Closing Arguments in "Vukovar Three" Case

Prosecution and defence will give their closing arguments at the former Yugoslav army officials' trial before the ICTY.

A year and a half after the "Vukovar Three" trial for the Ovcara massacre started in the Hague, the prosecution and defence will give their closing arguments before the ICTY on Wednesday, at the trial of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) commanders Mile Mrksic, Veselin Sljivancanin, and Miroslav Radic.

They are charged with ordering and organizing the taking of 300 people from the Vukovar hospital to a JNA barrack and then to the agriculture farm Ovcara, where the people were executed by the local Serbian forces and Seselj's units after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991. 260 people were killed in the massacre.  

Along with Ovcara survivors, head of Vukovar hospital Vesna Bosanac, the hospital's former head of surgery Juraj Njavro, the former spokeswoman for the Hague prosecution Florence Hartmann, who were witnesses for the prosecution, the two accused men – Major Sljivancanin and Captain Radic – also testified at the trial that started in late 2005.

Sljivancanin denied the claims that, On November 20, 1991, he had personally commanded the evacuation of the Vukovar hospital and ensured the separation of the wounded and the ill from the supposed members of Croatian forces. He also claimed that he had not been in the JNA barrack where those prisoners had been taken from the hospital, nor that he had been on Ovcara, where they had been executed afterwards. Sljivancanin said that he had heard "rumours" about the massacre of 250 people, but that he had believed them to be "disinformation." Along with his witnesses, he also claimed that he had never prevented the representatives of the European Community Monitoring Mission and International Red Cross from entering the hospital.

Radic, on the other hand, claimed that, had he known who had committed the Ovcara crime – he would have punished the perpetrators. He and his witnesses also claimed not to have participated in the evacuation and separation of hospital prisoners and not to have commanded the members of the Territorial Defence of Vukovar and Seselj's units. 

Mrksic's attorneys opted for the alibi defence, saying that, on the night of the massacre on Ovcara on November 20 and 21, 1991, Mrksic had been in Belgrade and not in command in Negoslavci. His spouse Djurdjica claimed the same as the first witness of Mrksic's defence.

The prosecution claims that Mrksic was informed about the prisoner abuse in the hangar not far from Ovcara, which was confirmed more than once, not only by the witnesses for the prosecution, but also for Sljivancanin's defence.