Belgrade Trial Reopens Vukovar Case

The re-trial of 17 individuals indicted for the 1991 killings of 200 Croat prisoners at a farm near Vukovar has reignited the controversy over why the verdict of the first trial was overturned by Serbia’s Supreme Court.



The new trial opened in Belgrade on September 3.



The original trial, which ended almost two years ago, was annulled by Serbia’s Supreme Court in 2006, and a re-trial was ordered due to procedural flaws and discrepancies identified by judges.



Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor Bruno Vekaric has told IWPR that as the new trial opens, he remains concerned about the Supreme Court’s treatment of war crimes cases.



All the accused are Serbs who were serving in paramilitary groups and the Territorial Defence force, TO, of Vukovar when this town in Croatia was captured by the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, in late 1991. They are charged with killing Croat civilians and wounded soldiers taken from Vukovar hospital on November 20 that year when the town fell.



According to the indictment, the victims were executed at the Ovcara farm after JNA troops handed the prisoners over to the TO.



The first trial ended in December 2005, when judges at the War Crimes Chamber of Belgrade’s District Court sentenced 15 people to prison terms ranging from five to 20 years, and acquitted two other defendants.



The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the verdict a year and order a re-trial had a mixed reaction in Serbia. Some observers, including legal experts and non-government organisations, thought the Supreme Court made the right decision.



Others believed it was wrong because, in their view, the suspects did get a fair trial and the convictions were based on sound evidence. They said the decision raised doubts about Belgrade’s readiness to face up to its past and prosecute war crimes successfully.



War Crimes Prosecutor Vekaric says he hopes judges will confirm the previous verdict. However, he adds he remains worried about the Supreme Court’s tendency to overturn judgements handed down by lower courts.



“We are very concerned with the Supreme Court’s attitude towards war crimes, but I think the situation is improving,” said Vekaric. “It is very important that Serbian politicians send a clear message that war crimes trials are vital for reconciliation and for a better future for the Serbian people.”



Since 2003, Serbia’s Office of the Prosecutor has issued more than 15 indictments relating to alleged war crimes during the Balkans conflicts , and more than 20 cases are currently at the investigation phase. In addition, the Hague tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sent Serbian prosecutors many documents relevant to local war crimes proceedings, although so far it has only referred one case to Serbian courts.



According to Andrej Nosov from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, “Courts in Serbia are ready to process war crimes, but what is missing here is a positive atmosphere that would enable prosecutors and judges to investigate and prosecute all members of state institutions who are suspected of participating in these crimes.



“Unfortunately, there are still too many people in Serbia who enjoy impunity and lead normal lives despite their past.”



Nosov told IWPR that despite certain shortcomings, the original Ovcara case was “one of the best organised trials in Serbia to date”, and so the Supreme Court’s decision caused many negative reactions.



Nosov said he now expects prosecutors to use the re-trial to bring additional evidence to support some of the allegations from the indictment which they failed to prove the first time round.



Belgrade lawyer Dragoljub Todorovic from the Humanitarian Law Fund, a group that is representing the victims of Vukovar at this trial, told IWPR that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the first verdict does not mean the judiciary is unprepared to handle war crime cases.



In fact, he said, the new trial may result in more severe sentences because prosecutors now have more evidence to support their case.



Ivan Jovanovic, legal adviser with the OSCE mission in Belgrade, believes war crimes trials taking place in Serbian courts are very important, because they can significantly contribute to reconciliation in the region and change this country’s perception of its recent past.



“When a historic record is established in domestic institutions, people are more likely to accept it - which is not always the case when those facts are served to them by some foreign court,” he sad.



The re-trial started last week with testimony from retired general Aleksandar Vasiljevic, who was in charge of security affairs in the JNA at the time of the events detailed in the indictment.



Vasiljevic told the court that he first heard about war crimes at Ovcara two months afterwards, in January 1993, when JNA officer Zjaje Murisa told him he had been sent to the area and had personally seen 186 prisoners held by the TO.



He said Murisa informed him that he heard gunshots coming from the farm, but left after receiving an order from his superiors to return to base.



Vasiljevic said he passed on this information to his own superiors in the JNA Security Command in 1994.



Also last week, Vasiljevic referred to Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin, two of three men whose trial for the Vukovar killings ended in March 2007.



The tribunal is expected to pass judgement on Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic later this year.



In the Belgrade courtroom, Vasiljevic said he asked Mrksic, former commander of the Vukovar Guard Unit, about events in Ovcara when he met him in 1997. Mkrsic replied, the witness said, by saying that it was the Territorial Defence who carried out the killings and that he would never have handed over the prisoners to them if he had known what they would do to them.



Vasiljevic also said he talked about the killings at Ovcara at a meeting with Sljivancanin in 1994, but the latter told him he “didn’t know what happened there”.



Aleksandar Roknic is a regular IWPR contributor in Belgrade.