Serbs, Accused of War Crimes, Escape Hospital

Three Serbs accused of genocide and war crimes escaped from a hospital in the Serb-controlled part of the northern Kosovo city of Kosovska Mitrovica, a U.N. spokeswoman said Friday.

The three, who had been transferred from a U.N. detention center in the city to the hospital for treatment, slipped out early Friday, U.N. spokeswoman Claire Trevena said.

Two of the Serbs, Dragan Jovanovic, 50, and Vlastimir Aleksic, 54, are charged with genocide, while the third, Dragica Peica, 34, is charged with war crimes, Trevena said.

The three, arrested in July and August 1999, had been transferred to the hospital on the advice of doctors from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeeping force and U.N. police, she said.

Jovanovic was receiving treatment for lead poisoning. The northern, industrialized Kosovo city has high levels of lead pollution because of mines in the area. Aleksic was in the hospital for high blood pressure, and Peica was being treated for kidney stones.

U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel said that the three were detained last summer by NATO-led peacekeepers and that their trials had not begun, although they had been indicted. She said the three cases were not related. She said prisoners would no longer be sent to the hospital.

The United Nations offered no details on who was guarding them.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.