WITNESS SAYS EX-DEFENCE MINISTER WAS NO. 1 MAN IN CROATIA IN 1991

RIJEKA, Sept 2 (Hina) - A witness in the Gospic Group war crimes trial at the Rijeka County Court said on Monday the number one man in Croatia in 1991 was the then Defence Minister Gojko Susak, and that part of the then incumbent government was not under President Franjo Tudjman's "command". #L# "Gojko Susak was number one, President Franjo Tudjman number two, and Josip Manolic number three," said Ante Karic, the Croatian government's war commissioner and president of the Crisis Headquarters for the Lika region in 1991. Karic said that part of the government at the time was "under another command, not under President Tudjman," and that the then head of the Security and Intelligence Service Josip Perkovic was "under Susak's command." Karic said he learned that the 118th Gospic brigade was not under the command of the Croatian army's General Staff from the chief-of- staff, Gen. Antun Tus. Karic also said that the then president of the Croatian Nation- Building Movement, Nikola Stedul, attended a meeting of the Gospic Crisis Centre in December 1991 at which Mirko Norac, one of the defendants, said that "Stedul is the only real leader of the Croatian people." (hina) ha sb