Serbs charged with murder of Croat prisoners go on trial

THE TRIAL of eight Serbs accused of committing war crimes during vicious fighting for the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991 opens today in a special Serbian court.

The trial is the latest test of Belgrade's ability to hold war crimes trials in domestic courts, a key demand of the new Serbian government amid growing opposition here to the United Nations tribunal at The Hague.

Serbia's special prosecutor for war crimes, Vladimir Vukcevic, charged the men in December last year for allegedly murdering ethnic Croat prisoners from the Vukovar hospital in November 1991.

More than 200 patients from the hospital were executed by Yugoslav army and irregular forces mostly ethnic Serb soldiers in what is remembered as one of the worst atrocities committed during the violent breakup of the former Yugoslav federation.

Vukovar was captured by the Yugoslav army and Serb rebels in November 1991 after a three-month siege and bitter house-to-house fighting. The town on the Danube River was razed to rubble and more than 1,000 civilians of all ethnic backgrounds were killed.

After the war the Vukovar region was put under United Nations administration and it was eventually reintegrated into Croatia in 1998.

The trial will take on added significance following general elections in December which led to the formation last week of a new Serbian government that is strongly critical of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Netherlands.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) last year released a report expressing doubts about the ability of Serbia's judicial system to tackle complicated and potentially divisive war crimes cases.

But Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told parliament in his first policy speech last week that his government would push to try more war crimes suspects in Serbia rather than extradite them to The Hague.

He has said the extradition of suspects such as four generals indicted last year for allegedly committing war crimes in Kosovo is not a priority for his government.

"We will do everything to make cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague go two ways, to speed up war crimes trials before domestic courts and to seek help for the defence of those indicted," he said.

US ambassador at large for war crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper warned that Belgrade appeared to be in the process of making a "U-turn" on its previous commitments to track down war crimes suspects.

He warned that a lack of cooperation would cost Belgrade badly needed US aid, and senior European diplomats have sounded similar alarms over foreign investment and relations with the European Union.

The previous Serbian government extradited top war crimes suspect Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, to The Hague in 2001 but since then Belgrade has been accused of obstructing the UN tribunal's work.

Kostunica, who is often described as a "moderate nationalist", opposed Milosevic's extradition and now relies on Milosevic's Socialist Party to support his minority coalition government in parliament.

The UN court at The Hague has charged three Serb officers Veselin Sljivancanin, Miroslav Radic and Mile Mrksic with war crimes committed in Vukovar. All three are awaiting trial in The Netherlands.

The eight men charged by the Serbian court in relation to Vukovar were members of the so-called Territorial defense, or units grouping military reservists, under the command of the former Yugoslav People's Army. Justice officials have said at least 16 other men are under investigation over the Vukovar atrocity.