KASUMOVIC GIVES TESTIMONY IN "GOSPIC GROUP" TRIAL

RIJEKA, Feb 13 (Hina) - Mirko Kasumovic, head of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP) in Gospic in 1991, on Wednesday completed his testimony before the Rijeka County Court in a trial of the so-called Gospic Group. Describing details of a so-called "deadly meeting" of the town's crisis headquarters and the execution of civilians at Pazariste, Kasumovic said Tihomir Oreskovic had asked him at the site of the execution why he had not shot and ordered him to do so, which he did. Kasumovic said he thought Oreskovic's statement at the "deadly meeting" that the execution had to be carried out because it was the government's stand was a test to see who was really ready to do it. When he realised the execution would actually take place, he thought that it would "smear the state" and that nobody needed such a thing after Gospic had been defended. He said he felt responsible for not having prevented the incident. Kasumovic said the SZUP did not treat any person from a list of missing Gospic residents from October 1991, compiled in cooperation with the police, as a fifth-columnist or a traitor. The trial resumes on Thursday with testimonies by former local police officials. (hina) np sb