Mile Mrksic was born on 20 July 1947 near Vrginmost, Croatia. According to the bill of indictment, he was a colonel in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and commander of the Elite Guards Motorised Brigade and the Operational Group which were accused of having the main responsibility for the attack on Vukovar which took place from the end of August until 18 November 1991. After the fall of Vukovar, he was promoted to the rank of General in the JNA and subsequently became Commanding Officer of the Army of the “Serbian Republic of Krajina” in May 1995.
During the siege of Vukovar and the occupation which followed the fall of the city, hundreds of civilians were reported as having been killed by the Serbian forces and the vast majority of non-Serbs still remaining were said to have been forced to leave.
The accusations brought against Mile Mrksic related more specifically the fate of the people who had taken refuge in the Vukovar Hospital in the belief that it would be evacuated in the presence of international observers. On 20 November 1991, 400 of these people were said to have been led away by soldiers of the JNA. They were transported to the JNA barracks where they were said to have been humiliated and threatened. They were then transported to a farm where they were alleged to have been beaten up by soldiers. Afterwards the soldiers reportedly drove the detainees by groups of 10 to 20 people in the direction of Grabovo until reaching a ravine surrounded by forest. There the soldiers were alleged to have killed at least 264 Croats and other non-Serbs taken from the Vukovar Hospital. After the massacre, the Serbian forces were reported to have buried the bodies of the victims at the same spot.
Mile Mrksic voluntarily surrendered on 15 May 2002 and was transferred to the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) on the same day.
