RIJEKA, Nov 27 (Hina) - The Gospic police chief in 1991 said at the war crimes trial of the so-called Gospic group at Rijeka's county court that he could not recognise his voice on an audio recording which is claimed to have been made
when he was giving a statement about events in the central Croatian region in 1991 to then Assistant Interior Minister Smiljan Reljic.
RIJEKA, Nov 27 (Hina) - The Gospic police chief in 1991 said at the
war crimes trial of the so-called Gospic group at Rijeka's county
court that he could not recognise his voice on an audio recording
which is claimed to have been made when he was giving a statement
about events in the central Croatian region in 1991 to then
Assistant Interior Minister Smiljan Reljic. #L#
The Rijeka court obtained the audio recording from the Counter-
Intelligence Agency, with a note that it contains Ivan Dasovic's
statement to Reljic.
After the president of the panel of judges, Ika Saric, today played
part of the recording and read out the rest from a transcript,
Dasovic said "there are things here that I hear for the first
time".
He added "something has been edited, something mixed," while some
parts he could not recall. The recording consisted of at least two
conversations with Reljic, of which one was off the record, but "it
stands only if the voice is mine," Dasovic said.
The panel of judges ordered that experts examine whose voices are
heard on the recording.
The voice in recording, which the Counter-Intelligence Agency
claims is Dasovic's, accuses one of the defendants, Tihomir
Oreskovic, of taking over the control of Gospic at the onset of the
war, instilling fear, beating and arresting people, as well as
organising executions.
The voice says that another defendant, Mirko Norac, ordered at the
so-called deadly Gospic meeting in October 1991 that some people
had to be killed on the Croatian government's orders. It is also
heard that Norac killed one person of those who had been brought to
the Pazariste execution site.
The trial resumes tomorrow.
(hina) ha sb