Serbia charges 14 with war crimes in Croatia

Serbia charged 14 people, mostly ethnic Serbs, on Thursday over the killing of 70 civilians in a Croatian village early in the 1991-95 war, the war crimes prosecutor's office said.

The 14, who include former Yugoslav army soldiers, local militia members and paramilitaries, were charged with committing war crimes against the civilian population in the village of Lovas, near the town of Vukovar in eastern Croatia.

"This is the first time that former army members are being prosecuted," office spokesman Bruno Vekaric told Reuters.

Seven of those charged are in custody and seven are free but report regularly to police.

"During the investigation we had the largest number of witnesses ever. One hundred testified, and 92 will take the stand at the trial," Vekaric said.

The Serb forces who captured the village immediately killed 22 people in their homes, and killed 23 people in improvised prisons the following week, the prosecutor's office said.

"On October 18, they made a 'human shield' and forced the people to walk through a mine field, where 22 people died. Another three were killed randomly in the same period," the statement added.

Croatia has charged 18 people, mostly ethnic Serbs, with genocide, murder, rape and torture in Lovas in the same period. Some of the names on the Serbian charge sheet match those on the Croatian indictment.

Vekaric said Croat prosecutors passed on to Serbia evidence from their own investigation. The Croatian trial is still under way, but only one suspect is in the dock. The rest are on the run and are being tried in absentia.