborn baby. More than half of 195 bodies later exhumed from a mass grave had been patients killed by gunshot. Prosecutors say the bodies of 64 are still missing.

Sljivancanin, wearing a black suit and tie, told the court he was a victim of propaganda, never broke the law, and had sought to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians.

"I do not want to use these facts to draw attention from the innocent who were killed, the people from the Vukovar hospital. Those who did commit that crime should meet their just punishment," he said, standing at the defendants table. "After all these years of persecution, all kinds of untruth and agony, I will finally receive justice."

Radic also spoke briefly saying "it is very difficult to bear the burden of being accused of war crimes for which I personally believe I am innocent."

Prosecutors will call witnesses to testify about a meeting six days before the assault on the hospital in November 1991, when a nationalist Serb doctrine was discussed.

"This war is a great test for Serbs. Those who pass the test will become winners. Deserters cannot go unpunished," Serb radical Vojislav Seselj was quoted as having told commanders.

"Not a single Ustacha must leave Vukovar alive," he reportedly said, using a derogatory term for Croat collaborators during World War II. Seselj is facing a separate war crimes trial at the U.N. court.

Charges were dropped against a fourth suspect, Slavko Dokmanovic, who has died.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established in 1994 to prosecute war crimes during the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s. It has indicted 161 individuals for alleged atrocities, including former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Among seven suspects still at large are former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime general, Ratko Mladic, and Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Serbs surprise even themselves. Look what they are skilled for!

Anonymous said...

I wonder why it took him 9 years and a forced extradition to get to Hague if he couldn't wait to clear his name?!!

I wonder how many of these hardened criminals from Bosnia and Croatia came to terrorize Kosova just because Hague was so damn slow?

Anonymous said...

Yes, so nice that you albanians of Kosovo feel so much a part of Serbia and Montenegro that you post so very much about it's current events. Very good indeed.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the Albanians of Kosova realize that they are citizens of Serbia Montenegro after all.

Anonymous said...

At 8:42 PM, Anonymous said...

Yes, so nice that you albanians of Kosovo feel so much a part of Serbia and Montenegro that you post so very much about it's current events. Very good indeed.

At 8:56 PM, Anonymous said...

Perhaps the Albanians of Kosova realize that they are citizens of Serbia Montenegro after all.

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buddy the site is called kosovareport.com...nobody wants to live or be apart of such a filthy race...uer just like uer buddies in hague, dont worry soon u guys will be with em..just what milsovic wanted, a perfect serbia..near hague hahaha

Anonymous said...

I woudln't bother if Serbia was in another planet. But since we were damned with Serbia as neighbhors, you worry whether Serb criminials from Bosnia go to Hague or go to Kosova.

Anonymous said...

Here's what a Serb mind can do.

"More described a hellish scene as the hospital was cleared. Serb soldiers took a pregnant woman and shot her in the vagina, killing her and her unborn baby. More than half of 195 bodies later exhumed from a mass grave had been patients killed by gunshot. Prosecutors say the bodies of 64 are still missing."

Sick perverted twisted life forms, these Serbs. And then you had the highest Serb priest kissing the hands of and blessing these low lifes for doing their patriotic duties by shoting pregnant women in theoir vaginas and killing the unborn fetuses.

Anonymous said...

filthy race? let's talk the kanun and what you do to your own. Albanian kids can't go to school due to your hatred and blood lust--too funny. It's the new millenium and albanians are killing their own for vengeance all over the world....who is the the filthy race? congrats, shiftars win.

Anonymous said...

Serbs shot pregnant women in the vagina killng both the fetus and her. Very sick and perverted.

Anonymous said...

Ooops! Serbs on the offensive once again to divert the attention away from their dirty closet.
For example, as recently as 1920 Serbs villagers used to club their old people to death so that they were not a burden on the family (in modern anthropology, once you are past your reproductive age, you are unnecessary to the gene pool). This was a very public event, with the neighbhors witnessing.

Canon of Lek is an honour code based on something called besa and your kind has never been able to produce something even close to it because you don't have honour and even less codes of any other kind. Yes it's been perverted recently in a small part of Albania proper but Kanun is at least 550 years old in its official form and probably much older in origin.
As Edith Durham, a very dear friend of Serbs said, "it's a mistake to think of Albanian Highlanders as lawless for I know no other society on earth that lives under a harsher tyranny of the laws."

Anonymous said...

To: Our neighbors, Serbs
From: A common Albanian

Hej wait, wait, wait. "Ignorantiam non est argumentum" the Latin loved to say. Of course, I forgot, you Serbs know nothing about Latin...
So, the Kanun is a far more complicated issue that you think it is. It is a matter of anthropology, which masters are eligible to talk about. Is part of the chaine: give-receive-return and exactly the so-called "negative reciprocity". One can find similar manifestations in different part/communities of the civilised world. Prior of giving any kind of opinion you better read something of Mauss (Marcel), R. Anspach (Mark), Pigliaru (Antonio).
I would be pleased to give you some insights, but I do not have time. I entered this site by accident and my aesthetical sense refused to remain indifferent to the mess!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that anyone is defending the use of the kanun in 2005. Goes to show you how absolutely undeveloped you are and why albanians will be occupied for generations.

Anonymous said...

Who did the last remark? Any author? Is that mentioned in any book? Please give references you silly, ignorant, superficial Serb. Have you read any book recently? Dont misspend your time. Get some culture and then, you might be allowed to give some thoughts

Anonymous said...

For God's sake, can't you see that these Serbs are trying to divert the attention from their filthy crimes by talking about something else (Kanun in this case)? This is what they always do in these posts. They are so pathetic.

Where were we? ... yeah...
"More described a hellish scene as the hospital was cleared. Serb soldiers took a pregnant woman and shot her in the vagina, killing her and her unborn baby. More than half of 195 bodies later exhumed from a mass grave had been patients killed by gunshot. Prosecutors say the bodies of 64 are still missing."

Anonymous said...

Drama Vagina Monologues had a description of the raping scene through the barrel of the gun in Bosnia. Apparently it was widespread and din't end at that.

Anonymous said...

Please stop trying to explain the Kanun to Serbs... They just do not have the mental capability to understand it.