RIJEKA, Oct 4 (Hina) - The first witnesses for the prosecution testified in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on Wednesday in the pretrial investigation of Oreskovic and the others, suspected of 1991's war crimes against Serb
civilians in the central Croatian town of Gospic.
RIJEKA, Oct 4 (Hina) - The first witnesses for the prosecution
testified in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on Wednesday in
the pretrial investigation of Oreskovic and the others, suspected
of 1991's war crimes against Serb civilians in the central Croatian
town of Gospic.#L#
Leading proceedings is Rijeka County Court Investigating Judge
Sajonara Culina.
Attorney Zeljko Dumancic, who defends first indictee Tihomir
Oreskovic, said the defence intended to establish what kind of war
conflict was mentioned in the indictment, which asserts that what
occurred in Croatia in the early 1990s was a war conflict between
the Croatian Armed Forces and paramilitary units formed by Croatian
Serbs.
The defence says there can be no mention of a war conflict, but of an
aggression on Croatia, and that the indictees took part in the
defence as members of the Croatian Armed Forces.
The defence attorneys maintain that if there indeed existed
paramilitary Croatian Serb units, they were under the direct
command of the JNA, the then Yugoslav federal army, from which they
received all forms of assistance.
Dumancic said today the prosecution had seven or eight witnesses
and four protected ones, while the defence would call about 50,
mainly people who had joined the indictees in defending Gospic.
Speaking about Oreskovic, the attorney said he "will most probably
remain in the Zagreb prison infirmary until the end of the week."
Oreskovic was hospitalised after being arrested due to increased
blood sugar.
Another two pretrial hearings will be held this week, and one on
Monday.
Tihomir Oreskovic, Ivan Jovanovic, Martin Markovic, Joso Miletic,
and Ivica Rozic were arrested in Gospic on Sept. 12. Owing to the an
insufficient number of judges at the Gospic County Court, the
Croatian Supreme Court transferred jurisdiction over the case to
the County Court in Rijeka. The five suspects were transferred to
Rijeka on Sept. 14, where they pleaded not guilty before Judge
Culino. They said their arrest was a rigged political process.
The arrests elicited stormy reactions by some veterans'
associations which organised protests and established
headquarters for the protection of the dignity of the Homeland
Defence War, Croatia's war of independence from the former Yugoslav
federation.
(hina) ha jn