WITNESSES IN GOSPIC GROUP TRIAL TAKE STAND AT BELGRADE'S COURT

BELGRADE, Sept 23 (Hina) - The hearing of witnesses in the war crimes trial of the so-called Gospic group, which is being held before the Rijeka County Court, started before the First Municipal Court in Belgrade on Monday. #L# The questioning of witnesses who did not wish to travel to Croatia is being conducted at the request of the Rijeka County Court. The hearing is attended by County State Prosecutor Doris Hrast, while the presiding Judge Ika Saric, in spite of earlier announcements, did not attend. Judge Saric forwarded to Yugoslav judicial authorities a request for the hearing of 17 persons, mostly relatives of Serb civilians killed in the Gospic region in the autumn of 1991. Three witnesses will be heard today, while 14 will take the witness stand by Friday. The interrogation of possible witnesses who wish to testify but the court was not able to serve them will also take place on Friday. Also served today was Dr. Zoran Stankovic, court pathologist and director of the military-medical academy in Belgrade. Stankovic will testify in Rijeka on October 17 and 18. The witnesses invited to give testimonies in the Belgrade court- room are mostly refugees from the Gospic area, who fled their homes after the abduction, detention and execution of civilians. Charged with these crimes are Tihomir Oreskovic, Ivica Rozic, Mirko Norac, Stjepan Grandic and Milan Canic. So far, they have failed to put an appearance before the County Court in Rijeka, due to, as some of them claimed, personal safety. Apart from testifying about the events which took place in Gospic in the autumn of 1991, the closest family will also undergo DNA analysis which should establish the identity of some of the executed civilians in Lipova Glavica near Perusic. Journalists, photographers and television crews are not allowed in the Belgrade court-room during the testimony of the witnesses. (hina) it sb