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Prosecutors hear Belgrade journalist who accuses Croatian MP of maltreatment

BELGRADE, Oct 4 (Hina) - Snezana Beric, a former correspondent of the Belgrade newspaper Politika in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek, was interviewed by war crimes prosecutors in Belgrade on Wednesday as part of an investigation of independent member of the Croatian Parliament Branimir Glavas and his role in war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991.
BELGRADE, Oct 4 (Hina) - Snezana Beric, a former correspondent of the Belgrade newspaper Politika in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek, was interviewed by war crimes prosecutors in Belgrade on Wednesday as part of an investigation of independent member of the Croatian Parliament Branimir Glavas and his role in war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991.

Beric, who alleged she had been maltreated in Osijek on Glavas's personal orders, and her parents and brother were interviewed by Zagreb County Court investigating judge Zdenko Posavec and the investigating judge of the Belgrade Special War Crimes Court, Miroslav Alimpic.

After the interview, which lasted several hours, her parents declined to speak to Croatia media, while Beric told reporters that the question of whether Glavas had been "the master of life and death" in Osijek during the war was "rhetorical".

"Glavas gave orders, but it was not just him. Everywhere in Croatia there were people like Glavas," Beric said, adding that in her statement to the prosecutors she had also spoken of the overall situation in Croatia in 1991.

Beric said that the roles of Glavas, Tomislav Mercep and Vladimir Seks were part of "an organised anti-Serb policy in Croatia" and that they were "responsible as persons who issued orders, as were all other people above them, all the way to the leadership in Zagreb."

Asked by Hina if she was willing to testify in Zagreb in case Glavas was indicted, Beric said she was, provided that serious security measures were in place. She described the current security measures as "tragic".

Stressing that she was not interested in Glavas's future, but in the truth, the journalist said that in her opinion the fact that Glavas was not detained during the investigation was a problem.

In an interview with the Split-based weekly Feral Tribune earlier this year, Beric said that she had been maltreated, beaten and threatened with death in the National Defence Secretariat in Osijek in 1991.

She said that Glavas, who at the time served as Secretary of National Defence in Osijek, had told her parents in a corridor in the Secretariat that they could say goodbye to their daughter, after which a civilian entered Glavas's office. Thanks to that person, Beric was allowed to leave the premises, but before she did Glavas allegedly gave her a hard slap on the face.

Glavas had asked the Serbian authorities for permission to attend the investigative hearing, but his request was turned down.

Glavas, Seks, Mercep and Ivan Vekic were under investigation by the Military Court in Belgrade in 1992, after which they were indicted for genocide, war crimes against the civilian population in Osijek and Vukovar, and for an armed rebellion. In August of that year, indictments were issued against 41 more persons, who were in detention at the time.

In 1992, after the governments of Yugoslavia and Croatia signed a repatriation agreement, the Military Court released the 41 accused and they all left for Croatia as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange on an all-for-all basis.

A few years ago, military prosecutors amended the indictment, dropping armed rebellion charges, and after the Military Court was dissolved, the "Glavas, Seks and others" case was transferred to the jurisdiction of the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office.

The indictment attracted public attention after former Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said in a television programme this spring that Rasim Ljajic, a former government minister of Serbia and Montenegro, had mentioned in 2005 the existence of documents on this matter in the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade.

The indictment against Glavas and others did not take effect because it could not be served on them, and the position of the Serbian judiciary is that war crimes indictees cannot be tried in absentia.

Branimir Glavas is currently under investigation by Zagreb County Court on suspicion that he ordered the murder of two Serb civilians and the ill-treatment of another three in Osijek in 1991.

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