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U.N.
War Crimes Prosecutor Tours Croatia Atrocity Sites
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Del Ponte |
VUKOVAR,
Croatia, May 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.N. chief war
crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte Tuesday toured sites of alleged Serb
atrocities committed in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar during
the 1990s Serbo-Croatian conflict.
Del
Ponte started with a visit to Erdut, site of a training camp of a
Serbian paramilitary group and an improvised prison run by rebel Serbs
during the 1991-95 war, news agencies reported.
At
the site, Del Ponte - accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Goran
Granic, the government's liaison with the U.N. War Crimes Court, and
Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic - watched a video showing
how Serb forces, backed by the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
encircled the Vukovar region after Croatia declared its independence
in 1991.
Del
Ponte, on a two-day visit to Croatia, also visited site of a mass
grave in the nearby village of Borovo Selo, where the remains of 24
Croatian civilians, have been exhumed.
She
talked to witnesses of Serb atrocities and visited the monument to
twelve Croatian policemen ambushed and killed in Borovo Selo in May
1991, in one of the first armed encounters between Serb rebels and
Croatian police.
The
Erdut camp was led by the followers of Serbian paramilitary warlord
Zeljko Raznjatovic, better known as Arkan.
It
was from there that Arkan trained the rebel Serb forces that comprised
his feared Tigers paramilitary group during the conflict.
Arkan,
who was gunned down in Belgrade after the end of the war, in January
2000, was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity and other
charges.
Currently
the ICTY is trying former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic and
members of his administration for war crimes, including genocide,
during the war in the Balkans.
He
is also being held accountable for the massacre at Srebrenica that
left thousands of Muslim men dead.
Between
60 and 200 Croats died at a prison on the training camp site,
according to Croatian estimates, but many bodies have never been
found.
The
site also acted as the government seat of the self-styled
"Krajina" separatists, who fought for an independent Serb
republic in the east of Croatia's Slavonia region.
Del
Ponte, under heavy security measures, arrived in Vukovar, the symbol
of Croatia's suffering during the conflict, to hold talks with
Croatian officials.
Vukovar
was conquered in November 1991 after a three-month-long siege during
which 1,100 civilians were killed and the once wealthy Danube port
virtually destroyed.
Del
Ponte was due to travel to a nearby farm, where some 250 non-Serb
civilians and soldiers were executed after Vukovar fell to the Serbs.
The
U.N. tribunal indicted three Yugoslav army officers -- Mile Mrksic,
Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic - over the Vukovar siege, but
all three still remain at large.
Vukovar
and the whole region were put under U.N. administration in 1995 and
reintegrated into Croatia 1998.
After
arriving in Zagreb on Monday, Del Ponte met Croatian Prime Minister
Ivica Racan to discuss "questions of cooperation" between
Croatia and the ICTY.
Relations
between Zagreb and The Hague have significantly improved since
moderates took over from nationalists in January 2000, pledging a
genuine cooperation with the court.
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