ZAGREB, Oct 13 (Hina) - Police officer Stipo Novakovic appeared before Zagreb County Court on Monday to testify about an operation codenamed Velebit 2, which was ordered by the state leadership in 1999 to ensure a safe return of Serb
refugees.
ZAGREB, Oct 13 (Hina) - Police officer Stipo Novakovic appeared
before Zagreb County Court on Monday to testify about an operation
codenamed Velebit 2, which was ordered by the state leadership in
1999 to ensure a safe return of Serb refugees. #L#
Novakovic was the first of a dozen witnesses to directly link the
accused Ivica Rozic to the explosions which occurred in the Lika
region from 1996 to 1998 and which left five Serb returnees killed
and several wounded.
Novakovic said that he had been told by Ivan Tomljenovic, a police
officer from Gospic, that most of the booby-traps had been planted
by the accused.
The witness said that Rozic, who at the time was an officer of the
Security and Intelligence Service (SIS), had told him in detail how
he had planted all the booby-traps in the Lika region, and that in
some cases that had been done by his "disciples".
Novakovic said he had talked to Rozic for the first time in 1997
following an interview in the Split-based Feral Tribune weekly with
Hague tribunal witness Milan Levar, who accused Rozic, among other
people, of killing Serb civilians in 1991. Rozic said then he would
kill Levar "when he is given the green light."
Rozic, who is also known as "White Wolf", is charged with planting
14 booby-traps in the houses, stables, yards and fields of Serb
returnees which killed five and seriously wounded a number of
persons from 1996 to 1998.
The trial continues next week with the testimony of police officer
Tomljenovic.
(hina) vm sb