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Two Serbs wanted for alleged war crimes transferred to UN tribunal

Two Serbs wanted for alleged war crimes transferred to UN tribunal

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Two Serbs wanted for alleged war crimes in Croatia were transferred today from Serbia to the detention unit of the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

In an indictment confirmed in 1995, prosecutors allege that Milan Martic, the leader of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Serb Krajina” (RSK), ordered RSK military forces to attack the central part of Zagreb on 2 and 3 May 1995, causing death and injury to a number of civilians in the Croatian capital.

For his actions, Mr. Martic was charged with four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for an unlawful attack against the civilian population and individual civilians.

Meanwhile, Mile Mrksic was wanted in connection with a separate indictment, confirmed in 1997, against the other so-called “Vukovar Three,” which includes Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin.

According to the indictment, in November 1991, the Yugoslav army (JNA) and Serb paramilitary soldiers under the command or supervision of the three suspects removed at least 200 non-Serb individuals from the Vukovar Hospital and then transported them to a farm building in Ovcara, where they beat them for several hours.

Soldiers then transported the captives in groups of about 10 to 20 to a site between the Ovcara farm and Grabovo, where they shot and otherwise killed at least 198 men and two women. After the killings, the bodies of the victims were buried by bulldozer in a mass grave at the same location.

During that time, Mr. Mrksic was a colonel in the JNA and commander of the Guards Brigade, which had primary responsibility for the attack on Vukovar. After the siege of Vukovar, he was promoted to general rank with the Yugoslav army and later became the commanding officer of the army of the RSK.

Mr. Mrksic is charged with two counts of grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, two counts of violations of the laws or customs of war and two counts of crimes against humanity.