CRO GENERAL TESTIFIES IN INVESTIGATION AGAINST FORMER POLICEMEN

BJELOVAR, Sept 11 (Hina) - A Croatian general testified on Tuesday in investigative proceedings against four former police officers from Bjelovar, east of Zagreb, suspected of committing war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war. Bjelovar County Court investigating judge Anka Turek Novak ordered the parties in the process, under the threat of sanctions, to keep the content of the testimonies secret, so reporters were unable to obtain information on the testimony of General Mile Cuk, who was the head of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP) in Bjelovar at the time the crimes were committed. A former deputy superintendent of Bjelovar-Bilogora County police, Luka Markesic, and former special police unit members Zdenko Radic, Ivan Orlovic and Zoran Maras, are charged with murdering six prisoners of war, members of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) reserve forces, and seriously wounding a captured civilian, Savo Kovac, in a forest near Bjelovar in October 1991. The court has heard the testimonies of 18 witnesses so far. Kovac, the key witness and only survivor, whose testimony was postponed last week due to his mental condition, will most probably testify on Thursday in the presence of a psychiatrist. (hina) sb rml