Upon his return from The Hague, Halilovic on Monday gave his first interview to the media.
In his interview with the television network of the Bosnian Federation, he admitted that crimes were perpetrated in the two Croat-populated villages Uzdol and Grabovica in Herzegovina in 1993 but he declined to say any name of whom he regarded responsible for those crimes.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia previously accused Halilovic of being liable for the murder of scores of villagers and Bosnian Croat soldiers in Grabovica near the town of Jablanica and Uzdol near the town of Prozor according to his command responsibility as he was a commander in charge of a military operation allegedly called "Operation Neretva" when those murders were perpetrated. Last Wednesday a trial chamber of the ICTY freed Halilovic.
"The Trial Chamber has found that the Prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Sefer Halilovic was either de jure or de facto commander of the alleged operation called "Operation Neretva," the ICTY said.
Commenting on the verdict, Halilovic sad that the ICTY had paved the way to finding the culprits who should be punished for the Grabovica and Uzdol crimes.
The verdict showed the right direction which the investigation should take, Halilovic told the television, but would not say any name.
A few days before Halilovic's acquittal, the prosecution of the UN tribunal Prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) moved changes to the indictment against Rasim Delic, a former commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Delic is indicted for war crimes which a Mujahedeen unit, which was part of the Bosnian Army, committed against Croats and Serbs in central Bosnia, while the draft amended indictment charges him with crimes committed by the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina against Croats in Herzegovina and the town of Bugojno in 1993. The draft amended indictment alleges that Delic is responsible for the crimes which Bosnian Army troops committed in Doljani near the town of Jablanica, where nine civilians were killed. He is held responsible for the killing of 56 civilians, who died during the Bosnian Army's attacks on the villages of Grabovica near Jablanica and Uzdol near the town of Prozor in September 1993.
The tribunal also established that Zulfikar Alispago was the commander of the units that perpetrated the atrocities in the two villages.
Halilovic only said that the ICTY had established that the crimes had been committed and those who committed it would be brought to justice.
Halilovic was the chief-of-staff of the Bosnian Army until June 1993 when he was dismissed due to what he called some political plots which resulted also in an indictment which the ICTY issued against him.
Halilovic said that he forgave everybody but called on those whom he believed that they framed him not to do it any more. He also announced that he would make a come-back to the political scene.