TWO WITNESSES INTERROGATED IN LORA WAR CRIMES TRIAL

SPLIT, Sept 24 (Hina) - Two witnesses testified before the Split County Court on Tuesday in the trial of eight former military policemen accused of war crimes committed at Split's Lora prison in 1992. They claimed that inmates did not bear the signs of abuse. #L# The first to testify was Zeljko Maglov. In 1992 he commanded a military police platoon with the 113th brigade, while a year later he commanded the 73rd military police battalion. He said that as a commander who supervised prisoners-of-war who had been set for exchange, he did not notice that they had been injured. Maglov said he learned of the abuse of prisoners at Lora from the media and that he had no personal recollections. The second witness, Zlatko Cipcic, commanded the military police company of which the defendants were members. He, too, stated that he had noticed no traces of abuse on inmates. According to Cipcic, the International Red Cross proclaimed Lora the best place for prisoners-of-war in 1993-4, but he saw no reason why this evaluation could not have referred to the years before as, he said, prisoners were treated the same way. There is medical documentation about each prisoner and it should be available to all, the witness said. "I read that eyes were gouged out at Lora, that ears were torn off, so I'd like to know how come neither the enemy nor the Red Cross ever mentioned that when prisoners were being exchanged," he said. Cipcic heard about the death of civilians Nenad Knezevic and Gojko Bulovic shortly after it happened. He was informed that they had tried to escape, that guards shot at them, resulting in their death. He knows about a preliminary investigation aimed at determining the responsibility of certain guards. He said it had been established that there was no reason to instigate disciplinary proceedings. Asked by the prosecution if he had seen an autopsy report which stated that Bulovic and Knezevic had died as a result of having been beaten, Cipcic answered in the negative. "If a war crime was committed, why such a long wait, especially considering that cooperation with the military prosecutor's office was excellent? If there were grounds for it, why was the case not prosecuted immediately, unless it suited someone to leave it for later?" the witness said. Asked by the prosecution who he was referring to, Cipcic said, "Those in charge at the military tribunal and prosecutor's office, including the incumbent chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic." The trial at the Split County Court resumes on Thursday, when the last three of the prosecution's 52 witnesses from Croatia will be questioned. The court will then decide when the five witnesses who were subpoenaed but failed to appear or receive the subpoenas will be interrogated. The court will also have to decide if, when, and how 14 witnesses from Yugoslavia will testify, including five who were to be interrogated yesterday but decided against coming to Split at the last minute. (hina) ha sp