RIJEKA, July 2 (Hina) - The president of the Office for State Security in 1991, Josip Manolic, on Tuesday continued his testimony before the trial chamber Council of Rijeka County Court presided by Judge Ika Saric in the trial against
the so-called Gospic Group.
RIJEKA, July 2 (Hina) - The president of the Office for State
Security in 1991, Josip Manolic, on Tuesday continued his testimony
before the trial chamber Council of Rijeka County Court presided by
Judge Ika Saric in the trial against the so-called Gospic Group.
#L#
Manolic said he had doubted that the liquidation of civilians would
have been conducted in secret - referring to the events on Lipova
Glavica - yet that the bodies were left to be found by the enemy. I
thought there would have been a group of foreign agents that
reported the incident, Manolic said and added that he doubted that
Mirko Norac was involved in the events in the Gospic region and that
his connection to the disappearance of missing persons has never
been clear.
Accused Tihomir Oreskovic claimed that Manolic's entire testimony
was full of lies and half truths with the aim of casting a slur on the
defence of Lika and its defenders and to remove any personal
responsibility for the events in Gospic in 1991 as well as the
events surrounding the murder of Milan Levar.
Manolic replied that the "murder of women and civilians were not
heroic for Lika residents and Croats but instead were a crime
against the Croatian people in Lika because it appears that the
entire Croatian nation is guilty for the crimes committed.
A retired brigadier general, Rudolf Brlecic, the commander of the
Operative Group for Lika since the end of 1991, in his testimony on
Tuesday stated that Mirko Norac considered Franjo Tudjman a former
Partisan general and that he did not recognise 'Tudjman's army'.
Brlecic said that Norac did not recognise the command of the
operative group but instead received his orders directly from the
then defence minister, Gojko Susak via a parallel line of command.
Norac responded to these claims that he could not trust the command
in Jurjevo - some 150 kilometres away from the front - where
everyone there had arrived fresh from the then Yugoslav Peoples'
Army (JNA) and all spoke with a Serbian accent.
The trial will continue on Wednesday.
(hina) sp sb