RIJEKA: 'GOSPIC GROUP' TRIAL CONTINUES

RIJEKA, April 17 (Hina) - The trial of the so-called "Gospic Group" continued on Wednesday before the Rijeka County Court with the questioning of new witnesses. The "Gospic Group" is charged with the liquidation of fifteen Serb civilians in the Gospic area in 1991. #L# Witness Ivan Kasumovic, a member of the 118th Croatian Army battalion in 1991, said that one of the accused, Stjepan Grandic, ordered him to repair and activate a construction machine that was located at the Razbojiste rubbish dump, near Perusic. Kasumovic was then to bury rotting cattle carcasses that had been discarded at that location by local residents. When he was preparing to dig out a trench to bury the carcasses, the witness said that he noticed human bodies some 15 to 20 metres away. Kasumovic said that he did not report this to anyone and that he did not know exactly how many bodies there were, nor did he see any evident wounds from fire arms on the bodies. He said that Grandic did not accompany him to the dump. At the time, he said, he did not know about the liquidation of civilians at Lipova Glavica nor did he connect the bodies he saw near Perusic to that incident. Darko Brkljacic, a local grave digger, also testified and confirmed that at the end of 1991 he was called with some others to transfer three bodies from Ravni Dabar on Mt. Velebit to the pathology ward in the Gospic hospital. The bodies belonged to three ethnic Serbs from Karlobag, with whose murder Ivica Rozic is charged. He, along with two other soldiers, is accused of having abducted three people and liquidated them on Mt. Velebit by order of Tihomir Oreskovic and Mirko Norac. (hina) sp sb