300 PROTEST IN SOUTHERN TOWN OVER HAGUE-LED EXCAVATIONS

KNIN, April 23 (Hina) - About 300 people rallied in the central square of the southern Croatian town of Knin on Monday to protest against exhumations investigators with the Hague war crimes tribunal should begin at the town cemetery on Tuesday. The rally was organised by the Knin branch of HVIDR-a, an association of disabled war veterans, and the national Headquarters for the Protection of the Dignity of the Homeland Defence War. The protesters carried Croatian flags and banners with the picture of Mirko Norac, a Croatian general accused of war crimes, as well as banners slamming the Hague tribunal, the Croatian president, prime minister, and the ruling six-party coalition. Mirko Condic, the president of the national headquarters, read out a request addressed to the government to stop excavations at the Knin cemetery until all Croatian war veterans were traced, and crimes against Croats and those who razed Croatian towns prosecuted. Condic urged the government to deny confidence to the Hague investigators and entrust Croatian experts with supervising their work at the Knin cemetery. The protesters admonished the international community for wanting to subjugate Croatia and accuse Croats of genocide by looking for evidence which would prove that the Croatian army allegedly killed Serb civilians in Knin during the early 1990s war. They asserted this was false and that they would not allow the excavations. Condic rebuked the government for not reacting to chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte's assertion that the Hague tribunal would prosecute former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman if he were alive. He also accused the government and most media of fomenting hatred towards the Homeland Defence War and everything that was of national interest. After the rally, the protesters headed for the cemetery to lay a wreath for killed veterans but were prevented from doing so after police, seeing the crowd and not only the announced delegation, blocked access to the cemetery. The protesters left the wreath on a road. (hina) ha