Del Ponte visits Vukovar victims

About 1,100 people died in Vukovar in 1991

By Alix Kroeger BBC Belgrade correspondent

The chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, visits the Croatian town of Vukovar on Tuesday for a visit to the sites of atrocities committed during Croatia's war of secession from Yugoslavia.

Col Milan Mrksic is indicted over the Vukovar massacre

Vukovar fell to the Yugoslav People's Army in November 1991 after a two-month siege in which an estimated 1,100 people died.

One of three retired Yugoslav army officers indicted for war crimes at Vukovar has said he will surrender voluntarily to The Hague tribunal.

Carla del Ponte will meet witnesses and survivors of the siege in 1991.

Vukovar lies on Croatia's eastern border with Serbia and, at the time, it had a large Serb population, making it an essential part of the plan to link Serb majority areas in Croatia and Bosnia with Serbia itself.

In November 1991, the town fell to the Yugoslav People's Army.

More than 200 people - soldiers and civilians alike - were taken from Vukovar hospital and killed; their bodies were dumped in a mass grave.

Croatian feelings

This is not the first time the chief war crimes prosecutor has visited Croatia.

Last July she handed over indictments against two Croatian generals wanted for war crimes against Croatian Serbs.

The ensuing crisis nearly brought down the government as the reformist coalition faced a vote of confidence in parliament.

The nationalist opposition has been quick to exploit the issue.

Many Croatians find it impossible to accept that their side committed atrocities during what they call "the Homeland War", but by focusing on Vukovar, where most of the dead were Croats, Mrs del Ponte will make it harder for the nationalists to claim that the tribunal has an anti-Croat bias.