BELGRADE: Six men accused of the massacre of 192 Croatian prisoners of war back in 1991 went on trial in Belgrade last week. This is the first war crimes trial in Serbia for atrocities committed in the war of disintegration of former Yugoslavia.
The war took more than 200,000 lives, mostly of non-Serbs.
"This is a historic trial, a big challenge and test for Serbian justice," spokesman for prosecution Bruno Vekaric told IPS. "No political influence will be involved in this case, because justice should only deal with crime and punishment and not with the nationality of victims."
The trial in Belgrade is over one of the first known massacres in Croatia's war of independence. The indictment says the accused executed prisoners of war and civilians. It describes in detail the events of Nov 20 and 21, 1991 at a pig farm named Ovcara near Vukovar, some 150km north- west of Belgrade.
More than 200 Croats were taken away from local hospital in those two days after the Belgrade-controlled Yugoslav army and Serb paramilitary overran the town. Most of them were Croatian fighters who had laid down their arms and taken shelter at the hospital, prosecution says.
Among them were two women, one of them pregnant, a boy aged 16 and a Croatian journalist. All were taken to the Ovcara pig farm and shot dead. Their bodies were buried in previously dug graves. Bulldozers covered the bodies with dirt.
Of the victims 192 were identified in 1996 when Eastern Slavonia territory and Vukovar went to Croatia under a United Nations sponsored agreement with Belgrade.
"The trial is of extreme importance for Serbs, as it's high time to come to terms that war crimes were committed in the name of their nation," Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) told IPS. The HLC is the leading Serbian non- governmental organization (NGO) that deals with human rights violations in former Yugoslavia.
During the wars of disintegration in 1991-95, most Serbs believed the propaganda of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic that Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia were merely defending their national interests.
They were told the Belgrade-controlled Yugoslav Army and the Serb paramilitary (comprising local Serbs and those from Serbia proper) were only helping local Serbs defend themselves.
The UN-founded International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was described as part of the anti-Serb conspiracy. The ICTY was established in 1993 when atrocities against non-Serbs surfaced during the war. Milosevic's propaganda painted the court as an institution designed to put all Serbs on trial.
Things changed at the government level after the ouster of Milosevic in October 2000. The new authorities arrested Milosevic and extradited him to the ICTY at The Hague in June 2001. He stands trial there for war crimes and genocide.
But despite the change of regime, many Serbs still believe what they were told under Milosevic. Few think war crimes were committed against non-Serbs. "The Ovcara case is not just important for ordinary people to understand what went on," Kandic said.
"Individuals should be punished for their crimes, so that the rest of Serbs could be disabused of the false beliefs that Milosevic tried to impose on them. Besides, this trial shows that the UN and the ICTY place their trust in Serbia now."
Such trials will "have an influence on the future of Serbia," historian Latinka Perovic told IPS. "If Serbia wants to join the European family of nations, it has to know the truth on what was done in the 90s in the name of its people. Serbs are still deeply divided over that." -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.
