RIJEKA, Jan 9 (Hina) - At the trial of the so-called Gospic Group, accused of war crimes against civilians in the Gospic area in autumn 1991, witness Drasko Kalanj, the son of Djordje and Mirjana Kalanj, who were killed at Lipova
Glavica in October 1991, testified on Thursday before the panel of judges, presided by Judge Ika Saric.
RIJEKA, Jan 9 (Hina) - At the trial of the so-called Gospic Group,
accused of war crimes against civilians in the Gospic area in autumn
1991, witness Drasko Kalanj, the son of Djordje and Mirjana Kalanj,
who were killed at Lipova Glavica in October 1991, testified on
Thursday before the panel of judges, presided by Judge Ika Saric.
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Drasko Kalanj arrived in the court house in Rijeka from the Yugoslav
town of Sremska Kamenica where he currently resides.
The witness said that at the time when his parents were abducted and
killed he stayed in Losinj and Zagreb where he attended a
university. He contacted his parents over the phone on a daily basis
until mid-October 1991 after which they no longer kept in touch.
Djordje Kalanj was a prosecutor in Gospic, and Drasko Kalanj said he
had phoned the Gospic court to ask about the fate of his father. A
women told him over the phone that his father had been taken by
military policemen, but Drasko could not receive any official
confirmation of it.
At the time, the witness said, he had asked the then State
Prosecutor Ivan Kern for information about his parents, but Kern,
who is now the defence attorney of Mirko Norac, one of the five
defendants in the Gospic Group trial, had not offered any
information.
Drasko Kalanj said he left Croatia in January 1992 and since then he
had never come back until this hearing.
Another defendant Tihomir Oreskovic said he had never heard of
Djordje Kalanj until the start of this trial.
Another three defendants are Stjepan Grandic, Ivica Rozic and Milan
Canic. All except Canic, are in custody.
The trial resumes tomorrow.
(hina) ms