Indictments for the devastation of Dubrovnik
In 2001, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia pressed charges against senior officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army – General Pavle Strugar, Vice Admiral Miodrag Jokić, Battleship Captain Milan Zec and Captain First Class Vladimir Kovačević – for crimes committed during the occupation of the wider Dubrovnik area and the siege of Dubrovnik in 1991.
The indictment, issued on 27th February 2001, stated that on 1st October 1991 the Yugoslav People’s Army forces under the command of Pavle Strugar, Miodrag Jokić, Milan Zec and Vladimir Kovačević attacked the Dubrovnik area from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and from the sea. The aim of the Yugoslav People’s Army and the governments of Serbia and Montenegro was to ensure control over the Dubrovnik area which was supposed to be taken from Croatia and annexed to Serbia and Montenegro, and also over other areas in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina which were to be placed under Serbian control.
On 17th July 2008, General Pavle Strugar, Commander of the Second Operational Group which the Yugoslav People’s Army had set up to conduct the Dubrovnik Campaign, was convicted to 7.5 years of imprisonment for attacks against civilians and for willful damage to Dubrovnik’s historical monuments.
On 30th August 2005, Vice Admiral Miodrag Jokić, Commader of the Ninth Naval Sector Boka, was convicted to 7 years of imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to charges of murder, cruel treatment, unlawful attacks on civils and civilian objects, devastation not justified by military necessity and destruction of institutions dedicated to religion, education and culture and historic monuments, all of which took place during the devastation of the Old City of Dubrovnik on 6th December 1991.
On 26th July 2002, for lack of evidence, the ICTY withdrew the indictment against Battleship Captain Milan Zec, who was the Chief of Staff of the Ninth Military Naval Sector and principal deputy to Miodrag Jokić.
In March 2007, the trial of Vladimir Kovačević, former Commander of the Third Battalion of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) 472 (Trebinje) Motorized Brigade, was referred to Serbia due to Kovačević’s "psychotic condition" because of which he was found unfit for trial. Soon afterwards, the Special Court in Belgrade dismissed the charges against Kovačević for the same reason.