"WE'LL PROVE OUR INNOCENCE" - SAYS SODOLOVCI GROUP THREESOME

( Editorial: --> 7474 ) SODOLOVCI, Sept 1 (Hina) - Three members of the so called Sodolovci Group who were released on Monday were interviewed on Tuesday by Hina's reporters in Sodolovci, their home village where they are awaiting a renewed trial. Pero Klickovic, Vujo Halavanja and Zeljko Keskenovic were released to stand trial out of custody after being arrested last Friday on the basis of a decision by the Osijek County Court. They are the only members of the Sodolovci group who were arrested following a 1995 trial in absentia when, alongside 16 others, they were given long-term prison sentences by the Osijek County Court for war crimes against civilians committed in the Croatian Danubian region in 1992. The threesome at first refused to talk "to the media which", they said "contributed a lot to making the whole situation strained". "We expect a trial which, according to the defence attorney, has been announced for September 10, and at which we shall prove our innocence", said Pero Klickovic, who is head of Sodolovci, a municipality in eastern Croatia. Klickovic was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the County Court in Osijek at the first trial held in 1995. He said he believed in the Croatian judiciary which, he said, "will certainly rule only on the basis of documents and facts." Asked if he would continue performing his duty as municipal head of Sodolovci, Klickovic said that he certainly would, "even though it isn't easy working in these difficult living conditions." Zeljko Keskenovic, who was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, said that all residents of Sodolovci "who stayed in the village all this time are innocent, because they haven't done anything." "Our place during the war was in Sodolovci, where we were born, and here is where we want to stay", he said. Asked why three other persons legally sentenced had left the village, Klinkovic said: "It seems out of fear, but it is not on me to talk about that". Keskenovic's wife Mira said those three had stayed in Sodolovci all the time, but had left on Friday when the police arrested Zeljko, Pero and Vujo. Another member of the Sodolovci group, Goran Vusurovic, is defending himself in the renewed trial from custody in Osijek. He surrendered to the police voluntarily. (hina) ha 012243 MET sep 98