BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – An ex-army officer, who was declared unfit for trial at a U.N. war crimes tribunal, was charged in his native Serbia on July 30 in connection with the 1991 shelling of the ancient city of Dubrovnik.
Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor said in a statement that Capt. Vladimir Kovacevic, nicknamed Rambo, and units under his command indiscriminately shelled the walled city, killing at least two civilians and wounding three, and destroying six sites from the UNESCO heritage list.
The shelling took place during the 1991 Serb-Croat war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation. The Serb-led Yugoslav army troops attacked Dubrovnik during the war, destroying cultural and historic buildings in the Adriatic city.
Kovacevic was initially indicted in 2001 by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands, along with the commander of the Dubrovnik operations, Gen. Pavle Strugar, and navy Adm. Miodrag Jokic. Strugar was sentenced to eight years, and Jokic to seven.
But Kovacevic’s case was transferred to the Serbian war crimes prosecutor in May, after the court in The Hague found that Kovacevic was mentally unfit to stand trial. Kovacevic was also released to Serbia for treatment.
The Serbian prosecutor said Kovacevic was being treated at the Belgrade military hospital and that experts would assess his capacity to attend trial in the future. It was not immediately clear when proceedings against Kovacevic could start.
