Vukovar trial starts at Hague war crimes tribunal

The Hague war crimes tribunal is set to begin the trial of three former Yugoslav army officers charged with complicity in the 1991 Vukovar massacre -- one of the most notorious atrocities of the Balkan wars.

More than 200 people perished after being removed from a hospital in the eastern Croatian town and taken to a nearby farm where they were shot and buried in a mass grave.

The incident came to symbolise the savagery of the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin -- known as the "Vukovar Three" -- are accused of crimes against humanity and of violations of the laws or customs of war.

They have pleaded not guilty.

According to the indictment, the federal Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) laid siege to the town in eastern Croatia in August 1991, early in the Croatian war for independence. The city fell three months later.

Hundreds of people including families of hospital staff and some Croatian soldiers sought refuge with patients and staff at Vukovar hospital, in the belief they would be evacuated in the presence of international observers.

After the army's takeover of the Danube port of Vukovar JNA soldiers, under the command of Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin, took about 400 people from the hospital and then transported 300 to a farm building in nearby Ovcara.

There, the captives were beaten for several hours and afterwards transported in groups of about 10 to 20 to a site close by. At least 264 people, most of them Croatians, were killed and their bodies buried by bulldozer in a mass grave.

The case of the Vukovar massacre was one of the first investigations of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after it was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 1993.

The initial indictment for the three men was issued in 1995. Mrksic and Radic surrendered in 2002 but Sljivancanin did not turn himself in.

He was finally arrested in June 2003 by security forces in Belgrade after a tense 10-hour standoff between riot police and his supporters outside his apartment block where he had apparently returned to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Prosecutors had originally applied to transfer the case to the Balkans in February but reversed their decision in June after rival bids by Serbia and Croatia to stage the proceedings aroused strong feelings in both countries.

- REUTERS