STATE PROSECUTOR: INTENSIVE PROBE IN MEDAK POCKET CASE UNDERWAY

ZAGREB, Oct 18 (Hina) - Croatia's State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic on Friday confirmed that the prosecution and police were intensively investigating war crimes committed in the Medak Pocket in 1993, but he declined to say which stage the investigation had to date reached. #L# "It is not a secret that the police, in co-ordination with the State Prosecution, are carrying out an intensive investigation into crimes in the Medak Pocket, but at the moment I cannot comment on its course and results," Bajic told Hina. He only added that experts of the Interior Ministry and prosecution from Zagreb were engaged in the job. He declined to comment on media speculation that the probe into the Medak Pocket was nearing its completion and that the first suspects might be arrested at the beginning of next week, ahead of the arrival of the UN war crimes tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, in Zagreb. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, Zinka Bardic, also refused to comment on the ongoing investigation. "The Interior Ministry has for some time been conducting an intensive investigation in co-ordination with the State Prosecution and other competent bodies," she said and declined to speculate when the probe would wrap up. According to the media, the investigation is being conducted by the Interior Ministry's war crimes department, the military police and the counter-intelligence agency. According to an indictment which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued against retired 83-year-old general Janko Bobetko, in the military and police operation in the Medak Pocket in September 1993, at least 100 Serbs, including 29 civilians, were killed in three villages, Divoselo, Citluk and Pocitelj, which were almost completely destroyed after the completion of the operation. (hina) ms