ZAGREB - Croatia asked Thursday the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague to transfer a case against three Serb officers accused of atrocities in the eastern town of Vukovar in 1991.
"Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt has sent a request for the transfer of the case to Croatian courts after this possibility was raised by the prosecutors," spokeswoman Vesna Dovranic told AFP.
Veselin Sljivancanin, Miroslav Radic and Mile Mrksic have been charged with the killing of some 200 prisoners at Ovcara farm near Vukovar at the outbreak of the former Yugoslav republic's 1991-1995 war.
Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has asked the UN court, which is struggling to finish its work by the end of the decade, to move the joint trial to a court in Croatia or neighbouring Serbia.
Zagreb has argued that the trial should be held in Croatia where the atrocities were committed.
Vukovar was captured by the Yugoslav army and Serb rebels in November 1991 after a three-month siege. The town was then razed and more than 1,000 civilians were killed, including at least 192 in Ovcara.
04/28/2005 14:31 GMT