Serbian prosecutor probing 'first Yugoslav war crime'

Serbian prosecutor probing 'first Yugoslav war crime'
Agence France Presse (English) - April 5, 2006 Wednesday 4:04 PM GMT

BELGRADE, April 5 2006 - The office of Serbia's special war crimes prosecutor has begun an investigation into a video showing the killing of three Yugoslav soldiers in Slovenia in 1991, a spokesman said Wednesday.

"The prosecution opened an investigation into the video made by Austrian television ORF which shows what is probably the first war crime" in the conflicts that shattered former Yugoslavia, Bruno Vekaric told AFP.

The spokesman said the footage depicted the killing of three soldiers of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) on June 28, 1991 when they were sent to confront separatist Slovenian forces at the border post of Holmec, near Austria.

Serbia's special war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, had received the video from the director of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Slovenia, Neva Miklavcic-Predan.

The wars of the 1990s that led to the bloody break-up of former communist federation began in Slovenia in June 1991, after the westernmost republic declared independence and local forces took control of its border posts.

A series of low-intensity battles ensued, claiming the lives of 64 people over a 10-day period before the JNA withdrew from the republic.

The conflict in Slovenia was followed by wars in Croatia (1991-1995), Bosnia (1992-1995) and the Serbian province of Kosovo (1998-1999).