SARAJEVO: BOSNIAN ARMY WAR-TIME COMMANDER QUESTIONED, RELEASED

SARAJEVO, April 2 (Hina) - Naser Oric, a war-time commander of Bosnian Army units which operated in the area of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia appeared voluntarily for questioning at the UN Mission headquarters in Sarajevo on Monday morning, UN Mission spokesman Douglas Coffman told Hina. Coffman explained that Oric had been requested to come to the headquarters to provide answers to some current questions regarding war events in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the questioning, which lasted several hours, Oric left the UN Mission headquarters, Coffman said, refusing to comment on the possibility that Oric might have been indicted for war crimes. Commenting on this morning's protest rally of some 200 Bosniak refugees, mostly women, in front of the Mission headquarters, Coffman said he understood their frustration because it was a fact that those most responsible for the Srebrenica massacre had not been brought to justice yet. Before the war, Naser Oric was a member of the Serbian Interior Ministry special units. In 1992 he joined Bosnian Army units in eastern Bosnia which he soon placed under his command. At the time of the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 he was formally holding the post of the 82nd BH Army Division commander but several days before the attack of Serb forces left the enclave for Tuzla, in line with instructions from Sarajevo. The Bosnian Serb media have claimed that Oric is personally responsible for the killing of several dozen Serb civilians and soldiers in the village Kravice and the Bratunac municipality. After the war, the Sarajevo independent media claimed Oric had connections with the most influential persons from the country's underground. (hina) sb rml