Today, the ICTY Trial Chamber rendered its judgment in the case (No. IT-95-13/1) against Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić, and Veselin Šljivančanin, former military commanders in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). The defendants were indicted, under theories of individual and superior responsibility, for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including persecutions, extermination, murder, torture, inhumane acts, and cruel treatment, allegedly committed after the fall of the Croatian city of Vukovar in November 1991. Specifically, the indictment, as summarized by the ICTY, alleged that:In today's judgment (not yet available online; press release here), the Trial Chamber convicted Mrkšić of war crimes, specifically aiding and abetting the murder, torture, and cruel treatment of 194 non-Serb prisoners of war who were taken from Vukovar Hospital. He was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The Chamber convicted Šljivančanin of war crimes, namely aiding and abetting the cruel treatment of the prisoners. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. The Chamber acquitted Radić of all charges. The crimes against humanity charges brought against all three defendants were dismissed because the persons murdered had been "specifically identified and selected because of their known, or believed, involvement in the Croatian forces in Vukovar. The Serb forces who mistreated the victims and murdered them acted on the understanding that the victims were prisoners of war, not civilians."in late August 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) laid siege to the city of Vukovar. The siege continued until 18 November 1991 when the city fell to Serb forces. During the course of the three-month siege, the city was largely destroyed by JNA shelling and hundreds of persons were killed. After Serb forces occupied the city, the hundreds more non-Serbs were killed by Serb forces. The overwhelming majority of the remaining non-Serb population of the city was expelled within days of the fall of Vukovar. In the last days of the siege, several hundred people sought refuge at the Vukovar Hospital in the hope that it would be evacuated in the presence of international observers. According to the indictment, Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić and Veselin Šljivančanin participated in a joint criminal enterprise (JCE). The purpose of the JCE was the persecution of Croats or other non-Serbs who were present at Vukovar Hospital after the fall of the city, through the commission of murder, torture, cruel treatment, extermination and inhumane acts. It is further alleged that on 20 November 1991, JNA soldiers removed about 400 non-Serbs from the Vukovar Hospital. Miroslav Radić and Veselin Šljivančanin personally participated in the selection of detainees who were to be loaded on buses. The buses left the hospital and proceeded to the JNA barracks where Serb forces comprised of the Territorial Defence (“TO”), volunteer and paramilitary soldiers humiliated and threatened detainees. Some detainees were removed from the buses and beaten in the presence of members of the JNA. The detainees were then transported to a farm building in Ovčara, located about 4 kilometers south of Vukovar, where soldiers beat them. Soldiers then transported their non-Serb captives in groups of about 10 to 20 to a ravine in the direction of Grabovo, a village about 3 km south-east of Ovčara, where they killed at least 264 Croats and other non-Serbs from Vukovar Hospital. After the killings, the bodies of the victims were buried by bulldozer in a mass grave at the same location.
