BOSNIAN CROAT RETURNEES SLAM TIHIC'S STATEMENTS

MOSTAR, Oct 25 (Hina) - The association of Bosnian Croat returnees has dismissed a statement by the Muslim member of Bosnia's collective state presidency, Sulejman Tihic, who has stated that Bosnian Muslims did not kill, conduct persecution campaigns or run camps during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tihic made the statement at Wednesday's funeral of Alija Izetbegovic and a summit of the Islamic Conference Organisation. #L# Hundreds of camps were opened for Croatian civilians and soldiers, the most infamous being those in Zenica, Bugojno, Tarcin, and Celebici near Konjic, as well as those in Jablanica and in Sarajevo and Mostar, where Croats, Serbs and other non-Muslims were imprisoned, tortured and killed, reads a statement issued by the association. During the 1990s war, the Muslim Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina killed thousands of civilians and expelled more than 200,000 Croats, mostly those from central Bosnia, reads the statement. Naming Bosnian Muslim military commanders who were indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for war crimes against Croats, the association said it was inadmissible that senior state officials made such statements, and slammed Bosnian Croat officials for "ignoring the persistent production of untruths about the suffering of the Bosnian Croat people". (hina) rml