Veselin Šljivancanin was born on 13 June 1953 in Pavez in the municipality of Zabljak, Montenegro.
During the war, he was Battalion Commander in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). He was also Chief Security Officer in the Elite Motorised Guards Brigade and in the Southern Operations Unit. He was accused of having taken part in 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 Lieutenant Colonel and was placed in command of a brigade of the Yugoslav Army stationed at Podgorica, Montenegro.
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 forced to leave.
The accusations brought against Veselin Šljivancanin related more specifically the fate of the people who had taken refuge at 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 JNA soldiers. Veselin Šljivancanin was said to have taken part personally in the removal and the selection of the detainees who were then loaded onto buses. They were transported to the JNA barracks where they were reportedly 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 allegedly killed at least 264 Croats and other non-Serbs taken from the Vukovar Hospital to Ovcara. After the massacre, the Serbian forces were reported to have buried the bodies of the victims at the same spot.
Veselin Šljivancanin was arrested in Serbia on 13 June 2003 and transferred to the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) on 1st July 2003.
