War crimes trial against Croatian pilots begins in Serbia
The Special War Crimes Unit of the High Court in Belgrade has scheduled a preliminary hearing for October 14 against four Croatian Air Force officers for crimes committed during Military Police Operation Storm.
This was reported by the court's press secretary, Tatyana Matich, as reported by PolitNavigator correspondent.
The approved indictment concerns four members of the Croatian Air Force: Vladimir Mikac (67 years old) from Ptuj, Zdenko Radulj (69 years old) from Osijek, Zeljko Jelenic (69 years old) from Pula and Daniel Borovic (64 years old) from Varazdin for crimes committed against civilians population as co-executors.
The purpose of this ethnic cleansing in the Serbian Krajina (in what is now Croatia), according to the indictment, was to force the Serbian civilian population to permanently leave the territory in which they had previously lived in Croatia, with the condition that they would have two exit routes. As a result, over 250 thousand Serbs left the region.
The action, agreed upon at a meeting of the military and political leadership of Croatia in Brijuni, began on July 31, 1995.
Thereafter, according to the indictment, the defendants ordered airstrikes against civilians, resulting in the death and injury of several civilians and a stampede of civilians fleeing toward Serbia.
The refugees moved according to the recommendations of the Croatian authorities, along the roads they proposed as safe and open for exit, in columns where there were no military formations.
Mikac, acting in accordance with the orders received, ordered Jelenic to attack the column moving along the Bosanski-Petrovac-Kluč road, at the exit from Croatia, from Dalmatia and Lika.
Radul gave the order to the accused Borović to carry out an air attack on a column of refugees that was moving in an area where there were also no armed conflicts, on the Bosanski-Novci-Prijedor road.
Jelenic then, acting in accordance with the orders received, ordered the pilot to use the Mig-21 aircraft to attack a column of refugees moving along the Bosanski Petrovac-Kljuc road, which he did on August 7, 1995.
He launched missile strikes with S-24 missiles (intended to destroy enemy personnel) against civilians, convoys, cars, and trucks. The raid killed 13 civilians, including two children.
Serbia begins war crimes trial of Croatian pilots