MOSTAR, Jan 12 (Hina) - A former head of the Bosnian Croat military police administration, Valentin Coric, who held the post during the 1993 Croat-Muslim conflict in Mostar, southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, said on Monday the Croat
Defence Council (HVO) military police had never ordered the attack on the "Vranica" building in Mostar from where 13 Muslims, members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, were abducted in May 1993. The fate of the abducted is still unknown.
MOSTAR, Jan 12 (Hina) - A former head of the Bosnian Croat military
police administration, Valentin Coric, who held the post during the
1993 Croat-Muslim conflict in Mostar, southern Bosnia-Herzegovina,
said on Monday the Croat Defence Council (HVO) military police had
never ordered the attack on the "Vranica" building in Mostar from
where 13 Muslims, members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, were
abducted in May 1993. The fate of the abducted is still unknown.#L#
Coric made the statement at a retrial of four Mostar Croats indicted
for war crimes committed during the Croat-Muslim conflict.
The unclear fate of the 13 Muslims is considered one of the main
obstacles to reconciliation between the Muslim and Croat communities
in Mostar.
Coric said the Muslims had been taken to the city's school of
engineering, where they were under the jurisdiction of criminal
police. He said he did not remember who had headed criminal police at
the time.
Asked by the prosecutor about the jurisdiction of the HVO military
police regarding prisoners of war at the "Heliodrom" barracks outside
Mostar, Coric said the military police were at one time in charge of
securing the barracks, but were not in charge of security inside the
facility.
(Hina) rml