PATHOLOGIST TESTIFIES IN "GOSPIC GROUP" TRIAL

RIJEKA, Nov 21 (Hina) - A permanent court expert, a pathologist at the Rijeka Forensic Institute, Renata Dobi-Babic, testified before the Rijeka County Court on Thursday in the trial of the so-called Gospic Group about an autopsy conducted on the bodies exhumed from a cemetery in Debelo Brdo, near Udbina, two years ago. #L# Pathologist Dobi-Babic had personally conducted the autopsy on six bodies and established that the majority had scull fractions or broken bones which, she says, can be caused by blows with a hard object. She said the bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition and that it was impossible to determine the exact cause of death and all injuries. These are the bodies of civilians executed in Lipova Glavica near Perusic in October 1991. The bodies were discovered by members of Serb paramilitary units at the execution site in December, the same year. A pathologist of the Military-Medical Academy in Belgrade, Zoran Stankovic, conducted an external examination of the bodies and partial identification, after which the bodies were buried at a cemetery in Debelo Brdo. It has been established that the victims were mostly Serb civilians abducted from the Gospic region (Central Croatia) in mid October 1991. At the main hearing tomorrow, two pathologists at the Rijeka Forensic Institute will testify on the autopsy conducted on the remaining 12 bodies. Tihomir Oreskovic and Mirko Norac are charged with ordering, while Stjepan Granic is charged with organising and carrying out the execution of 24 persons. Oreskovic, Norac, Milan Canic and Ivica Rozic are also charged with ordering and carrying out the abduction and execution of another 20, mostly Serb civilians, from Gospic and Karlobag in October, 1991. (hina) it sb