THE INDICTED AND WITNESSES

Radisic, Mrksic and Sljivancanin on Trial in Belgrade

"If criminal proceedings are instigated and if they get an unbiased trial, and the court establishes that they are either guilty or innocent, the problem of their extradition to the Hague Tribunal might be taken off the agenda, and therefrom threat with sanctions to FRY", says Konstantin Obradovic, expert in international law

AIM Podgorica, 15 December, 1998

(By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

Three officers of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Mile Mrksic, Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic, will finally have to appear in court, although not in the Hague but in Belgrade. They will be questioned as witnesses at the Military Court in a litigation instigated by military prosecutor in order to investigate war crimes against prisoners of war pursuant Article 144 of the Criminal Law of FRY. This in fact refers to the crime "committed in November 1991 after a considerable number of members of paramilitary units of the Republic of Croatia had been imprisoned in Vukovar hospital".

These officers whose indictment is demamnded by the Tribunal in the Hague, will not appear in Military Court as the indicted, but their testimonies are expected to be part of the investigation of the mentioned crime. The Military Court in Belgrade presided by colonel Radomir Gojkovic, addressed a request to the International Court for Former Yugoslavia to send him documents and evidence for this case, and sent an invitation to the Tribunal for its representatives to attend the hearing.

The Tribunal in the Hague refused to send the evidence, but informed the Military Court that representatives of its prosecution would come to Belgrade. Deputy head prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal Graham Blewitt declared that a request had been submitted for issuing four visas. According to his words, the letter of the Military Court did not make it clear what the subject of the investigation was and what was the status of the three officers who were accused in the Hague for murder of about 260 non-Serbs who had been taken out of the hospital in Vukovar, killed at the Ovcara agricultural estate and then buried in a mass grave with a buldozer.

Just before the hearing in Belgrade, the Hague Tribunal officially demanded that the proceedings against the three officers be given to it. Before that, president of the international criminal court Gabrielle Kirk McDonalds called on the UN Security Council that it exert additional pressure on Belgrade to arrest and extradite the officers as ordered by its Resolution 1207. With its veto (on 8 December), Russia prevented condemnation of Yugoslavia for failing to extradite the indicted for serious violation of humanitarian law in Vukovar. Russian representative in the Security Council, Sergey Lavrov, did not agree with the text of the condemnation.

The indictment against Radic, Mrksic and Sljivancanin was written in the Hague on 7 September 1995. In the indictment, the then head prosecutor of the Tribunal Richard Goldstone gave a detailed description how the crime in Vukovar had been committed. According to the wording of this document, members of the JNA and paramilitary units, under command of the mentioned officers, took about 260 men whose names were listed from the Vukovar hospital to the Ovcar agricultural estate. They first beat them for a few hours, and then in groups of 10 to 20 transported them to a place between Ovcara and Grabovo where they killed them. After the killing, corpses of the victims were buried in the mass grave with a buldozer.

The prosecutor concluded that Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin, with their acts or failure to act, were responsible for the crime of heavy beating and killing, whereby the 1949 Geneva Convention was violated, as well as war law and common law, which is a crime against humanity. It is concluded in the indictment that the mentioned officers are personally responsible for the crimes they are charged with, including planning, instigating, issuing orders or assisting and participating in another manner in planning, preparing or commiting the crimes. The indicted are, according to the indictment, also responsible because they were commanding officers.

Almost in every form of pressure exerted on Slobodan Milosevic, the international community, especially the USA, demanded cooperation of Yugoslavia with the Tribunal in the Hague. Apart from the demand for extradition of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the names of the three officers of the former JNA were constantly on the list. Louise Arbour, head prosecutor of the Tribunal even came to Belgrade and personally demanded this from Milosevic. The greatest concession on his part was made when daily Politika, although with a delay of many months, publishged the public appeal of the international criminal court to these officers to surrender. In the meantime, digging up about 200 corpses in Ovcara was completed, and by identification it was estabished that they had been persons who, as suspected, had been taken from the hospital in Vukovar.

Although the Tribunal is constantly appealing on Yugoslavia to meet its obligation to extradite the indicted officers on the basis of the supremacy of the international court over the domestic ones, it seems nothing will come of it. This was confirmed by Milosevic himself in his recent interview to the Washington Post: "We cannot extradite our citizens. We have never intended to arrest them and extradite them to the Tribunal. There has never been evidence on their guilt. Our ministry of justice demanded that the Tribunal offer evidence on their alleged crimes. They have received no evidence. Had there been any, they would have been arrested, but they would be given a trial over here", said president of the FRY.

Grant Nimmen, one of the prosecutors of the Tribunal, has recently said, as Beta reports, that contrary to international law and its clear and explicit obligations, FRY has for the past three years openly refesed to arrest and extradite the three accused officers, and now it is starting proceedings which is, in fact, just a performance aimed to achieve reduction of pressure on Belgrade to extradite the indicted and an opportunity for them to publicly present their version of the developments in Vukovar. "The trial at the Military Court in Belgrade has a political motive and it was ordered", Nimmen believes.

Konstantin Obradovic, expert in international law, is convinced however, that interrogation of the three officers of the former army is a good sign in the direction of initiation of real investigation against them. He explains that regardless of the fact that they are appearing in court as witnesses, should local criminal law be observed, it is possible that it will be established that there is founded suspicion that these witnesses, or other persons have committed criminal acts from Chapter 16 of the Criminal Law (serious violation of humanitarian law pursuant the Geneva conventions). "It can be assumed that in that case, investigation will be initiated and charges raised", says Obradovic.

According to his opinion, if criminal proceedings and a trial are initiated, and if it is established that it was unbiased, and the court finds the indicted quilty or innocent, the problem of their extradition to the Tribunal will be taken off the agenda, and therefrom the threat with sanctions against FRY. He says that instigation of proceedings should have taken place much earlier, because indications that the crime was committed existed back in 1991: "The Hague Tribunal insisted on extradition because of the doubt that our courts wished to start proceedings or that they could do it impartially, according to rules of procedure. According to international law which is superior to the domestic, it was the duty of the courts to bring the indicted for war crimes to stand on trial, and had they done it (not only in FRY, but also in Croatia and B&H), the international criminal court would not have even been established". In any case, Obradovic notes, "one should wait and see the outcome of the proceedings at the Military Court, let the indicted officers even be freed of charge, then we shall see what will happen".

Vesna Vujic

(AIM)