TRIAL OF "GOSPIC GROUP" RESUMES

RIJEKA, Jan 30 (Hina) - The presiding judge in the trial of the so- called Gospic Group before the Rijeka County Court, Ika Saric, on Wednesday read out a report by a government commissioner for Lika in 1991, Ante Karic, accusing Tihomir Oreskovic of events in the Gospic area at the time. In the report Karic accused Oreskovic, whom he had appointed secretary of the then crisis headquarters in Gospic, of having claimed all powers in the Gospic area. Karic reported that Oreskovic had gathered "die-hard Ustasha, extremist emigrants and criminals whom he recruited to abduct the Serbs." Karic also claimed that Oreskovic was responsible for an attempt on his life at the time. Judge Saric also read out the letters of the families of missing persons from the Gospic area to the Croatian state authorities. The letters report the disappearance of between 80 and 140 Gospic residents in late 1991 and request that the terror of Oreskovic's group be stopped. The judge also read a report by the Karlobag police station on the arrival of the second indictee Ivica Rozic and another three uniformed persons in Karlobag in a military vehicle from Gospic. According to the report, three local Serbs were abducted from their homes and taken in the direction of Gospic by this group. The three abducted men were killed on Mt. Velebit, with which Ivica Rozic was charged. According to the report, the four suspected abductors had a passage permit signed by Mirko Norac, the then commander of the Croatian Army 118th brigade in Gospic. Judge Saric also read a report about the exhumation of 18 bodies, carried out in late 2000 at a graveyard at Debelo Brdo and their autopsy. According to initial witness statements, the bodies belonged to the victims of an execution that took place at Lipova Glavica in October 1991. The trial resumes tomorrow with the questioning of witnesses. (hina) rml