(12 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST
Belgrade - 12 March 2009
1. Wide exterior of the Special Court for War Crimes
2. Close up of court sign
3. Relatives of victims arriving at the court
4. Two women standing outside the court, one with a photograph of victim
5. Relatives outside the court
6. Wide interior of the courtroom
7. Relatives sitting behind glass screen in the court
8. Court interior
9. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Bruno Vekaric, Prosecution spokesman:
"The Special court is satisfied with the decision regarding the seven people convicted with the maximum sentence, however the remaining persons who were acquitted, the prosecution will lodge an appeal."
10. Serbian flag
11. Relatives leaving the court
12. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Josefina Varger, mother of victim:
"Some of them got 25 years imprisonment. I am more shocked with the decision for the remaining people who were acquitted and the judges' explanation, than anything else."
13. Cutaway of relatives outside court
14. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Barica Spuric, mother of victim:
"I am not happy with the decision of the Supreme Court personally as a mother because the verdict will not bring my son back. I wish the world could see that crimes must be punished, so crimes like this will never happen again."
15. Relatives and media outside the court
FILE: Vukovar - November 1991
16. Body on the road, damaged buildings in the background
17. Heavily damaged building
18. People walking on street with Yugoslav soldiers
19. Man and woman walking, followed by Yugoslav soldier
20. Large number of people walking with Yugoslav soldiers
21. Man with injured hand, holding belongings
22. Man walking, held by Yugoslav soldier
23. Captured man lying on the ground
24. Captured men laying on the road, guarded by Yugoslav soldiers
25. Pan across bodies near the Vukovar hospital
26. Yugoslav soldier walking alongside the bodies
STORYLINE
Thirteen Serbs were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to prison on Thursday for the execution-style killings of some 200 Croats - one of the worst massacres of prisoners of war during the bloody Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
Serbia's war crimes court judges handed the maximum 20-year sentence to seven of the former soldiers.
The case was seen as a test of the Serbian judiciary's ability to punish Serbs responsible for atrocities committed during the wars under former President Slobodan Milosevic.
The shooting took place in November 1991 at a pig farm near the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar during Croatia's war for independence.
The Croatian POWs were separated into groups of seven to eight and sprayed with machine-gun fire before their bodies were dumped into a mass grave, the verdict said.
Those showing signs of life were shot in the head with pistols.
"The defendants are guilty because they killed, tortured and inhumanely treated the war prisoners," chief judge Vesko Krstajic said while reading out the verdict.
Six of the Serb defendants were given prison sentences ranging from five to 15 years.
The prosecutors said they were satisfied with the verdict.
Prosecution spokesman Bruno Vekaric said the seven maximum sentences should represent some satisfaction for the families of the victims.
Five of the 18 defendants originally indicted have been acquitted and Vekaric said prosecutors would appeal.
Some of the victims' family members were also not satisfied with the verdict because of the acquittals.
Croatia's 1991 declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia triggered a rebellion by its ethnic Serbs, who with Belgrade's backing, captured a third of the republic's territory.
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