TRIAL IN LORA WAR CRIMES CASE RESUMES

SPLIT, June 18 (Hina) - The trial of former Croatian military police indicted for the abuse of prisoners of war and civilians and the murder of two civilians at Split's military port Lora in 1992 resumed on Tuesday at the Split County Court with the testimony of two members of the military crime police. The witnesses performed an on-the-spot investigation on the night between 13 and 14 June 1992, when, according to the indictment, prisoner Nenad Knezevic was severely injured and prisoner Gojko Bulovic killed. #L# Witness Marko Buljan, an active military policeman, who performed the on-the-spot investigation, said he remembered that one prisoner had died, but he could not recall the details of the investigation. He added that the report on the incident was made in June 1992 and that as far as he knew it was the only case of attempted escape from the Lora prison. The witness had carried out some investigative activities and compiled a photo file, which he had been requested to do by the investigating judge, but he could not remember the judge's name. The witness said he had not seen the dead body. At the request of a defence attorney, the on-the-spot report of 1992, including a drawing of Gojko Bulovic's body but without any text, was presented. Asked again, Buljan said he could not remember the events nor confirm any details of the investigation. Witness Zvonko Abram, who in 1992 headed the military police crime department, was informed about the attempted escape on the night in question. Asked what he had learned from the report, Abram said he learned that the guard shot at and wounded a prisoner who had tried to escape and that the heart of another prisoner, who was also trying to escape, failed when he saw what happened. Denying any abuse or illegal treatment of prisoners at Lora, Abram said that during his short term of office at Lora he had seen representatives of the Red Cross who told him that prisoners looked good. The defence team today requested that the court also question persons employed at the time with the Military Prosecution, including the incumbent Chief Prosecutor Mladen Bajic, who was military prosecutor at the time. Prosecutor Michelle Squiccimaro objected to the request, saying it was not aimed at establishing facts but squaring accounts with Bajic. Judge Slavko Lozina, who is chairing the trial, said that witnesses from Yugoslavia would testify tomorrow. He once again guaranteed the witnesses' security, confirming that they were not under any investigation or wanted by the Croatian judiciary. The trial of eight military police officers, of whom one is at large, started at the Split court on June 10. (hina) rml