WE SHOULD KNOW THE FACTS: Ovčara, November 20, 1991

Shortly after the fall of Vukovar on November 20, 1991, members of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) took from a hospital in Vukovar over 200 wounded and sick patients, including civilians and members of Croatian armed forces, and drove them to the agricultural farm in Ovčara.

During the night, members of the Territorial Defence (TO) of Vukovar and Serbian volunteers took the prisoners from the hangar storage facility and executed them at Grabovo, in the vicinity of Vukovar.

The exhumation of bodies from a mass grave in Ovčara began in September and October, 1996 and lasted for 40 days. Approximately 200 bodies were exhumed and by July 2006, 194 remains had been identified. Those identified ranged in age from 16 to 77. Over 60 persons are still listed as missing.

For the crime in Ovčara, the War Crimes Trial Chamber of the Belgrade District Court sentenced Miroljub Vujović, Stanko Vujanović, Predrag Milojević, Đorđe Šošić, Miroslav Đanković, and Saša Radak to 20 years in prison, Milan Vojnović and Ivan Antonijević to 15 years in prison, Jovica Perić to 13 years in prison, Nada Kalaba to 11 years in prison, and Milan Lužančanin to 6 (six) years in prison. Predrag Dragović and Goran Mugoša were sentenced to 5 (five) years in prison.

The Trial Chamber acquitted Marko Ljuboja, Slobodan Katoć, Predrag Madžarac, Vujo Zlatar, and Milorad Pejić of all charges.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mile Mrkšić to 20 years in prison for the execution and torture of civilian prisoners and sentenced Veselin Šljivančanin to 17 years in prison on account of documented allegations of torture, while Miroslav Radić was acquitted of all charges.

Slavko Dokmanović, the then-vice president of the Vukovar Municipality, was also sentenced for the crime in Ovčara but committed suicide while in the detention unit of the ICTY in 1998, while Vojislav Šešelj is still being tried by the ICTY for the crimes committed in Ovčara.