Osijek

In the Name of the Family, a Catholic conservative group, organised an anti-abortion 'Walk for Life' march on Saturday in the eastern city of Osijek - the latest in a series of similar events nationwide.

Several hundred people gathered in Osijek's old city centre, Tvrdja, then headed towards Ante Starcevic Square, where speeches were made.

The retrial of former general Branimir Glavas and other defendants for war crimes in the Croatian eastern city of Osijek in 1991 opened at Zagreb County Court on Monday.

At Monday's hearing, Glavas's defence requested that the trial be transferred from Zagreb to the Osijek County Court.

Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that his decision to return state honours to Branimir Glavas was legally sound, even though he is on trial for alleged war crimes.

"Glavas asked for this, he sent a request, because he has been formally unconvinced for five years. If he had not asked me, I wouldn't have interfered," Milanovic told media.

Two Croatian human rights organisations criticised Croatia for the "slow processing of war crimes" in a statement to mark the European Day for Victims of Crime on Monday.

Two former politicians, Luka Bebic and Andrija Hebrang, members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, told Zagreb County Court on Monday that they only learned from the media that the defendant, Branimir Glavas, had been involved in war crimes against Serbian civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

"High Risk, Low Return" was the headline of an article that photojournalist Paul Jenks wrote for Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper in September 1991 about his experience of covering the war in Croatia.

Nikola Jaman, who was a commander of the First Battalion of Osijek Defenders during wartime, testified at Zagreb County Court on Tuesday that he lied in earlier testimony about Branimir Glavas, who is being retried alongside six co-defendants for the killings of Serb civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

Branimir Glavas, who has been a defendant in a series of trials for the killings of Serb civilians in Osijek for more than a decade, declared his innocence again on Monday as the latest proceedings against him opened at Zagreb County Court.

A court in Osijek has begun the retrial of Serbian citizen Djordje Rkman, who is accused of committing war crimes against civilians in the eastern Croatian town of Djakovo in 1991 and 1992.

Former paramilitary Stevan Budac, accused of wartime crimes against Croat and ethnic Hungarian civilians in eastern Croatia, pleaded not guilty as his retrial started in the city of Osijek.