RIJEKA, July 17 (Hina) - The president of the Alka Knights Society (VAD) and Sinj mayor, Mate Jukic, on Thursday visited Mirko Norac, a retired general and official duke of the Sinjska Alka lancing tournament, at a prison in
Rijeka.
RIJEKA, July 17 (Hina) - The president of the Alka Knights Society
(VAD) and Sinj mayor, Mate Jukic, on Thursday visited Mirko Norac, a
retired general and official duke of the Sinjska Alka lancing
tournament, at a prison in Rijeka. #L#
Norac has been in prison for about two-and-a-half years. He was
sentenced to 12 years in jail with the right to appeal a few months
ago as one of the members of the so-called Gospic Group, accused of
war crimes committed against Croatian Serb civilians in Gospic in
1991.
Jukic said in Sinj recently he would visit Norac for talks on the
election of the acting duke for this year's Alka. The VAD steering
committee must elect the acting duke within ten days because the
tournament starts on August 1.
Accompanying Jukic today was Ante Kotromanovic, a retired colonel
who was the Alka acting duke the last two years. Talking to
reporters after visiting Norac, Kotromanovic said Jukic wanted to
eliminate him from the tournament. He also said Norac would respect
the VAD steering committee's choice of this year's acting duke, and
that he did not expect Norac to support his nomination.
In the past couple of years, the VAD broke into two factions which
have been constantly politicising the medieval tournament.
(hina) ha sb