KEY WITNESS IN LORA TRIAL SAYS OTHER PEOPLE GUILTY

SPLIT, July 11 (Hina)- At Split County Court in the continuation of the Lora trial on Thursday, a former military policeman, Mario Barisic, testified as a key witness. In his testimony Barisic said he did not accuse the eight former policemen who are being tried in that court but some other people and that he agreed completely with defence attorneys that the eight defendants should be released. #L# As the former military policemen from Sibenik said, the eight accused were not responsible for tortures conducted at the Lora prison because they were just paper tigers. At the beginning of his testimony Barisic asked the judge chairing the trial, Slavko Lozina to read his statement given to the investigative judge on October 11, 2001 because, as he said, the media had created a false picture that his statement was the basis for the eight to be accused. During the testimony Barisic refused police protection which he currently enjoys 24 hours a day. In the statement Barisic gave to the investigative judge to read out, he described that he saw tortures and abuse of prisoners conducted in the Lora prison. Some prisoners were without eyes, ears and tongues. By their accents, he concluded that they were Montenegrins or from or around Trebinje but they were in reserve uniforms of the former Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA). Barisic accused the late defence minister, Gojko Susak for the tortures and abuse as well as his deputy, Josip Perkovic and the heads of the 72nd battalion of the military police (VP) and members of the SIS intelligence service in Split - Mihael Budimir, Zeljko Maglov, Tvrtko Pasalic, Antonio Lekic, Ivica Livaja, Fran Goreta and Nikola Kristo and other people in the parallel line of command who knew about everything and some of them personally participated in (tortures). All the tortures and abuse, Barisic said, were started by the deputy commander of the 72nd battalion, Tvrtko Pasalic, and Zeljko Maglov. Barisic first went to Lora on April 11, 1992, when he saw deformed prisoners. He went to the prison at Pasalic's orders to whom he later wrote a report of what he had seen in the prison. His duty was to estimate technical repairs to the building - electricity, painting etc. He then met the First Accused, Tomislav Dujic - the commander of the prison - and his deputy, Tonci Vrkic. Barisic repeated that they were not responsible for the crimes because they did not have any authority. Pasalic took Barisic and Milorad Pajic, who was with him, to the rear end of the jail, Block C where, as Pasalic told them, not registered prisoners were kept to whom they could do what they wished. Ivica Livaja opened the door. There were three other military policemen in the cell whom he could not see very well in the darkness and could not say who they were. He saw nine prisoners in the cell who were tortured and abused in the manner already described and they were dressed in JNA reserves uniforms. Their wounds were fresh. They were deformed and were moaning and pleading that they be killed. The police swore at them. There was traces of blood everywhere and in the front section of the jail, there was a field inductive phone in a cell which was used to torture prisoners with electric shock. He said he had seen the deformed and bloody people - in uniform and civilian clothing, including women, a JNA officer as well as an Orthodox priest in May when he again went to the prison. A huge "stir" occurred in Dracevac (the command of the 4th Brigade, outside Split) on April 15, because representatives of the International Red Cross were supposed to visit. Then about 30 people were transferred from Lora to Sibenik. They were placed into trucks only after passing by police officers beatings them with baseball bats. Their hands were tied on their backs and there was one or two women with them. Barisic said that during Budimir's command as well as Serb and Montenegrin prisoners, Croatian soldiers too were abused. Two of whom were raped. Later when questioned by the defence attorney, Barisic said this occurred in Sibenik and not Lora. One woman was raped in Lora, he said, adding that this was standard practise for those people he accused of these crimes. Later the woman was liquidated and this was never recorded he claimed and continued that in 1993 he reported all this to the late president Tudjman who was shocked. Even though two commissions were set up, one headed by Miroslav Tudjman - those responsible were not punished. I was thrown out of the military police instead, Barisic said. He reminded that he did not appeal because as he said, he did not have anyone to turn to because his superiors were rapists of minors whom they later killed. Even though the commander of the 72nd battalion was Zdravko Galic, the real power lay with Tvrtko Pasalic, Barisic said and added that Pasalic issued an order for the commander of the Sibenik police - Vukusic - to be liquidated and that General Janko Bobetko was to have been killed in Sibenik too. T. Pasalic asked Barisic to follow and liquidate Serb nationals in Sibenik so that the Croatian army would be discredited, Barisic said. He added that he did not agree with this and so attempts were made to have him thrown out of the military police. It will be my honour to repeat all this in The Hague (UN war crimes tribunal) but these guys (referring to the accused), he added, were just paper tigers and were not responsible for what occurred in Lora. On Thursday another witness, Zvjezdan Sevic, appeared before the court. Sevic was a clerk in the SIS in 1992 with the 114th Brigade of the Croatian army. He collaborated with the military police from the 72nd battalion on some missions and only went to Lora when it was required. He never visited the Lora prison. He knew the accused and was proud to know them, he stressed. He added that he did not know anything about any tortures occurring in Lora except for what he read in the press. The trial will continue on Friday. (hina) sp ms