Over 230 years prison sentenced on 14 for 1991 Vukovar massacre

BELGRADE, Dec. 12 Kyodo

A group of 14 member of a Serb paramilitary unit received Monday a sentence of total 231 years of prison for one of the worst crimes during the 1991-1995 Croat civil war -- the killing of some 200 Croatian prisoners of war around 14 years ago in the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar.

After a trial that started in May 2004, the sentences were announced Monday by the War Crimes Council of Belgrade District Court.

The commander of the paramilitary unit and seven of his closest subordinates received prison sentences of 20 years each and three of the defendants 15 years each. One was sentenced to 12 years, one to five and the only woman in the group received a sentence of nine years.

Two from the group were acquitted.

The massacre happened in November 1991 when the Yugoslav army and Serb paramilitary troops, after four months of fierce battles, took control of Vukovar, a Croatian city on the Danube River, on the border with Serbia.

The paramilitary units led by Stanko Vujanovic, who is among the eight sentenced to 20 years prison, took from Vukovar hospital wounded Croatian soldiers as well as other POWs and killed them all on a pig farm near the city.

Three former Yugoslav army officers are charged for the same massacre and are going to be tried by the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

Monday's verdicts mark the ending of the most significant trial at the Belgrade Court for War Crimes and could influence the U.N. Tribunal in favor of transferring some of the pending cases to Serbian Courts.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning