Wars of independence

Veljko Kadijevic, the wartime commander of the Yugoslav People’s Army, who was accused but never convicted of war crimes during the conflict in Croatia, has died in exile.

The first defence witness at the trial of Josip Tolic, charged with abusing Serb prisoners in Odzak and Bosanski Brod, said the defendant saved him from a beating while he was in detention.

A former personnel officer in the Bosnian Serb Army told Ratko Mladic’s war crimes trial that some Muslim and Croat officers chose to remain with Serb-led forces in wartime.

Expelled Croats were free to go back to their homes in Serb-run areas of Croatia even during wartime, a defence witness told the trial of former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

An ex-officer with the Bosnian Serb Army testified at his commander Ratko Mladic’s war crimes trial that Bosniak forces deployed snipers in Sarajevo but his brigade never targeted civilians.

The unrecognised Serb government in Croatia had no authority over the military actions of the Yugoslav People’s Army and Territorial Defence fighters, a former minister told the trial of its leader Goran Hadzic.

BELGRADE - Families of the Serbs killed by the Croatian armed forces during an offensive on the territory of Medacki Dzep near the town of Gospic in western Croatia in 1993 Monday called on the authorities and competent institutions in Croatia to immediately prosecute those responsible for those crimes.

A witness said that Serb fighter Mitar Vujaklija killed her elderly Serb uncle in the Croatian village of Borovac in 1991 after he intervened to stop the harassment of local Croats.

Four former Croatian Defence Council fighters pleaded not guilty to the multiple rapes, torture and sexual abuse of Serb women in Odzak in northern Bosnia in 1992.

Former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic finished his testimony in his own defence by again denying he had military power in Croatia, where he is accused of committing war crimes.