ANOTHER 3 WITNESSES HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF 1991 GOSPIC MEETING

ZAGREB, Nov 30 (Hina) - An investigation into Tihomir Oreskovic and four residents of Croatia's central town of Gospic, accused of war crimes against Serb civilians in 1991, which was transferred yesterday from Rijeka to Zagreb, on Thursday resumed with the hearing of another three witnesses: Smiljan Reljic, Jerko Vukas and Zeljko Bolf. After being questioned by a judge, Smiljan Reljic, a former assistant to Croatian Interior Minister, told reporters that during his testimony he had denied the holding of the so-called 16 October 1991 lethal meeting at which the elimination of local Serbs had been planned. Reljic added that he had informed the judge only about events in which he had directly took part and about the endeavours of the then state leadership and police to settle the situation in Gospic. Reljic said that in autumn in 1991 the Interior Ministry had learnt of the disappearance of Gospic Serbs and asserted that at the time the state leadership in no way condoned such developments but it had done all what a law-based state would do. Reljic added that the then President Franjo Tudjman, the Government and the SZUP (Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order) had given him orders that the case of missing Serb civilians should be processed completely and that perpetrators should be discovered and processed as well. He claimed that the police had done their job and carried out an investigation against Oreskovic but they were subsequently told that Oreskovic was an active military staffer and that the jurisdiction over him would be assumed by the military police. "We did absolutely everything we could in such circumstances," Reljic stressed. He added that the then police had gathered many facts and indications, and expressed hope that this probe in the case which was now under way would show whether the police had been right or not. Another witness who was on Thursday questioned was Jerko Vukas, a former SZUP head. Vukas told reporters he had spoken about the conception of the defence of Gospic. Vukas said that during the war times "all kinds of things" had happened in Gospic, and added that some Croatian freedom fighters had probably exceeded necessary self-defence, but certainly there was a smaller number of those who had committed crimes deliberately. He said he had no knowledge that the five suspects had organised or conducted the elimination of Serb citizens and added that he had no knowledge of that 16 October 1991 meeting. He added that it had been known that some Serbs as well as some Croatians had gone missing, and asserted that conflicts had occurred also between local Serbs - those loyal to Croatia and radical Serbs. Mirko Ruzic, a defence lawyer of the second suspect Ivica Rozic, informed reporters about the testimony which Zeljko Bolf, a former Gospic police superintendent, today had given in Zagreb. According to the lawyer, Bolf denied any participation in an meeting of that kind and asserted he could not remember events relating to that contentious meeting. Bolf added that in December 1991, Gospic police had detained him in a station for three days and harassed him to extort confession. On Thursday he denied all what he had said to police then and subsequently. The first witness at the Zagreb part of interviews, General Mirko Norac, who was questioned yesterday, also said to reporters that he had no knowledge of that October 1991 meeting. Another two witnesses will be questioned tomorrow. (hina) jn ms