ŠTRBAC EXPECTS CROATIAN PILOTS TO BE CONVICTED BY YEAR-END

BOSANSKI PETROVAC, AUGUST 7 /SRNA/ - Director of the Documentation and Information Centre Veritas, Savo Štrbac, expects a first-instance verdict to be handed down by the Serbian judiciary by the end of the year in the case of the Croatian pilots accused of bombing a convoy of Serb refugees from Krajina on the Petrovac Road in 1995.

Štrbac attended today's commemoration in the village of Janjile near Bosanski Petrovac, marking 31 years since the deaths of Serbian civilians in an air attack on a refugee convoy during the Operation Storm pogrom on August 7, 1995, and told reporters that the convicted Croatian pilots would not be able to travel because they could face arrest for war crimes on the Petrovac Road.

He stressed that the verdict would also provide moral satisfaction for the victims' families, who would then be able to seek compensation for the loss of their family members.

Acting Director of the Republika Srpska Centre for Research of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić also said he hoped justice would be served, adding that he believes the Croatian pilots will be convicted by the Serbian judiciary for the crime on the Petrovac Road.

Nuždić said that the targets on the Petrovac Road were not military objectives but a refugee convoy, making the site one of the most painful symbols of Serbian suffering.

Croatian aircraft bombed convoys of refugees from Knin Krajina in Janjile, near Bosanski Petrovac, and in Svodna, near Novi Grad, in 1995.

To this day, there has been no judicial outcome in this case.

The indictment charges Croatian pilots Željko Jelenić, Danijel Borović, Vladimir Mikac and Zdenko Radulj with ordering the shelling of a convoy of refugees on the Petrovac Road on August 7 and 8, 1995.

Their trial began in March last year before the Higher Court in Belgrade on an indictment filed by Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor's Office.