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Serbia indicts man residing in Britain for major war crime
Apr 10, 2008, 10:14 GMT
Belgrade - Serbian war crimes prosecutors said Thursday that charges have been raised against a man residing in Britain over the 1991 slaughter of 200 Croats at Vukovar in eastern Croatia.
Milorad Pejic, 39, has been accused of taking part in the mass murder following the Yugoslav Army and Serb militia's siege of Vukovar.
He has settled in Britain after the wars in former Yugoslavia and was working as a locksmith, but was arrested last month at Belgrade airport when he returned for a family visit. An international arrest warrant had been issued on the request of the Serbian police.
The trial of 16 other defendants accused of murdering Croat prisoners at the Ovcara pig farm near Vukovar is currently ongoing at the war crimes chamber of the Belgrade District Court.
The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague in September sentenced two Yugoslav army officers to 20 and five years in prison for the Ovcara massacre and acquitted the third defendant.
The mild verdict outraged Croatia, where the futile defence of Vukovar against the overwhelming siege in late 1991 is seen as one of the major symbols of its four-year war for independence.
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