CROATIA RECEIVES BINDING ORDER IN CASE OF PASKO LJUBICIC

ZAGREB, Jan 22(Hina) - The Croatian Embassy in the Netherlands on Thursday received a binding order from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) requesting the transfer of documents in the case of ICTY indictee Pasko Ljubicic, a senior source at the Croatian Justice Ministry confirmed. "We have received a binding order for the transfer of the remaining documents in the case of Pasko Ljubicic," the source said adding that the requested material consisted of several hundred documents regarding the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L# The deadline for the transfer of the documents is 15 days. "Croatia will make efforts to act in line with the tribunal's order," the source said. The ICTY is not expected to report Croatia to the Security Council over this order as claimed by the Croatian media, since this is not a serious violation of the tribunal's rules, the source said. The Croatian government has submitted more than a half of the requested documents in this case to date. Ljubicic's attorney Tomislav Jonjic told a Croatian daily that he asked the tribunal to send the order after he had waited for months, without success, for the government to give him the documents. Ljubicic is indicted in line with personal and command responsibility for violations of the laws and customs of war and crimes against humanity. He is charged with having participated, as commander of the Croat Defence Council's (HVO) 1st Military Police Battalion, in attacks on Muslim villages in the central Bosnian municipalities of Vitez and Busovaca between June 1992 and July 1993. He is also charged with crimes against residents of the village of Ahmici, where more than 100 civilians were killed and a large number of civilian buildings were destroyed in mid-October 1993. Ljubicic surrendered to the ICTY in 2001 and at his initial appearance pleaded not guilty to all the counts of the indictment. (Hina) rml