WITNESS IN "GOSPIC GROUP" TRIAL DOESN'T REMEMBER "DEADLY MEETING"

RIJEKA, Feb 14 (Hina) - An assistant to the Gospic police commander in 1991, Ivan Rukavina, who witnesses in the trial of the so-called "Gospic group" claimed had attended the so-called "deadly meeting" (at which the execution of civilians was allegedly planned), said during his testimony on Thursday he did not remember such a meeting having taken place as many meetings had been held at the time. Rukavina told the Rijeka County Court trial chamber, presided by judge Ika Saric, that he had never participated in any executions. Asked by judge Saric if he had known about executions, he said that he had not seen any killed civilians and did not know if civilians had been killed. The first indictee in the trial, Tihomir Oreskovic, objected to yesterday's testimony of the head of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP) in Gospic at the time, Mirko Kasumovic. He said Kasumovic's testimony was a "forgery of an intelligence-political group devised during 1991 and 1992 as an attempt to seize power in the then ruling structures." Speaking about a report of the local SZUP from January 1992 on the situation in Gospic, Oreskovic said it had been made at the request of Josip Manolic and spoke about the political situation in Gospic, with emphasis on the role of extremist emigrants. (hina) sb rml