ZAGREB, April 1 (Hina) - A former Bosnian Croat military police commander confirmed on Thursday he had been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague along with four other Bosnian Croat wartime leaders whose names were
revealed on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, April 1 (Hina) - A former Bosnian Croat military police
commander confirmed on Thursday he had been indicted by the UN war
crimes tribunal in The Hague along with four other Bosnian Croat
wartime leaders whose names were revealed on Wednesday. #L#
Valentin Coric, who commanded the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)
Military Police during a Muslim-Croat war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the
first half of the 1990s, was informed of the content of the indictment
in the Justice Ministry in Zagreb.
Addressing reporters on his way out of the Ministry building, Coric
confirmed he had been indicted, but declined to reveal any details of
the indictment.
Coric said he would leave for The Hague on Monday to join the four
other Bosnian Croat wartime leaders before the UN criminal tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia. Those are former Croatian Defence Council
(HVO) commanders, generals Slobodan Praljak and Milivoj Petkovic,
former defence minister of the self-styled Croatian Republic of
Herceg-Bosna Bruno Stojic and former prime minister of Herceg-Bosna
Jadranko Prlic.
"We have been served with the bill of indictment, but we did not have
time to read a word of it. Even if we had, we would not be allowed to
talk about it," Coric told reporters.
Asked why he had not received the indictment on Wednesday along with
the four other indictees, Coric said he did not try to hide and that
he did not know why the authorities could not reach him because he
lived in Zagreb and ran a business here.
Coric went on to say that he had been told at the Ministry that the
government would provide the tribunal with the necessary guarantees to
ensure that he was granted provisional release pending trial.
"I am going to The Hague peacefully. My defence will be based on the
truth and there is nothing I should be afraid of," Coric said, adding
that he believed that he would "win the case".
Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt, who is heading a Croatian
delegation on a visit to The Hague, told Hina by telephone on Thursday
that the chief prosecutor had informed the Croatian delegation of a
request by Coric's lawyer to allow his client to be served with the
indictment in Zagreb and to travel to The Hague from Croatia rather
than Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"Carla del Ponte asked us to grant this request and we did so," Skare
Ozbolt said.
The justice minister said that the public would be informed of the
results of the talks after the Croatian delegation returned from The
Hague. She said it had been agreed that Croatian courts would take
over some war crimes cases by the end of this year, but would not
specify which.
The Interior Ministry has said that the five indictees will be flying
to Amsterdam on Monday in the company of an officer from the Zagreb
office of Interpol.
Media have reported the existence of a sixth indictment against
another Bosnian Croat wartime official, speculating that the person in
question is the former head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)
party in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bozo Rajic, or the former head of the
Bosnian Croat Commission for the Exchange of Prisoners of War,
Berislav Pusic.
Newspapers reported on Thursday that Pusic had left for Ljubljana for
medical treatment and speculated that the Hague tribunal had delayed
disclosure of the content of the indictments because Pusic was out of
reach.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun said that the police had no
knowledge of the existence of a sixth indictment and that they had
received no request to search for Pusic.
(Hina) vm