ZAGREB, April 6 (Hina) - A former commander of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) Ivica Rajic, nabbed in Zagreb on Saturday evening, is indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the killing of a
score of Muslim villagers in Stupni Do on 23 October 1993, and for the destruction of that village near Vares, central Bosnia.
ZAGREB, April 6 (Hina) - A former commander of the Croat Defence
Council (HVO) Ivica Rajic, nabbed in Zagreb on Saturday evening, is
indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the killing of a score of Muslim villagers in
Stupni Do on 23 October 1993, and for the destruction of that
village near Vares, central Bosnia. #L#
A spokeswoman for the ICTY Prosecution, Florence Hartmann, on
Sunday declined to comment on Rajic's apprehension, saying that the
tribunal was still waiting for an official report from Zagreb on
that. Hartmann said Rajic was one of persons wanted by the ICTY and
for whose arrest the tribunal issued orders for the arrest.
Ivica Rajic, aka Viktor Andric, was the commander of the Second
Operational Group of the HVO based in Kiseljak, and is regarded
liable for the slaying of at least 16 inhabitants of the Stupni Do
village on 23 October 1993, according to the ICTY's indictment.
"On the 23rd of October 1993, at 0800 hours or thereabouts, units of
the HVO, under Ivica RAJIC'S command, attacked the village of
Stupni Do. When the attack had been completed by the HVO, at least
sixteen members of the civilian population had been killed. The
village was almost totally destroyed and the inhabitants who had
not been killed had been forced to flee," read the indictment,
issued on 29 August 1995.
Commanding an illegal attack on civilians and failing to take
measures aimed at preventing such an attack which claimed the lives
of villagers and destroyed almost completely the village, Rajic
seriously violated the Geneva convention and the laws and customs
of war.
In August 1995 the Hague-based tribunal sent the orders for his
arrest to the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its entity, the
Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and an additional order to
Croatia on 8 December of the same year.
According to witnesses to the Stupni Do tragedy, at least 16 unarmed
villagers were killed. According to the prosecution, the attack
lasted some three hours, and upon its completion 37 villagers were
dead.
According to the evidence collected by the prosecution form the UN
troops in Bosnia (UNPROFOR), Ivica Rajic told international
representatives that the conquest of that village by the HVO was
necessary because of the previous attack launched by Muslim
(Bosniak) forces against local Croats in the area of Kopjar.
According to the ICTY Prosecution, when the indictment was issued,
Rajic was kept in custody in Bosnia on basis of other crimes he
allegedly committed, but he was released.
The Hague-based tribunal believes that all the time since his
release from the custody, Rajic has been harboured in Croatia or in
parts of Croat-Muslim federation, and the prosecution possesses
reliable data that he lived in the biggest Croatian coastal city of
Split.
(hina) ms