RIJEKA, Sept 21 (Hina) - The five-day questioning of several witnesses in the process of the so-called Gospic Group, that is being tried at Rijeka County Court, will begin in Belgrade on Monday when a judge, Dragan Cesarovic, should
start interviewing the witnesses who do not want to come in Croatia.
RIJEKA, Sept 21 (Hina) - The five-day questioning of several
witnesses in the process of the so-called Gospic Group, that is
being tried at Rijeka County Court, will begin in Belgrade on Monday
when a judge, Dragan Cesarovic, should start interviewing the
witnesses who do not want to come in Croatia. #L#
Ika Saric, the president of the panel of judges in the Rijeka Court,
who are conducting the Gospic trial, has sent a letter to Yugoslav
judicial bodies asking them to question 17 witnesses, mainly
relatives to ethnic Serb civilians killed in the Gospic area in
autumn 1991.
The number of the witnesses who will take the witness stand in a
Belgrade municipal court is not definite, as it is unknown how many
of those registered will appear in court, and the last day of the
questioning in Belgrade (next Friday) is scheduled for potential
witnesses, who have not been summonsed but who can come to the
Belgrade court to give their testimonies.
Judge Saric, who is in charge of the entire process, announced that
she would travel to Belgrade to attend the questioning led by Judge
Cesarovic. Saric will be accompanied by Deputy State Prosecutor in
Rijeka County, Doris Hrast, and defence lawyers of five indictees.
Judge Cesarovic has said he will allow his colleagues from Rijeka to
ask witnesses questions.
Most of the witnesses who are to appear in the Belgrade court, fled
the Gospic area following the abductions of civilians and their
murder of which Tihomir Oreskovic, Ivica Rozic, Mirko Norac,
Stjepan Grandic and Milan Canic are accused.
To date those witnessed have failed to respond to summons forwarded
from the Rijeka County Court, and some of them have justified their
non-appearance in Croatia with their fear for their personal
security.
The close relatives will also give samples of their blood for a DNA
analysis which should help establish the identity of some of
civilians killed at Lipova Glavica near Perusic.
Reporters and television crews will not be allowed to come in the
courtroom in Belgrade during the scheduled questioning.
A lawyer of the injured parties, Ljubisa Drageljevic, has announced
that another three important witnesses - Tomislav Oreskovic,
Zdenko Ropac and Zdenko Bando - will give their testimonies on 21-30
October in Germany.
These three men, who were members of the Croatian forces and are
treated as part of the so-called Milan Levar group, have since 1993
spoken in public about details from the war events Gospic. Levar,
who was questioned by the UN war crimes tribunal about these events,
was killed in August 2000 in his courtyard in Gospic, and it has not
yet been established who killed him. Tomislav Oreskovic, Ropac and
Bando have so far refused to give their testimonies in Rijeka and
they will therefore be questioned in Germany where they are
currently living.
The main haring in the Gospic trial will resume in Rijeka on 30
September.
(hina) ms