Ten Serbs on Trial in Croatia for Wartime Killings

Ten ethnic Serb former paramilitaries went on trial in Croatia Tuesday, charged with killing 24 civilians and prisoners during the country's 1991-95 war.

The defendants all pleaded not guilty to killing 17 civilians and seven detained Croatian soldiers in the Vukovar region, the state-run HINA news agency reported.

The trial opened at a court in the eastern town of Osijek.

The men are also accused of detaining, beating and torturing dozens of civilians and prisoners of war and raping two women.

The alleged crimes were committed in the Vukovar region between September and November 1991, before and immediately after the fall of the town to Serb forces.

Vukovar, in eastern Croatia, was captured by Serbs in November 1991 after a three-month siege, during which it was virtually razed.

After its capture, some 200 civilians and prisoners of war were executed by Serb forces at a nearby farm. Some 22,000 non-Serb survivors were expelled from the area.

The Vukovar massacre was the worst atrocity of the 1991-1995 war that broke out after Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs opposed Croatia's proclamation of independence from the former Yugoslavia.

After the war the city and surrounding region were under U.N. administration and were eventually reintegrated into Croatia in 1998.